Shakespeare's revival?
Andrea Cleaver runs two guesthouses in Stratford-upon-Avon. She has lost £30,000 in profit since October. Without a good summer, her winter will be bleak.
Cleaver has 37 bedrooms at her two properties: the 16-bedroom Applegarth, which she owns, and the 21-bedroom Coach House, which she manages. Some nights only five beds are slept in. She describes her occupancy figures as "off the wall" and admits that she has no idea how the year will go on. "It's been desperate," she says. "If we have a bad summer, we are not going to have any money in reserve to get through it."
Alternative ways
Cleaver's situation is not unique. Other guesthouse owners throughout the old Warwickshire market town are experiencing the same difficulties, brought on by a fall in visitor numbers, particularly from overseas. Restaurateurs and hoteliers have also been hit. They are having to work hard and think of new, alternative ways to win customers.
The fall in visitor numbers is largely a result of the foot-and-mouth epidemic. Stratford has not had a single case of the disease but many travellers, especially Americans, the majority of overseas visitors, are staying away because they are confused about where is and where is not safe to visit. The US economic slowdown has not helped, either.
For decades, Stratford, the second-largest tourist draw in the UK behind London, has been a honey-pot for tourists keen to visit the sites linked with poet and playwright William Shakespeare, who was born in the town in 1564 and died there in 1616. About 3.8 million people visit Stratford and its environs each year, spending £135m. This year, though, visitor numbers are estimated to be down by 30%.
Sue Hutsby, owner of the 10-bedroom Nolands Farm in nearby Oxhill, is chairman of the Stratford-upon-Avon & District Hotel & Caterers Association. Most of her 102 members own guesthouses, and she estimates that their turnovers are down by an average of 60% compared with last year.
Richard Lees, owner of the eight-bedroom Quilt and Croissants, is one example. His monthly occupancies have struggled to reach 15%. He wanted to put his room rates up by £1 per person, to keep in line with inflation, but has been unable to. He may even lower his rates, which currently start from £20 for a single room.
Another of Hutsby's member businesses, the 132-bed youth hostel in Alveston, has lost between £30,000 and £40,000 in cancellations and non-bookings.
Many tourist attractions are also underperforming. Stratford racecourse cancelled one meeting earlier this year, owing to foot-and-mouth, and is having to spend extra money on advertising. It expects to be at least £10,000 down on its annual turnover by the end of the year. Similarly, Ragley Hall, in nearby Alcester, has lost thousands of pounds in trade. The 400-year-old stately home, belonging to the Marquess and Marchioness of Hertford, did not open at Easter, the first time it has failed to do so since the last foot-and-mouth outbreak in the UK in 1967.
The Royal Shakespeare Company, which has three theatres in Stratford, has experienced a 2% decline in visitor numbers and has applied to the National Arts Council for £50m of Lottery funding. If it is successful, it will refurbish the theatres, as it hopes that this will attract more people to the town in future years.
On a more immediate note, a number of campaigns are under way to promote Stratford as a tourist destination for the remainder of this year.
Hutsby has invested £5,000 of her members' annual fees into creating a Web site, promoting short breaks to the town. An advertisement featuring the site appeared in national Sunday newspapers last month.
Anne Taylor, marketing manager at South Warwickshire Tourism, an organisation launched four years ago by the Stratford and Warwick district councils to market the region, has also spent £5,000 on promotional work. She created a leaflet featuring a range of special offers available at attractions in and around the town, and this was sent to 4,000 people who could then contact her and enquire about visiting Stratford.
The biggest investment project in the town involves the Heart of England Tourist Board, which covers the five counties of Warwickshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire. In May it was given £500,000 by its local development agency, Advantage West Midlands, to promote the region's tourism industry. It added £200,000 of its own money to this and will use some of the cash to promote Stratford, although it has not yet decided how much it will allocate to marketing the town.
Hutsby describes such campaigns as "desperate measures". She fears that it could take three or four years before US visitors return to Stratford in their former numbers - her members are receiving cancellations from the USA "left, right and centre".
Cancelled bookings
Julie and Paul Desport, owners of the 50-seat, Michelin-rated Desport's restaurant, have lost an estimated £4,000 in cancelled bookings and are taking steps to make it back. A meal at their restaurant, with wine, costs about £35; this year, for the first time, they are offering a two-course lunch for £5. It is proving successful, and by the end of the year they expect to achieve a turnover of £250,000 and a profit of £38,000. Julie Desport says: "There is a lot of doom and gloom, but we have decided to do something to entice people through the door. If we had not, we might have been desperate."
Jim Souter, regional manager of three Heritage hotels in Stratford, is also taking a proactive approach and has managed to increase conference business at his hotels - the 114-bedroom Alveston Manor, the 75-bedroom Shakespeare and the 68-bedroom Swan's Nest - by 60%. This, he says, has "shielded" him from any drop in tourist numbers. He has also set up a calendar of events to attract tourists, from murder mystery weekends to racing days at Stratford racecourse. His occupancy percentage rates are in the mid-80s, on a par with previous years.
Similarly, Linda Podbielski, general manager of the 84-bedroom Falcon hotel, is focusing on attracting conference customers. Her latest trading figures show that her average occupancy rate for May was 84%, slightly ahead of that for the same month last year.
Despite her buoyant trading, Podbielski is unsure what to expect from her business over the next few months. Echoing the thoughts of her competitors and colleagues, she says: "This has not been an easy year for anyone in Stratford and I don't think it is going to get easier. We all have to do that little bit extra to get the business. No one can afford to rest on their laurels."
Stratford at a glance…
Population: 23,000
Day visits: 82% of visitors stay for six hours or less and spend, on average, £17.07 each
Short breaks: 69% of staying guests visit for one to three nights and spend, on average, £50.57 each per day
Annual statistics: about 3.8 million people visit Stratford and its surrounding countryside every year; together they spend £135m; this year, visitor figures are expected to be down by 30%
Tourism: sustains about 7,500 jobs and accounts for 17% of the employed local labour force
Places to stay: 71 B&Bs (825 beds); 21 guesthouses (334 beds); 16 hotels (2,015 beds)
Places to eat and drink: 53 restaurants; 12 cafés; 120 pubs
Web site: www.stratford-shortbreaks.co.uk
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 19-25 July 2001
