Britons urged to take a ‘staycation’ this summer
This article sets out the stay at home campaign being developed in response to the double whammy of the jubilee and olympics this year. It explains how:
“The “staycation” campaign will offer incentives for Britons choosing to holiday in the UK during the Olympic Games and Golden Jubilee celebrations.
To mark the Olympic year, discounts of 20.12 percent will be offered on thousands of hotels, restaurants, attractions and other goods and services.
Tourists will be able to take advantage of the discount by using a dedicated website before the end of the Paralympics on September 9 to make bookings for this year and 2013.
More than three million hotel rooms are already lined up under the project, which is being backed by a range of companies including Butlins.”
I have never been convinced by the long term benefits of tourism as a real driver of sustainable economic development. It seems to me that in some rural places it is where economic development starts and stops unimaginatively and is a proxy for the harder thinking required to rise to the challenge of creating sustainable rural economies. I am sure this will draw me some flak – but I cant help thinking what will happen next year when the music stops and we return to a non olympic/non jubilee “business as usual” scenario.