Call for action in west country
By Gaby Huddart & Angela Jameson
Independent hoteliers in the West Country must take drastic action if they are to continue to win business and have any sort of future, both industry experts and politicians are warning.
At the recent British Hospitality Association (BHA) South West Conference in Torquay, Devon, Graham Wason, a consultant with Touche Ross, told delegates: "Although world travel is projected to double over the next 20 years, there will still be winners and losers among independent hoteliers.
"You have gone through the pain barrier in adapting from two-week holidays to short breaks. Now concentrate on market segmentation."
Mr Wason recommended tapping into niche markets using tools such as direct mail rather than newspaper advertising, as many independent hotels currently do.
Another speaker, Martin Cummings, the proprietor of Amberley Castle in West Sussex, suggested independents should pay more attention to their local market. "Within the locality, a good hotel with a family element can appeal to its community for everything from a christening to a wake," he said.
And he recommended joining a consortium as a means of fending off the power of the giant hotel groups. "If you can't beat them, as the saying goes, why not join them in order to do what the groups do and take for granted - create an economy of scale by joining a consortium," he said.
Last month, in a speech to Torridge and West Devon Conservative Association, Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine launched a scathing attack on the tourism industry in Devon and Cornwall.
The Government would do what it could to help the industry, but hoteliers needed to research what customers wanted and adapt rapidly to this, Mr Heseltine explained.
"About one in six businesses in Devon and Cornwall are tourism businesses but the industry is in decline. Why? Not because the attractions of the South-west are any less. But, let us be frank, because the industry is not being well enough managed," he said.
"Tourism involves fashion, just like clothes, food, entertainment. It must constantly change with the fashion, and change quickly. It must give paying customers what they want… There are too many hotels and guesthouses of the wrong kind in the wrong place," he added.
West Country Tourist Board chairman Michael McGahey said he was amazed and saddened by Mr Heseltine's criticisms, pointing out that tourism in the region had grown rather than declined over the past five years.
He challenged Mr Heseltine to visit the West Country to see a dynamic industry that had made a substantial investment in improving the quality and value for money of its product.
Mr McGahey said this growth had come in the face of depleted funding, fierce competition from overseas and the burden of a higher VAT rate than that experienced by European competitors.
