Tempting tourism?
Despite the growing threat to tourism from the foot-and-mouth crisis, the industry received a boost last Saturday when the Eden Project opened in a disused clay quarry in Bodelva, near St Austell, Cornwall.
Some 10,000 visitors - a little more than expected - turned up over the first two days. While local farmers were angry that the attraction had opened during the foot-and-mouth crisis, those in tourism-related industries were pleased.
"We opened after careful consideration on the advice of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food," says operations director George Elworthy. "We have had lots of calls from hoteliers and others in tourism-related industries saying how good it was that we were opening because it shows that Cornwall isn't closed. If we hadn't opened, the impact on tourism in the region would have been dramatic."
Geodesic domes
Costing £86m, the 50-hectare site houses two huge geodesic domes containing tropical and Mediterranean plants, plus 10 hectares of temperate flora planted outdoors. It is the vision of one man, Tim Smit, who has taken seven years to bring it to fruition.
Partly funded by the Millennium Commission, Eden is expected to offer long-term benefits to Cornwall's tourist industry. Phase One opened last May - a visitor centre overlooking the construction activity within the clay pit. Phase Two construction, due to start after 1 November 2000, was delayed until 7 January, by which time half a million people had paid £3 to view what was basically a building site. Estimates for the first year of business are almost conservative by comparison - £750,000, with the plants in place.
Eden is not a theme park, stresses Elworthy, and despite half of the funding coming from the Millennium Commission, it is not another Dome. "We have a sense of purpose, which makes us different from the Dome," he says. Eden's purpose is to showcase man's relationship with plants, while offering educational facilities and research on plants.
Eden will be open all year round and the project's Web site claims a third of visitors will be new to Cornwall. Elworthy admits figure may be open to interpretation, but even half that number of new guests would be good news for the hospitality industry.
Cornwall is traditionally quiet during the winter months, with many tourist-related businesses closed between October and June. Last year, however, the county received Objective One status from the EU and a £300m grant toward promoting year-round tourism. Although Eden's outdoor gardens may not appeal in January, Elworthy believes that the biomes, as the greenhouses are known, with their temperature-controlled climates, will be ideal for winter visits.
In fact hoteliers, restaurateurs and tourism officials argue that "the season" has been expanding for some time. "Every year more and more people come to Cornwall out of the classic season and I'm sure the Eden Project will help to extend it further," says Sam Harrison, general manager of Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurants. "It is also good to have an international attraction like the Eden Project here in Cornwall."
Rick Stein was one of the first to inject new interest into the area, followed three years ago by the likes of Hotel Tresanton in St Mawes, Fowey Hall in Fowey and St Enodoc hotel in Rock. However, the falling price of holidays abroad means it is often cheaper to head for a tropical island with guaranteed sun than to Cornwall, as Mark Gregory, general manager of the 19-bedroom St Enodoc hotel points out.
"It is not cheap to come here, so we must offer higher standards of service and food and do it better than before," he says. "We need improved roads and rail links and better services to Newquay airport - the Eden Project alone will not make the difference."
Gregory also believes there is room for further quality bedspace in the area. Although a proposed five-star hotel has been dropped after a feasibility study showed it would not be viable, there are plans for a 200-bedroom mid-market hotel on the Eden site itself. Planning permission has been applied for and could take three months to be approved, with up to four years to finance and build.
Gregory says it's too early to say whether Eden will really help to bring visitors to Cornwall in December and January, but he sees it helping in shoulder months like February and March before Easter, and October and November after school half-term.
Occupancy increase
In Fowey - a 15-minute drive from the Eden Project - Andrea Callis, general manager of the 27-bedroom Fowey hotel, is hoping to see occupancy increase by 10% in the November-February period as a result of Eden. To build a mutually beneficial relationship with the Eden team, Callis has been mentioning its opening in her newsletters since January and is offering a three-night dinner, bed and breakfast stay for £149 per person, including a complimentary ticket to the Eden Project, until June.
"I'm spending about 15-20% of my marketing budget to support the Eden Break and I hope to increase turnover by 5% in year one," she says. "By supporting them through the opening months, I hope that come winter, they'll return the favour." In the past 18 months, the hotel has extended some of its bedrooms and added nine more, a decision in which Eden was a contributing factor.
Not all hoteliers believe they will benefit directly, but they still welcome Eden's presence. Hazel Brocklebank, general manager of the 26-bedroom Fowey Hall and co-owner of Brock's 48-seat restaurant in Padstow, believes Eden will be another attraction for her guests, but not the sole reason for a visit.
"I don't think it will give us any more guests at Fowey Hall but it will add value to their visit. Anything that brings revenue to Cornwall, creates more jobs and makes it an all-year-round destination is welcome."
