Silver lining in credit crunch

Last updated 11:43, Thursday, 31 July 2008

Credit crunch... recession... fuel hikes... redundancies...there’s plenty of doom and gloom around the country at the moment and the weather doesn’t help!

But the economic grey clouds do seem to have a silver lining as far as Cumbria is concerned.

More and more of us are opting for a ‘staycation’ and are choosing to holiday in the UK, rather than travel abroad.

As we report today, Cumbria tourism chiefs are predicting as bumper summer.

Accommodation bookings in June were up 40 per cent on the previous year and figures for this month look likely to be equally impressive.

This year, the north of the county is also boosted by the fact that more than 100,000 people (mainly from the south of the country and from abroad) will see the British Museum’s acclaimed exhibition on Emperor Hadrian’s life.

It is expected that thousands will be spurred on to travel up the M6 to visit Hadrian’s Wall.

Around 15m people visit Cumbria each year and the tourist trade is worth a cool £1bn to our economy.

We all benefit from that income and it is up to all of us, not just those in the trade, to make sure our visitors feel welcome and want to come back and enjoy the sights, tastes and experiences of Cumbria again and again.

We have a lot to be proud of and a lot to share.