Archive - Tuesday, 30 October 2001


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Bookings boost for local tourism

PEMBROKESHIRES half-term tourism bid to cash in on the crisis in the overseas holiday sector has succeeded in part.

Self-catering accommodation bookings leapt by a third, helping offset business lost through foot and mouth disease. But overall the local economy fared less well than last autumns half-term.

One property letting agent reported a 35% rise in bookings but overseas visitor numbers are greatly reduced.

Every attraction operated by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority had fewer visitors at half-term.

The authority admits the weather was not encouraging for tourism and research confirms that the war against the Taliban deterred overseas visitors. But the National Parks remain upbeat. A spokesman said: Despite the 2001 half-term figures being slightly down compared to last year, visitor numbers for the authoritys two major attractions - Castell Henllys and Carew Castle - show an increase for the 2001 summer season as a whole compared with summer 2000.

Pembrokeshire County Council will publish its half-term comparisons this week but its figures for the first nine months of the year show a big decrease in foreign visitors to Pembrokeshire.

Last year, there were 23,685 inquiries from overseas tourists at its Information Centres. This year, that figure dropped by 15.4% to 20,036. The association set up to promote Pembrokeshire as an off-season destination is optimistic.

Tim Brace, chairman of Pembrokeshire Tourism, says self-catering accommodation inquiries since September were well up. Business generated by the property letting arm of Frank B. Mason rose by 35%, he says.

Meanwhile, the war had little impact on existing overseas bookings made through Pembrokeshire tour operators.

Peter Johnson, of Milford Travel, says October half-term remained the most popular holiday period of the year.

All our clients travelled as booked, he says. It is such a popular time for people to travel that most bookings were made as soon as the brochures came out last October.