UK Hospitality.Org.uk

This is a place to post on organisations that cover all of the UK.
Post Reply
CShel
Posts: 160
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2020 3:42 pm
Location: Great Yarmouth
Has thanked: 31 times
Been thanked: 71 times

UK Hospitality.Org.uk

Post by CShel »

There’s an organisation that represents the hospitality sector across the UK!
I saw it mentioned in a Tweet from my local Great Yarmouth Council. It is doing an online event to help local hospitality businesses in recovery from Covid Closure.

www.UKHospitality.org.uk
6BE38257-6812-434C-8510-F765119073C0.jpeg
6BE38257-6812-434C-8510-F765119073C0.jpeg (637.89 KiB) Viewed 3330 times
.

So I looked up the website, and there listed are names for all staff, from the board to project managers.
E253D151-945E-41D7-939C-014D3880B51C.jpeg
E253D151-945E-41D7-939C-014D3880B51C.jpeg (1.09 MiB) Viewed 3330 times


I have emailed the CEO, Kate Nichols, OBE
Let’s see if we can count on their support.

ED5CAE70-9959-4CC0-9E26-779577E26704.png
ED5CAE70-9959-4CC0-9E26-779577E26704.png (363.94 KiB) Viewed 3330 times

Awaiting a response….

Full email sent…

Dear Ms Nichols

My local council, Great Yarmouth BC, has tweeted about UKHospitality doing an online event to help the hospitality and tourism businesses here. So I looked at your website!

In my world, representing nearly 400,000 campervan and motorhome owners throughout the UK, we at CAMpRA are campaigning for a supportive infrastructure for Motorhome Tourism. When we are on tour, we like to explore new places, ‘tasting the local cuisine and culture’ of the different regions as we go. When we are able to stopover and visit the towns and smaller communities we spend on average £47/ van on food and entertainment. That money goes into local hospitality and tourism businesses, helping them to recover and grow after Covid Closure.

We would like UK Hospitality to entice motorhomes to visit by providing suitable parking spaces, as we cannot drive up in a car like other staycationers. The problem is that many councils are afraid of invasion by travellers and have been closing off their car parks with height barriers, size and weight restrictions, making it extremely difficult to visit these places.

Camping and caravan sites are mainly located remotely from the places motorhomers go to visit, and are now overwhelmed with staycationers in caravans and tents, and they now demand advance booking and minimum stays, which don’t work for sporadic visits by nomadic motorhomers who traditionally enjoy the freedom of movement, and like to stop in those places they’ve come to visit. Campsites can’t cope alone in accommodating motorhomes so alternative stopover sites are being created by CAMpRA to match the network of dedicated motorhome tour parks that are found throughout Europe.

Pubs have welcomed motorhomers for a long time, much like they welcome patrons who arrive by boat on the Norfolk Broads and other river and canal pubs nationwide. We are now calling out to cafes, restaurants, business centres, farm shops, garden centres, sports and leisure clubs, visitor attractions and so on, to share their parking areas overnight, when they are usually empty.

CAMpRA has a website and ‘hub’ for potential land owners to find all the information they would need to provide the essential facilities to welcome Motorhome Tourism to their neighbourhood. See www.CAMpRA.org.uk/business-hub

Since last summer, when the situation became very apparent to responsible motorhome owners that touring was becoming very difficult, and when it was realised that European travel would be restricted in the future, due to Brexit changes in the law regarding the length of stays in Europe countries (now only 90 days instead of 180), there have been over 20,000 owners joining CAMpRA.

Every member is encouraged to lobby their local authority, tourism and economic development department head, Chambers of Commerce and MPs. CAMpRA members are also targeting local land and business owners about making available parking areas for motorhomes to stopovers.

(Image of CAMpRA’s ‘Aims’ to improve infrastructure for MH Tourism)

CAMpRA is beginning to see a turnaround now, with councils in the popular tourism regions (Devon and Cornwall, The Lake District, Scottish Highlands, Yorkshire…) making changes to their approach to managing motorhome tourists, to section off special areas for motorhomes, and installing those essential services they need every 3-4 days - water and waste disposal points, and to allow ‘sleeping, not camping’ in those places.

The National Trust is now planning to open their gates to overnight stays to motorhomers to encourage them to become members - so that the £25+ camping fee can now be spent in their shops and cafes instead. Scottish forestry parks are trialling overnight stays too. The popular touring route, NC500, is improving its infrastructure for motorhomes as it became very apparent they needed to do much more. When we toured the route in March every campsite was closed!

The British Parking Association (BPA) has consulted with CAMpRA recently in order to support the ‘Strategy For Motorhome Tourism In The UK’ plan that CAMpRA commissioned and published last November. That followed a ‘Survey of Motorhome Users’ that CAMpRA undertook on 9,000 owners last year - all new information that was unknown and unrecognised by tourist bodies in the UK. The BPA represents every parking place, council and privately owned in the UK. More success by CAMpRA!

Look at the potential income that Motorhome Tourism brings into each local community when parking can be provided…

(Photo of image of ‘Potential income to local community’ document)

A village hall car park, a garden centre car park, a business centre car park, a farm shop car park, a rugby club car park, a visitor attraction car park, a museum car park… are all ideal places that can welcome motorhomes into local communities. Each place has a perfect opportunity to take some extra revenue from overnight parking charges, and from offering water/waste services, and to help their local hospitality and tourism businesses benefit from Motorhome Tourism, too.

