Could the plan to extend Illuminations season light the way to end of Covid crisis in Blackpool?

VisitBlackpool announced today that the Illuminations season will start on Friday, September 3 and run until Monday January, 3, 2022.

The two-month extension is intended to give the resort’s hard-hit tourism industry an added boost with the COVID-19 pandemic expected to cause further disruption over the first few months of the year.

However, yesterday’s announcement from a government minister warning people not to book domestic holidays could condemn the resort to another empty summer.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said it is “too soon” for hopeful travellers to start booking holidays.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, he said: “First of all, I should say, people shouldn’t be booking holidays right now – not domestically or internationally.”

It was also revealed today that the winter extension will be complemented by a significantly enhanced, resort-wide Christmas offer.

Coun Gillian Campbell, cabinet member for tourism and culture for Blackpool Council, said: “Although last year’s extension was disrupted by tier restrictions and a second lockdown, all of the evidence showed that there was a huge appetite for the public to visit the Illuminations in a safe and enjoyable way.

“We know from the all of the positive feedback that we received that, amid so much gloom, the Illuminations provided a much-needed tonic to so many people.

“We are making this decision early so that our businesses can start to plan for the extended season.

“At the same time, we are planning a comprehensive package of themed shows, events and attractions to give visitors plenty of reasons to come to Blackpool over the festive season.”

More details about the Christmas offer will be revealed in the coming weeks.

It has already been announced that Friends Festive Live will be coming to the Winter Gardens for two weeks in November and that Strictly judge Shirley Ballas will star in the Cinderella panto at the Opera House in December.

Plans for the annual Illuminations Switch-On ceremony on Friday, September 3, will also be unveiled over the coming months.

Last year, the event was presented as a virtual show in association with MTV with seven of the UK’s Corona Heroes pulling the famous switch.

Mr Shapps’ comments were blasted by tourism chiefs in Blackpool.

He said: “The Prime Minister will say more about the route to unlocking this country, starting when he speaks about it on February 22.

“But we don’t know yet whether that will include information on things like holidays, simply because we don’t know where we’ll be up to in terms of the decline in cases, deaths, vaccination.

“And not just the vaccination programme here, but the vaccination programme internationally, because people will be going outside of our borders . So it’s too soon.”

Claire Smith, president of hoteliers group StayBlackpool and joint proprietor of two B&Bs in the town, including a five star establishment, described the minister’s comments as ‘scaremongering’ and a ‘kick in the teeth for many.’

She said: “There is absolutely no evidence to substantiate what he is saying and that is what’s so frustrating about what he’s saying, it’s scaremongering.

“There’s an awful lot of people with their livelihoods at risk here and this is not what we want to hear.While there’s hope there’s hope.

“We don’t people to come out and say unsubstantiated things and make people feel worse than they already do.

“He can’t possibly say what he’s said, just randomly out of the blue, because it affects so many people.”

Ms Smith said that it would be an ‘absolute, complete and utter worst case scenario’ if the resort had to close to tourists and said Blackpool is not in that position.

She added: “There’s an awful lot of people that are on the edge of losing their businesses, on the edge of bankruptcy and Grant Shapps coming out and just randomly saying something like that is so harmful and so detrimental to all the hotel owners and people employed in the tourism industry in Blackpool.

“Perhaps not for holidays abroad, but there’s certainly a good chance for staycations and with the vaccine rollout going as well as it is, there is more hope than not.”

“The industry is up and ready to go at a moment’s notice and Blackpool has got everything in place. Talking from a hotel perspective, we’ve all got the good to go.

“We have all our strategies in place such as cleaning and sanitising and this is the new norm. This isn’t something new to us like it was last year, we are absolutely well aware of what we have to do.

“What these sorts of comments do is put doubts in people’s minds because they have heard them from a Government minister. I think he has been a real twit saying what he has and it’s a kick in the teeth for many, many people on the Fylde coast.”

Guidance on booking domestic holidays has been unclear, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock indicating that he himself was planning on going to Cornwall this summer, but cautioning that the Government “have got a lot of work between now and then.”

Currently, all four nations of the UK are under ‘stay at home’ orders which restrict travel to within local areas, meaning holidays are not currently possible.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson indicated that the Government would be revealing a “road map” out of lockdown in February, at which time the probability of being able to go on a staycation may be clearer.

Kate Shane, head of Merlin’s Blackpool attractions, including the Tower, said the Government needs to provide clear details for the tourism industry rather than ministes making ‘sweeping’ messages.

She said: “We want people to be safe and we don’t want to be the cause of any infection rate increase or any Covid issue, but the statistics from when we were allowed to trade and visitor attractions across the UK were open in 2020, there were no reported Covid infections in a visitor attraction across the country. That says that we as an industry, made our experiences safe for the general public.

“We don’t know when we can reopen and we desperately need to know. We need a date as soon as possible, even if it is later in the year, but we need to be able to plan. We’ve got staff that are on furlough with a level of uncertainty about what the future holds and we’ve got suppliers who want to know whether they’re going to be getting any orders from us.”

Kate said thousands of residents are reliant on the sector and that it’s not as easy as ‘flicking a switch on start trading again’.

“To send a message out as a sweeping as ‘don’t book any staycations’, the Government has given us no indication of when we can open and we need them to stop making comments about ‘don’t do this and don’t do that’ and to start giving us some indication of when we are going to be allowed to trade again in Blackpool.

“We are heavily dependent on the tourism industry with 25,000 jobs across the sector in Blackpool so it’s hugely important to everybody. The knock on effect and the impact across the hospitality and leisure sector is huge, and they need to think about that before they start making those sorts of statements. What we do need from the government is a plan and a guideline on the dates. This is how much time we’re going to give you and this is a roadmap on how you’re going to be able to reopen your businesses. That’s what need.”

John Childs, managing director of Sandcastle Waterpark, thinks people will still holiday in Blackpool despite Mr Shapps comments.

He said: “I just think people will come anyway. He is just one voice and people are really wanting to experience something outside of lockdown. People will remain optimistic and when they can travel Blackpool has got the products that will certainly entice people. We saw it last year when people were able to travel and we were fully booked, so it’s not just my optimism it’s whatever people can do themselves and they will still holiday and go to waterparks and attractions.”