It is a cruel irony that at the tail end of the sunniest May imaginable many visitor attractions and tourism businesses are bracing themselves for a “third winter”.
While some lockdown regulations have been eased, businesses providing holiday accommodation, including hotels and caravan parks, are yet to reopen.
And some of the region’s tourist attractions are questioning whether it will be financially viable to reopen at all.
John Turner, chief executive of Visit Somerset, said there is a great deal of “uncertainty and unpredictability”.
He said: “Many of our members say they don’t feel comfortable reopening again; they don’t want to bring more visitors to their towns or villages.
“There’s huge amounts of uncertainty and unpredictability about the summer season.
“We are already hearing many large attractions potentially won’t be reopening throughout the summer months, as the costs are just too high to protect against Covid, versus potential income.”
Mr Turner said the visitor industry provides a huge boost to the local economy, so shouldn’t be overlooked.
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He said: “Considering that our economy is with £1.3billion annually and 28,000 FTE jobs. That does not include food and drink at £500million and 18,000 FTE jobs, so this is a major concern. We have already lost a predicted £425million up until the beginning of June.”
He added: “What happens if the heavens open? if you have an indoor attraction people will want to either come indoors or will check the weather forecast and just won’t come out.
“How do you put in mitigating circumstances around social distancing in those circumstances?
“Weather is always a massive factor anyway and now visitors have to contend with the possibility of contracting the virus in confined and potentially overcrowded spaces.”
According to Mr Turner, when businesses reopen they will be running at 35 per cent capacity due to social distancing.
He said: “It won’t cover your basic costs, it becomes a minefield. Cash flow is critical to the tourism industry, and if there’s no cash flow, it doesn’t happen.
“It’s as if we are going into a third winter. We came out of the wet season last year and went into winter and now it’s like we’re going into winter again; there’s no money, nothing to support the visitor economy.”
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Mr Turner arranged a meeting with Wells MP James Heappey about protecting the industry.
He said: “We want the government to accelerate the track and trace system and get that embedded into society so we can reduce the two metre social distancing rules to one metre, which would then mean businesses can revert from 35 per cent to 75 per cent capacity. It would change the situation overnight.”
Haynes International Motor Museum in Yeovil was one of the first visitor attractions to close after the government banned mass gatherings.
Chris Scudds, chief executive of the museum, said: “The challenge for all of us has been working out how we can reopen and what measures we will have to put in place.
“Those new measures come with associated costs. I know some other visitor attractions have considered delaying reopening for a longer period of time because they don’t know how many visitors will come.
“We will be reopening with a one-way system, adhering to social distancing, our staff will be wearing PPE and there will be signage throughout the museum.
“This has all been very expensive, but certainly, until a vaccine is made, this will be the new normal for us.”
Mr Scudds said the new measures have been paid for using “unbudgeted expenditure”.
He added: “I completely understand that for many businesses they simply aren’t in the financial position to invest in what is needed to reopen. When you throw in the uncertainty of how many customers and visitors they will have, it makes sense for some places not to reopen until some of the restrictions have been lifted.
“But we’re in the fortunate position that we have some reserves to be able to do so. The harsh reality is we are losing money every month that we have no income.
“Like many other attractions in Somerset and the South West, we make most of our money in the summer," he added. “Every business that’s involved in welcoming visitors has had to sit down and rip up their original budget and start again.”
'We weren’t a one-way museum but we will have to be'
Mr Scudds said that it has been a huge undertaking introducing a one-way system into the museum.
He said: “My curator has been putting in 20-hour days trying to create a new walkway around the museum.
“We weren’t a one-way museum, but we will have to be when we open again. We couldn’t have maintained a distance of two metres with our old walkway.
“At any one time there can be anything from 350 vehicles and motorbikes on display in the museum – that gives you an idea of the challenges we face. We’ve had to move everything around.
“If social distancing was reduced to one metre that would make an extraordinary difference to the museum.
“We’re not an art gallery; you don’t stand back and stare. We are an interactive museum, where children, families and enthusiasts get up close to our collection.”
Mr Scudds is asking people to support their local businesses when they’re given the green light to reopen.
He said: “Please support local businesses, come and see us. By doing that it not only supports the museum, but the people who work at the museum.”
Meanwhile, more uncertainty has been thrown into the mix following the news that local lockdowns could be used to limit the spread of the virus.
It’s not yet clear how this will happen, but there are already concerns from business owners.
Daniel Medley, director of Wookey Hole, said: “I think the government needs to put more meat on the bones and explain how it will work. What we don’t want is for a few hundred families to turn up and then we can’t open.
“If there is a local lockdown we will have to close down. That means there’s the potential for us to lose money and we would have to refund families.
“And what happens to the staff – we can’t just not pay them. And then there’s the question of whether families will want to book knowing they might not be going.
“A family of four won’t pay a thousand pounds for a short break only for it to be cancelled anyway.”
Mr Medley added: “There are a lot of unknowns. Businesses aren’t going to want to open when it will cost more money to reopen than it will to close.
“They’re talking about reducing social distancing from two metres to one metre, that makes a huge difference to businesses with attractions.”
Alan House, who runs Brean Leisure Park in Burnham-on-Sea, says it is ready to welcome visitors on July 4.
He said: “We are slightly different to standard visitor attractions or big holiday parks because each unit is naturally a safe distance from the other.
“Customers will be able to arrive and leave without having to go to the reception. And all the information will be in their accommodation.”
However, Mr House said the difficulty lies with the park’s bar and restaurant.
He said: “It will be impractical to maintain a distance of two metres and it won’t be profitable to open.
“It’s exactly the same with the swimming pool and the amusement arcade, so we’re putting them on the back burner until later on. Our priority at the moment is to reopen our holiday accommodation again.”
Despite a lack of advice from the government on how to reopen holiday accommodation, the demand appears to be high.
Chris Heayns, who runs Mill Meadow luxury self-catering accommodation in Taunton, said he has already had to turn people away.
“I have got people phoning up who want to come now,” he said. “They either know there’s a lockdown and are trying it on or they don’t know what it means for businesses providing holiday accommodation.”
Mr Heayns says he has been “open and honest” with customers and has been updating the website with new coronavirus information.
He said: “I said to someone the other day, ‘one of the things is you will have to bring your own bedding’. But people have said they’re happy to do that.”
'There isn't any clear-cut government guidance'
He explained that the virus will present an issue for changeover days.
He said: “At the moment cleaners come in for four to five hours to change the room.
“But if you look at the amount of time the virus is still active on a hard surface it’s 24 hours and they say on fabric it could be active for as long as 72 hours.
“We’re looking at that and the need to close the property either side of the booking, but if we do we will have to negotiate with the guests who might lose a day’s stay.”
He added: “There isn’t any clear-cut government guidance. There’s not a document for businesses providing holiday accommodation at the moment.”
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In the lead-up to Saturday, July 4, there remains a great deal of uncertainty for the tourism sector.
Until the government provides some new advice on what business providing holiday accommodation can and can’t do in the wake of the virus, that uncertainty looks to continue.
What is clear is that if the government’s track and trace system is successfully rolled out, the reduction of social distancing from two metres to one could give businesses the boost they need to get through the rest of the summer.