Blackpool must get ready to embrace the casino culture
In her final week as secretary of Blackpool's Hotel and Guest House Association, Josie Hammond delivered a clear message to the town's hoteliers and guesthouse owners who have failed to move with the times.
She said: "If you're staying the same, you're going backwards. You must decide whether you want to continue into the future. If you want to succeed, you're going to want to be part of that future."
Hammond said she felt the resort's transformation into an Atlantic City-style gambling venue was inevitable.
Leisure Parcs, which owns much of Blackpool's key real estate, including all the piers and the Tower, wants to build a 1,000-bedroom casino hotel on the Golden Mile as soon as reform of gambling law paves the way. This could be as early as 2004.
Hammond, despite being personally in favour of Leisure Parcs' plans, said she would be "annihilated" for saying so on the association's behalf.
This was because anecdotal evidence showed a very diverse range of opinion, from those strongly against the plans to those strongly in favour.
The association, founded in 1897, represents about one-third of Blackpool's 2,500 accommodation providers.
Vital statistics
One of the greatest frustrations Hammond said she had faced during her seven-year term had been trying to gather statistics such as occupancy figures, which serve as an important tool in gaining funding.
Out of 200 requests, only two members had co-operated. Hammond said the reluctance stemmed from a fear of having occupancy levels and room rates benchmarked.
Private hotel stock, she said, especially in the past three years, had suffered from ever-falling visitor numbers. "Anyone operating a business today has to be a business person," she warned.
She added that from next year, following the creation of its own quality accreditation scheme (Host), Blackpool's official tourism guides would feature only graded accommodation.
One Blackpool hotelier who was not too concerned about Leisure Parcs' plans, or Hammond's warning, was Matthew Lock, owner of the 12-bedroom Ardsley guesthouse.
He hoped his guesthouse would be knocked down to make way for the £1b casino. "Let them buy me out," he said.
Lock would then be able to concentrate on his other activity as a furniture remover.
Flattening a business is not, of course, an option open to everyone in the town. Julie Flint feared the casino hotel, which would be minutes from her 120-seat Lancastria Café, would take customers away because it would contain cafés, restaurants and bars.
Meanwhile, organisations such as the council, airport authorities, and the large hotels, including the 181-bedroom Paramount-owned Imperial, which next month welcomes back the Labour Party Conference, were widely in favour of the casino hotel as a catalyst for economic regeneration.
Mark Edwards, general manager of the Imperial, said the need for a modern conference centre, included in Leisure Parcs' plan, had got lost in the debate over gaming and casinos.
From this week Hammond will be widening her area of influence beyond accommodation in her new job as tourism co-ordinator for Blackpool Borough Council.
She will make decisions on the ongoing spending of the £20m Government grant awarded to Blackpool from the Single Regeneration Budget in 2000.
Derrick Ellershaw takes over most of her responsibilities, while association president Colin Asplin will handle media relations.