Motorhomes have all the mod-cons and latest technology to tour all year round, with kitchens and washrooms, solar power, mobile wifi, central heating and TV. They don’t need camping sites every day! At the end of a tour or at a lovely destination they would use them, and that’s when they go ‘camping’ with their outdoor equipment out - table and chairs, awnings, BBQs. But on an ‘aire’ they keep it all inside, no camping behaviour. Stays are limited to 24-48 hours, and then they move on.

There were over 33,000 new registrations July - Sept, 2020, in just 12 weeks! Motorhoming is growing fast, and it makes sense during Covid, as it provides safe travel opportunities when occupants can control their own environment whilst visiting lots of different places. Our survey said that the majority were over 40 years of age, 44% were retired, and that 82% toured all year round, with 63 days being the average days away from home.

Clearly they are a tourist category worth welcoming to any local community. In fact, they are worth over £1,143million pa, based on our survey report that £2,961 is their average spend each year on food and shops, not parking, fuel and entertainment, and their numbers are 386,325 (DVLA, Sept, ‘20).

I hope that you are now aware of the important contribution that Motorhome Tourism contributes into local economies, into the hospitality industry, and that your organisation can support our campaign in building a network of ‘Aires’ throughout the UK? Be aware, too, that once there’s a supportive network of dedicated parking places throughout the UK, it would attract many of the 2 million foreign touring motorhomers to cross the Channel. Up to now, they don’t come, put off by the unwelcoming reception they would receive compared to where they normally tour abroad. Their visits would certainly boost our British economy.

Also, up to now, British motorhomers have gone overseas for touring trips, but Brexit’s restrictions now mean more time has to be spent in the UK, so the future needs to be much more geared up to Motorhome and Campervan Tourism than it is now.

The documents I’ve attached are ‘Help Us Create Aires’ and the ‘East Anglia Coastal Tour Route’, a tour around my region which is designed to ‘spread the load and lessen the impact on tourist hotspots’. It guides, via pages on a smart screen and website, tourers to places they might not know. It is supported by Visit East Of England and Great Yarmouth’s BID Group.

Please let me know what your thoughts on Motorhome Tourism are, and if we can work together in the next few months on any projects you have.

With best regards
CS “
Jmick
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:43 pm
Has thanked: 96 times
Been thanked: 24 times

Re: UK Hospitality.Org.uk

Post by Jmick »

I have emailed Copeland DC's Mayor M Starkie regarding an initiative he was promoting back in March of this year (*see link). This was along the lines of local businesses/pubs with car parks to allow overnight parking this summer for motorcaravaners. This was to avoid 2020's influx of vans with nowhere to park. Unfortunately, it didn't sound that well thought-out, as he suggested it, then went on about 'permissions' - muddying the waters of what could have been a simple course of action by the business owners.

I will let CAMpRA when I receive a reply (*link below)

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-56442643
Grey Wanderer
Posts: 253
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2020 9:42 pm
Has thanked: 138 times
Been thanked: 112 times

Re: UK Hospitality.Org.uk

Post by Grey Wanderer »

He may never have replied to my communications unlike some of his councillors, but at least he is trying to be supportive, albeit the real effort is being made by Cumbria Tourism. But as ever grabbing the right end of the stick amid the muddy waters of bureaucracy and seen through the distorting mirror of the press paints a somewhat obscure picture. In reality they are finding it an uphill struggle persuading businesses to come on board and overcome the prejudicial hangover from last years chaotic staycation.
Jmick
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:43 pm
Has thanked: 96 times
Been thanked: 24 times

Re: UK Hospitality.Org.uk

Post by Jmick »

Unfortunately, if LAs fail to 'get on board' and enable (or even provide) acceptable parkup facilities in 2021, the opposite of an 'influx' could take place in the coming holiday seasons 😕. 2022 may possibly see many of the 'new' van owners spending their £s as €s in European holiday destinations 🤷. 2021 is the year for LAs to take the opportunity to pre-empt many of last year's pitfall of 'too many' vans in their areas - vans owned by cash spending visitors. I'm sure every LA's businesses need the extra cash in these uncertain times.
Steve
Posts: 4973
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2020 11:31 am
Has thanked: 583 times
Been thanked: 593 times

Scarborough

Post by Steve »

Jmick Moved your excellent reply to new topic as this is specific to Scarborough not hospitality.org.

Now in NE under Scarborough.

Steve
Steve - CAMpRA Leadership Team
Jmick
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:43 pm
Has thanked: 96 times
Been thanked: 24 times

Re: UK Hospitality.Org.uk

Post by Jmick »

Thanks Steve 👍
Jmick
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:43 pm
Has thanked: 96 times
Been thanked: 24 times

Re: UK Hospitality.Org.uk

Post by Jmick »

Update on my email to Copeland DC earlier this week. I have received an 'interim' email today (below) - I won't hold my breath 🙄:

Good morning,

Thank you for your email.

I will certainly pass this information on to our Tourism Development Officer, in order for her to provide you with an update on this matter.

Please expect a reply, in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Darcey
Customer Services Officer
Copeland Borough Council

Copeland Borough Council, Market Hall, Market Place, Whitehaven, Cumbria, CA28 7JG.
Post Reply