October occupancy has overtaken July at eleven monitored accommodation businesses across the north and west, the first time the month has led the calendar at any of them.
This is, on paper, the achievement of a twenty-year policy objective. Extending the season has been the stated aim of every tourism strategy since the 1990s, on the entirely sound basis that a business trading five months cannot employ anyone properly.
The season has extended. The problem is that nothing has moved out of the middle.
No closed period
July and August are unchanged. May, June, September and October have risen sharply. Easter now runs at what used to be June levels. Several operators report solid trade in the fortnight after New Year.
The consequence is that the annual closed period, during which a small business does its maintenance, its accounts, its training and its recovering, has in eleven cases disappeared entirely.
“We have not closed for thirty-one months. The roof needs doing and there is no week to do it in. I asked for a longer season for twenty years and I would like to formally withdraw the request.”
A hotel owner in the north west
The staffing side
Seasonal recruitment has always depended on a defined season. A post running March to October is a student job. A post running continuously is a career, requiring a contract, a wage and somewhere to live.
Eight of the eleven reported being unable to fill roles they could fill three years ago, and all eight named accommodation as the reason.
The shift
- Businesses where October now exceeds July: 11
- Reporting no closed period at all: 11
- Longest continuous trading reported: 31 months
- Unable to fill roles filled in 2023: 8
- Naming accommodation as the reason: 8
One operator has taken the decision to close for the whole of February regardless of bookings, and describes it as the best business decision she has made in four years.
