Boost for seaside as crisis ravages the countryside

Seaside hoteliers were this week reporting an increase in business as a result of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research, an economic think-tank, predicts that only a third of the tourist revenue lost because of the crisis will be spent outside Britain. It believes the remaining two-thirds will be split between non-rural holiday areas - particularly the seaside - and other leisure interests, such as DIY.

Hoteliers in Blackpool believe the epidemic is one of the reasons the past few weekends have been exceptionally busy, said Josie Hammond, company secretary of the Blackpool Hotel and Guesthouse Association.

"I think visitors see Blackpool as a safe alternative to the countryside," she said. "We obviously don't want to appear to be benefiting from foot-and-mouth, but at least the money people would have spent in the countryside is going to places like Blackpool instead of outside Britain."

Peter Laverack, owner of Waren House hotel near Bamburgh, Northumberland, believed the outbreak was likely to increase trade for seaside hotels in the coming weeks. However, he thought visitors would take short breaks rather than longer holidays, and would book at the last minute - after they had checked to see where the latest foot-and-mouth cases were.

Last weekend was exceptionally busy in the Welsh seaside resorts of Tenby and Saundersfoot, said Bobby King, chairman of the Pembrokeshire Hotels and Restaurants Association.

He said many of the visitors were daytrippers who had decided to walk on the beaches because they were unable to ramble through the countryside.

By Linley Boniface