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VISIT CORNWALL WEBSITE TRAFFIC SPIKES POST-G7

USA

+ 184% Canada + 211% Australia + 140% Germany + 125% Japan + 820% Italy + 281% Sweden + 343% South Korea + 660% Singapore + 230% Hong Kong + 317% Argentina + 158% Mexico + 383% Kenya + 666% It was hoped all restrictions would have been lifted by end of June and that we would be making our way back to at least a variation of the ‘old normal’, but we have had to wait four weeks longer! The delay has caused some issues, but by far the biggest challenge the sector faces is labour supply, skill shortages and recruitment combined with the Covid Delta variant which has seen a big spike in Cornwall and leaving businesses to close due to loss of staff self-isolating. The issues relating to staff and accommodation shortages is being discussed to see what short-term actions and medium and longer-term solutions can be implemented as without sufficient staff your businesses will be hurt and the economic recovery delayed. Now, whether the recent spike in cases in Cornwall is due to the G7 set up phase or the actual world leaders summit or the opening of indoor hospitality, particularly pubs or young people socialising or visitors here for half term or local people visiting family outside Cornwall is like “crying over spilt milk” at this time. I will leave to others to speculate to keep social media and other channels busy. I feel it is far more important at this crucial time to treble all our efforts. Firstly on the hands, face, space; then making sure customers use the QR codes and keeping indoor areas as well ventilated as possible. Secondly, lets drive forward on the vaccination programme and encourage as many unvaccinated people as possible especially the under 30’s to get jabbed as soon as possible so we can win the race of vaccination vs infection and hospitalisation rates. Whilst on the issue of G7 and was it all worth it.

It is early days, but one early conclusion is that the weather and the sun did their part, as we all know that the weekend could have been a wash out of wind and rain, whereas Cornwall looked glorious, and the community carnival feel was a real credit to Cornwall and publicity and exposure we could never buy. On another positive note, we have been monitoring traffic to our website and comparing it to the weeks ahead of G7. This is a good test of the awareness raising power of the coverage as people around the world would have had to have googled Cornwall and then clicked on www.visitcornwall.com. So, what were the results – well out of the top 100 countries in the world, only two saw a reduction in website traffic, the biggest spikes came from not just the G7 countries but from all over the globe. Visit Cornwall will continue its work with the Visit Britain overseas offices to let the world know of the wonders we have in our very special part of Britain.

MALCOLM BELL