Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Please see below, we would appreciate your help in letting people know about our new visitor helpline: 01539 825070 Press release:
25/11/2009
Special free telephone help lines are being set up to help reassure thousands of visitors that Christmas is going ahead in Cumbria this year. Cumbria is one of the most popular visitor destinations in the UK and the festive season is one of the busiest periods in the county’s annual tourism calendar with Christmas and New Year particularly important to businesses. Many people have already planned trips and booked accommodation, meals, parties, shopping trips and a festive stay. However, the flooding on November 19 and rolling coverage ever since could create confusion among visitors about which places are unaffected. To avoid widespread cancellations, Cumbria Tourism is installing a series of special visitor helplines at its headquarters in Staveley, answered by staff to give visitors up-to-the-minute advice and reassurance to let them know there are hundreds of businesses open and waiting to welcome them as normal. The telephone line – 01539 825070 - will be based at Cumbria Tourism’s headquarters in Staveley by staff directly in-touch with hotels, B&Bs, cottage companies and guest-houses, visitor attractions, and the industry. In the rare cases where accommodation has been affected, staff will work to help visitors find alternatives in the area of identical standard so their plans can go ahead. It will be supported by a special pre-Christmas marketing campaign to attract visitors back to the area and reassure those concerned about recent events. Ian Stephens, Chief Executive of Cumbria Tourism, said: “There is no doubt that thousands of visitors could now be wondering whether to visit. The message from Cumbria is a thousand times “yes.” Businesses are open. Christmas and New Year are going ahead - will be better than ever, and we are looking forward to welcoming people here. “Many businesses are recovering, the weather is improving and those that were affected are getting back to normal. People must remember that this is England’s third biggest county and is home to over 3,500 tourism businesses. Only a very small area and a comparably small number of these have been disrupted on the scale they have seen and heard about. He added: “What will cause more damage than the weather now are knee-jerk cancellations because of what people have seen or read. If they have any doubts at all they can get directly in touch with us and we can update them on the progress of the recovery. Christmas is still weeks away, the recovery is already well under way and every day businesses are re-opening again and normal service is being resumed.” The importance of tourism to Cumbria’s economy as a whole cannot be understated. As well as supporting thousands of tourism businesses and jobs it also helps keep other businesses alive which are “non-tourism” like shops, butcher’s, cinemas, bike retailers, and petrol stations to name just a few. Cumbria is one of Britain’s most popular visitor destinations and tourism one of the county’s biggest industries – bringing in over £1.1 billion a year and over 15.3 million visitors. -Ends- To book accommodation in Cumbria – the Lake District, visit www.golakes.co.uk or call the new visitor helpline on 01539 825070. Follow the Press Team on Twitter - http://twitter.com/LakeDistrictPR