Lake District battles on against foot-and-mouth

02 October 2001 by
Lake District battles on against foot-and-mouth

The US terrorist attacks may have sparked fears of a business downturn among hoteliers across the country, but for hotels in the Lake District the foot-and-mouth outbreak is still a prime concern.

The region's hotels continue to be affected to varying degrees by the fall-off in trade following the outbreak of the disease earlier this year and do not expect the US attacks to have a big effect.

While the Lake District is popular with US travellers, most of them visit in the summer, while this time of year is more popular with walkers mainly from the domestic market

Hotels are reluctant to be seen as capitalising on the American attacks, but some have already taken guests who were either stranded in the UK in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist strikes or others who have cancelled their overseas holiday plans.

"There will be people not going to America and having their holidays cancelled, so we may see more people as a result of that," said the chairman of the Keswick Tourism Association, Duncan Miller.

"But this is not the time of year that the lakes would expect a lot of Americans to visit."

Miller, who owns the Grange Country House hotel in Keswick, which has 10 bedrooms, said foot-and-mouth was still a major factor affecting the region, with towns and villages such as Keswick and Grasmere faring better than country locations.

"We have now learnt to live with this disease. It is still about and may linger through the winter," he predicted.

by Sara Macefield

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