Don’t let the fly-by-night tourist operators spoil a great industry

THE Westcountry has come a long way over the years with the quality of its tourist offering. The days when fierce bed and breakfast landladies ordered all their guests outside, rain or shine, after 9am and camping involved queuing for a cold tap and the use of a drafty toilet block are, for the most part, long gone.

High-end hotels and restaurants with rooms now attract visitors with real money to spend while camping has become glamping and holiday cottages are now well-appointed homes-from-home with fixtures and fittings that often exceed those that guests have in their own houses.

When Cornwall, in particular, embarked on the upgrading of its facilities, led by tourism leaders like Malcolm Bell, there was some resistance. But sometimes reducing capacity while always improving quality proved to be a winner. The days when a weekend visitor might come to the Westcountry with a five pound note and a spare shirt and end up changing neither have been consigned to history. And quite right too.

So the fears, expressed in today’s Western Morning News, that the lifting of the lockdown and a big increase in demand for staycations this summer could lead to standards falling must be heeded.

So-called “over-tourism” – trying to squeeze too many visitors into too small a space – ends up leaving everyone feeling short-changed. And the visitors coming to the Westcountry for the first time, as a result of restrictions on foreign travel or lingering Covid cases abroad, won’t come back if they have a bad experience.

Mr Bell, of Visit Cornwall, is right to warn today that just because it might be legal to set up a campsite in a field to cash in on the visitors does not mean it is the right thing to do. “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” he says, pointing out that “instant campsites” might well fall foul of hygiene rules or turn out not to be Covid-safe, putting both visitors and locals at risk.

Responsible operators are already putting their plans in place to welcome back the holidaymakers, as lockdown rules ease in line with Boris Johnson’s road map. But they are doing so not in a way designed to cash in on the opportunities and make up all the money they have lost, but rather to re-build their businesses for the medium and longterm, persuading visitors to come back again, not just because coronavirus has put them off flying abroad, but because they have had a wonderful time in top-class accommodation. It will be tempting for some to see the pent-up demand that there is bound to be for holidays here at home as something to be exploited, but the tourist industry in the South West is essential to the region’s economy and must be preserved for the long-term.

Cornwall Council has already sounded a warning to those who think it might be worth bending the rules to make a few pounds. Their message is that it could be costly. That’s just as it should be. Tourism in the South West is too precious to squander and put at risk for the sake of a quick buck. And holidaymakers – and locals – deserve better.