LOOKING AHEAD: CORNWALL

What will 2022 be like?

While Malcolm Bell has some reasons to be cheerful, he also sounds a note of caution.

Ian Dury had a hit single “Reasons to be Cheerful” and we have reasons to be cheerful looking ahead to 2022 but there are also reasons to be worried. But let’s concentrate on the reasons to be cheerful first. The visitor research undertaken this year confirmed our beliefs, that Cornwall delivered the visitor experience expected and for some even exceeded expectations, despite the significant increase in the number of visitors and certain sections of the media stirring up anti-tourism sentiment within our communities. Cornwall continued to deliver and most importantly, it is competing very strongly with other UK destinations. The visitors enjoyed their time in Cornwall and gave us very strong referral scores and most pleasingly have a desire to return. Many other destinations would “cut off the right arms” to have that positive level of relationship with the customers. Looking forward to next year, we will see a strong desire for people to get away from home where so many both live and work now. And the demand to take breaks and holidays will be very strong, particularly multi-generational holidays for all those grandparents who have missed out on almost two years of connections and memory making with their children and grandchildren. I think we will also have new opportunities created from the change in work patterns post Covid, where many people will now be either spending a lot of time working at home or even just part-time working from home, resulting in so many losing their sanctuary and needing to create that work and life balance. There will be a desire to get away and have time with loved ones, family and friends. And this will not necessarily be in the peak weeks, but can easily be in autumn, in winter and in spring. There is also the “workcation” or “woliday” market where people can still have a good holiday, while doing some work or zooming in for the odd mustmake meeting. From our research, we have seen that people are interested in coming for short breaks and additional

holidays and that market will hopefully grow as people want to take breaks. Visit Cornwall will be working hard to grow this value out of peak season and target these new markets and drive business to members during the less popular but equally wonderful times of the year to be in Cornwall. I won’t go on about the reasons to be cheerful, because there are also several reasons to be cautious and certainly not complacent. Being complacent will be the greatest weakness. It is great that our customers loved what they had enjoyed during their time in Cornwall and that they want to return, but just because we provided a great holiday, doesn’t mean that they will automatically come back the following year. We may not see some of these people for two or three years, or even five years. Even if you have lots of forward bookings with paid deposits, please don’t take that as business in the bank. The overseas competition will be coming at us and they will want to make up on their losses over the last two years. The TV adverts are starting to appear on our screens and wait until just after Christmas, when customers will see wall-to-wall advertising to get on that plane! Another reason to be concerned is that we have seen from our research that many customers are concerned about good value for money and that many see overseas holidays as offering better value. So, we do need to make sure customers that visited over the past two years come back as soon as possible with the use of tempting social media and targeted comms, so that hopefully as many as possible return next year to ensure that we do not have a feast and famine situation. Finally, next year will see out customers facing higher taxes, maybe higher mortgages, increased cost of living and a feeling that they are financially being squeezed, so let’s make sure we all work hard this winter to promote your business and Cornwall with a healthy dose of “constructive paranoia” and certainly avoid smug complacency.