Holiday trade boosted (From Western Telegraph)

Holiday trade boosted

RECORD NUMBERS of visitors are expected to pour into Pembrokeshire this week as the county prepares to host one of Europes premier cultural events.

Friday sees the opening ceremony of the National Eisteddfod of Wales at St Davids and it is already proving a boom for local tourism operators. Accommodation in the area has been fully booked for the Eisteddfod week ever since the city won its bid to host the event.

The Old Cross Hotel, St Davids, will be playing host to several prominent Eisteddfod figures, including the organiser, Aled Sion. Recorder of the Gorsedd James Nicholas booked his room there three years ago. We would have been fully booked at this time of the year anyway, concedes its manageress, Janette Pearce. If it had been in January or November we might have seen a difference,

The Pembrokeshire Coast National Parks award-winning St Davids Visitor Centre this week notched up its 50,000th visitor of the year - an increase of more than 4,000 on 2001.

Visitor throughput has increased by nearly 10% and bed bookings have leapt by over 22%.

The upturn in Pembrokeshires holiday sector is not just down to the Eisteddfod. Buoyant bookings for the entire season suggest that visitors are not abandoning the county in favour of sunnier overseas destinations.

The school summer holidays have brought an influx of holidaymakers into the county, reviving the fortunes of tourism operators since last years holiday season when the foot and mouth crisis deterred visitors.

All 580 cottages operated by Coastal Cottages of Pembrokeshire have been fully booked for months and the holiday booking service operated by managing director, Matthew Evans second business, Activity Wales, has seen trade leap by 29% on 2000.

Matthew credits the increase on an intensive campaign of promotion - his marketing budget has doubled in the last 12 months. But it is money well spent. After the poor season last year we knew we had to get the punters in. We had a huge push last autumn, targeting a lot of new customers, and it has paid off, said Matthew, who is chairman of Pembrokeshire Marketing.

And they arent being put off by the unpredictable weather. People dont come to Pembrokeshire for the sun, they can go to Barbados for that. Pembrokeshire has got so much more to offer, he added.

Travel writers have played a key role in re-establishing the countys tourism fortunes after a year when the foot and mouth crisis closed much of the countryside.

It has been estimated that publicity from articles on Pembrokeshire in the national press has been worth £9 million this year alone.

Self-catering and caravanning holidays are now the most popular, but hotels too are reporting good advanced bookings.

Bobby King, chairman of the Pembrokeshire Hotels and Restaurants Association, admitted that the start of the season had been sporadic, blaming the World Cup.

The same happened four years ago, said Mr King, of the Jalna Hotel, Saundersfoot. Bookings are coming in quite well now, though. There seems to be a good feeling all round.

Theme parks and attractions across Pembrokeshire will be hoping that the recent spell of fine weather continues through July and August.

Heatherton Country Sports Park, near St Florence, reports that visitor numbers are up on 2000, but the year has been inconsistent, said Charles Davies, a partner in this family business.

Easter and Whitsun were good but May and June were quieter. The weather put off a lot of day trippers, he said.