Tourism Enterprise. David Leslie

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      ^aAll the enterprises

      ^bIncludes attractions that are National Trust properties

      As Clive Watson, Managing Director of Bowness Leisure plc (LDNP) said:

      … huge demand for guesthouses by people who saw them as their only way of achieving their dream of moving into the lakes … and …. These people were moving for quality of life rather than for business income … (Leslie, 2001, p. 65)

      Interestingly McGehee and Kim’s (2004) research into small farm (less than 100 acres) farmers in Virginia found a similar range of motivations. Another motivation is a personal interest/activity which is the basis for many a small tourism enterprise (see Badulescu and Badulescu, 2012). This is especially found in the supply of nature-based or outdoor adventure pursuits (see Leslie, 2010; Spenceley and Rylance, 2012; Holland, 2012). These factors were further affirmed through the audit interviews; manifest in the LDNP by the number of owners who are from outside of the area and are comparatively recent entries to the sector.

      A locality’s attractiveness and ‘escape from urbanity’ are also motivations in the purchase of second homes or holiday homes in attractive locations. Opportunities have been encouraged by the potential to let as self-catering operations and by the prevailing upward trend in house prices for the better part of the last century i.e. secondary investment. Overall, these operations present a diverse variety of accommodations, e.g. new houses, flats, cottages, renovated/converted farm buildings. It is not surprising that the number of self-catering apartments in so many other rural locations in the UK, especially within a two hour drive of major conurbations, increased substantially during the 1980s and again by over a third in terms of supply in the 1990s (Leslie, 2007b). They are often managed for the owners by an agency. To illustrate: one agency in the LDNP has a portfolio comprising 50% of second/holiday homes and properties bought as a long-term investment. The management of these properties includes ensuring they are made ready for new guests and general housekeeping matters. Comparatively few of these properties are owned by people who live in the area and of these the majority are involved in farming or estate management. As such, much of the letting cost is lost to the locality. However, there is visitor spend on food and beverage operations, purchases of supplies and a small element of employment generation through the development of letting agents and also their staffing teams to prepare the premises for new guests etc.

      Duration of ownership (see Table 2.2)

      The enquiries into how long the enterprise had been operating under the current ownership established that many of the ‘younger’ operations, particularly for 2001, involved a change in ownership. For example, of all the categories in 2001, BB enterprises are more likely to be a new/recent business based in a ‘modern’ house. This is reflected in the higher presence of cavity wall insulation and double glazing, which is indicative of a less traditional building design than that commonly found in the area; similarly self-catering premises. The following selections drawn from the 2001 data serve to highlight various differences between the categories of enterprise:

      Garay and Font’s (2012) study found that 55% of the enterprises in their sample had been operational for 10 years or less, which is similar to the 62% of the 2001 audits. Restaurants, particularly cafes, attractions and the self-catering sector evidence the highest propensity for new developments in the last 5 years, reflecting the popularity of the area and the growth of the self-catering sector in the 1990s. In the self-catering sector approximately one in five properties (19%) had been built during the 1990s. In contrast, hotels and inns are far less likely to be in contemporary properties. An indicator as to the long-standing of these operations is demonstrated in the findings of the audits:

      • 40% of the properties have ‘always been’ operating as designated; and

      • 45% of the properties were previously homes.

      As one local authority noted:

      In many cases, hotels and guest houses are the result of conversions of large country houses and buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest which might otherwise have become redundant or been poorly maintained. (SLDC, 1997, para 4.7)

      The age of many of these properties in rural locations holds an added ‘benefit’ in that repairs and renewals help to maintain and develop traditional skills of restoration of old buildings; this feeds into other areas of repairs, renewals, extensions and so forth. That such skills are largely available is partly due to the work of the National Trust, which has developed a set of principles for restoring or maintaining their buildings (see Jarman, 2000) and fostering the development of traditional building methods.

      Maintenance and development of the property

      A facet of the interrelationships of tourism enterprises with the local economy recognized and explored through the surveys is of building works, regular maintenance and repairs which generates demand for local tradesmen on a fairly consistent basis and thus contributes to the local economy and community more generally. Second, continued visitor demand and improved profitability encourages new works; witness the finding in 2001 from the accommodation category: one out of every five enterprises indicated that they had current plans for upgrading the operation in some way, e.g. redecoration, upgrade rooms, add rooms, develop catering operations, add a conservatory. In rural locations, the majority of the enterprises by far, including owners of self-catering properties, refer such work to local trade persons, who within the LDNP use local materials. This is partly due to their availability, but also to maintain character and, as applicable, meet the Park Authority’s planning regulations. This demand helps contribute to the maintenance of traditional skills and the presence of skilled tradesmen in the area.

      One area not explored was whether the owner/manager had or was taking into consideration good environmental practice with regard to design or fixtures and fittings; for example, from amongst the many choices that are now available for introducing more environmentally friendly designs, building materials and products. However optional choice in such matters over the last decade due to new building regulations is more limited today. This does not apply to everything, for example one respondent noted: ‘all redecorated rooms have hospital type taps as seemingly lots of people have problems with ordinary type taps’ i.e. turn/screw style.

      Annual Turnover

      The first survey of serviced-accommodation in the LDNP did not invite respondents to indicate their turnover though this was addressed in the auditing stage. It was subsequently included in the surveys of the other categories in the LDNP and when researching the enterprises in Scotland. The findings for 2001 are presented in Table 2.3; each of the categories from 2001 is included to allow for cross-category comparisons (the equivalent data for 2006 are very similar). The majority of the enterprises have a turnover of less than £250,000. To place this in one perspective – it was estimated at the time that in general, tourism enterprises in the UK had a turnover of less that £250,000 (Bardgett, 2000). The comparatively higher revenues of the serviced accommodation operations in the Fringe are largely attributable to the much lower proportion of BBs in that data set. The inns in both the LDPN and the Fringe compare well with the SA (serviced accommodation) category in that the majority (70% СКАЧАТЬ