WE’RE READY TO WELCOME YOU BACK
As the PM prepares to outline the end of lockdown, campaign aims to attract visitors to Portsmouth and city’s tourism industry says...
LOOSENING of Covid restrictions could spell good news for our tourist industry.
As the Prime Minister prepares to reveal his ‘roadmap’ to end the lockdown tourist chiefs have been working behind the scenes to make Portsmouth a place visitors will flock to.
The campaign, called ‘Put the Wind in Your Sails’, aims to capitalise upon the region’s rich maritime history, while also making the most of our modern, seafront city.
Hotelier Tring Lim, pictured ,is confident her business will survive the pandemic due to its location next to the historic dockyard, and has revealed that people are already booking.
Meanwhile Councillor Steve Pitt said: ‘Portsmouth is a fantastic city and we want to make sure that we are promoting ourselves both domestically and internationally.’
PORTSMOUTH is gearing up to make the most of the loosening of coronavirus restrictions, as a major campaign aims to promote its tourist attractions to the rest of the country.
While Boris Johnson prepares to outline his ‘roadmap’ today to take the country out of lockdown, city tourist chiefs have been working for months on a new drive to put the city on the UK tourist map.
The campaign, called ‘Portsmouth, Put the Wind in Your Sails’, is pushing the twin facets of 800 years of maritime history and a modern city with seafront shopping and dining.
Portsmouth is already the 20th most-visited city in the UK – and the tourist industry brings in about £610m a year, supporting about 12,700 jobs; 12.1 per cent of all employment in the city. In 2015, the city welcomed 9.4m visitors.
The city council has said that this year will be focused on the UK staycation market, with international marketing continuing to keep Portsmouth in potential visitors’ minds - but ‘inbound’ tourism is not expected to recover until
2022. Council papers show that Normandy in France is also likely.
However, for Councillor Steve Pitt, cabinet member for culture, leisure and economic development, this is an integral part of the fight back against the strictures and difficulties of lockeddown 2020 and early 2021.
He said: ‘Culture and tourism support many thousands of local jobs, around 13,000 pre-pandemic, and the council is determined to do everything that it can to collaborate with and support our local attractions and venues over the recovery period.
‘Portsmouth is a fantastic city and we want to make sure that we are promoting ourselves both domestically and internationally as things begin to return to normal in the months ahead.’
Put the Wind in Your
Sails is a bid to rebuild Portsmouth’s domestic market for day trips and short breaks.
A council report outlines that it aims to ‘encourage visits in a safe manner and highlight the benefits of tourism to people's wellbeing – whether it be pure escapism, the great outdoors, discovering our wide culture and history or learning a new skill for example’.
It will also highlight Portsmouth’s creativity and events.
It comes after transport secretary Grant Shapps’ previous request for people not to book summer holidays led to confusion in the travel industry.
Another minister, this time health secretary Matt Hancock, said at the same time that people should look forward to a ‘great British summer’.
Meanwhile, one hotelier is looking forward to a better summer than last year.
Portsea’s Tring Lim, who owns the Keppel’s Head, is hoping for an injection of cash with any reopening.
The Keppel’s Head is steeped in history, having survived fires and Nazi bombs in the Second World War – and it is said to be where Cold War era navy frogman Buster Crabb spent his final night before he infamously disappeared.
Yet, will the 30-bedroom hotel survive the coronavirus pandemic?
‘Of course,’ Mrs Lim said. Though the £65 a night hotel is currently open for key workers and business travel, they have not had any trade.
Mrs Lim is ambivalent about this situation and said: ‘It is unfortunate as we have no trade; but, fortunate as we have no Covid.’
What brings people to the city, Mrs Lim said, is its family attractions. The hotel’s location at The Hard is great for families - just next to the Historic Dockyard, she said.
Mrs Lim said she would love all of her rooms to be full to make a successful summer - and revealed people are already booking.
‘People are booking anyway,’ she said. ‘We are
obviously hopeful that they can come but there’s no guarantee.
‘We also have a lot of customers who have pushed back their trips from last year to this year.’
Mrs Lim fears another lockdown - and wants to see trade return to 2019 levels.
She said: ‘When we took over in mid-August 2019, with a refurbishment and new management, we were absolutely heaving.
‘(It was the) same again at Christmas.
‘It was great, right through to last March and the first lockdown.’
She added: ‘We cannot just keep opening up and locking down.
‘Though as a business owner I’d love to open up, it’s not worth it if we’d then have to shut down.
‘What we don’t need is another Eat Out to Help Out (scheme).’
Mrs Lim, who received £25,000 in pandemic support from the council, and also praised the government’s furlough scheme. All 11 of her staff are on furlough.
Self-employed Charlotte Walker is another person in the tourist industry who is suffering.
She manages eight serviced holiday-let apartments across the city through her firm Stopover Portsmouth.
With plenty of experience as a landlord she made the decision four years ago to get into a then-blossoming market and loved it.
Like The Keppel’s
Head she is open for key workers but faces the same challenges.
‘I have low occupancy,’ she said.
‘I have some Monday to Friday guys working at the dockyard or in various essential jobs but really low occupancy at weekends.
‘It’s only occasional people with access visits to their kids, or whose homes are uninhabitable due to work.’
Mrs Walker has also been prominent in a small local group of providers who have teamed up as Southsea Serviced Apartments.
They have between 60-70 apartments in the city andasaresultcanmake group offerings to the NHS and businesses in need of accommodation for their staff.
Last year’s government-led Unlock Summer campaign can be some source of optimism.
Both Mrs Lim and Mrs Walker confirmed they benefited from the extra footfall brought during the easing of restrictions.
‘The school holidays were very, very busy,’ said Mrs Walker.
Mrs Walker has also been the beneficiary of furlough, using the self-employed scheme for herself, and the part-time scheme for her staff.
‘I just say open up,’ she said. ‘Apartments are great places to stay.
‘You’re not with other people. It’s self-contained and you have all your cooking facilities and everything you need. It’s definitely the safest way to get away.’
Though she would like an immediate lifting of some restrictions she, as a bare minimum, hopes for Easter.
Nevertheless, the prospects for tourism are not, overall, very rosy.
Visit England does not expect domestic tourism to return to its peak until 2024, andinboundtourismuntil 2025; and Brexit is another factor.