A year from now, hospitality businesses may be better placed to evaluate the impact of Eden, but now it is widely seen as a positive addition to Cornwall's tourist scene.
Eden Experience
After buying a ticket at the visitor centre, guests pass through the doors for their first real view of the giant glasshouses at the bottom of a 50m drop. Following the winding path, stairs, or taking the landtrain to the bottom, they enter the giant glasshouses through a central building linking the Humid Tropics Biome on the left with the Warm Temperate Biome on the right. The link building also contains two downstairs restaurants.
In the larger greenhouse, the Humid Tropics Biome, the world's rainforests are represented from Oceanic Islands and Malaysia to West Africa and tropical South America. Plants used by man such as banana trees, cocoa, coffee and rubber plants are on display in the 47m high structure.
In the Warm Temperate Biome, California meets the Mediterranean and a bit of South Africa, with plants such as olives, vines, citrus fruits and herbs. There was to have been a Desert Biome, but funding is insufficient at present.
Outside the greenhouses is a multitude of plant exhibits, ranging from apple orchards to an assortment of flora from the prairies, to plants that feature in myth and folklore and a selection from rural Cornwall.
FACTS:
Eden Project
Bodelva, St Austell, Cornwall PL24 2SG
Tel: 01726 811911
Admission: £9.50 adults, £4 children
Opening: March to October, 10am-6pm daily
November to February, 10am to 4.30pm
Visitor numbers 15 May 2000-7 January 2001: 491,213
Expected annual visitor numbers: 750,000
Investment: £86m, of which £1m spent on catering facilities
Food at Eden
Eating at the Eden Project has already been in the media spotlight, with executive chef Kevin Viner leaving after a month, claiming the catering was "in disarray" (Caterer, 1 March 2001, page 7).
Operations director George Elworthy admits the catering has been scaled down and says: "I am very sad that Kevin has gone as he had a great vision for what could be done. But I do think it may have been a struggle trying to turn that into reality."
Developing and building the kitchens and catering facilities accounted for £1m of the £86m budget. The central production kitchen is located behind the greenhouses. Here food is prepared, chilled and stored, then delivered to the finishing kitchen at the back of the link building which connects the two biomes.
There are two restaurants in the link building. The 240-seat Indigo self-service offers soups, sandwiches and Cornish pasties with an expected average spend of £3. Next door is the 250-seat Morocco Red restaurant, where guests order pasta, pizza and salads from the bar, before taking a seat. Elworthy estimates average spend will be £6.80.
Initial business looks promising. The team didn't finish laying out the tables in the Morocco Red restaurant until 1.30am on the Friday night. At the restaurant's first lunch service the next day, 300 covers were served. The indications are equally positive at Indigo, where takings hit £5,000 in a day.
The visitor centre's 100-seat Eden café is self-service, and the 40-seat café in the ticketing hall sells tea, coffee and croissants.
There are plans to move the education centre, now at the far end of the visitor centre, which would mean the vacated room could be used as a waitress service restaurant. As well as the outdoor kiosk and four ice-cream kiosks, there are plans for stalls selling food relevant to the plants.
At peak times, Elworthy expects the catering facilities to serve 5,000-7,000 people a day, with an average of 30,000 a week in August. But there are still some problems with the central production kitchen: "We know the chiller units can't keep up with hot food production if we are going full out, but we don't expect that to happen."
New production chef Roy Heath says: "We have to produce a menu that we can cope with at the moment. We can't do everything ourselves, so we'll use pre-made pizza bases, but will make the pizzas ourselves. Soups will be home-made. We must realise this is not a Michelin star operation, but one that serves good food at a good price."
Guiding principles for sourcing ingredients were that they should be organic, fair trade and local, says Elworthy. Where possible, produce comes from local suppliers or local buyers, in some cases at a cost. National ice-cream suppliers offered good deals, but Eden will use Callistic Farm Ice-Cream from a local farm.
Elworthy estimates the revenue from the catering operations in the first year will be £2.5m - compared with a projected turnover of £1m for the on-site gift shop. With the site opening from 10am to 6pm, Elworthy is already making use of the evening hours for private functions. In the first year, he estimates 15% of revenue will come from banqueting, and two weeks before opening he already had 15 evening bookings.
The plan is to extend Eden's opening hours for two nights a week to see if it is viable as a late afternoon venue. If so, the catering facilities could pick up afternoon teas and early evening meal business. A wedding civil licence for four areas has been applied for.
More than 75 staff, including 25 chefs, will work in the catering areas. Overseeing the finishing kitchen is chef Tony Henshaw, and catering manager Jo Bates will manage the 50-plus staff working front of house.
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 22-28 March 2001
