By James Knight.

Hi happy holiday makers!

Hi de hi from my holiday camp in Clacton, or shall I say Richmond-upon-Thames?

The British holiday resorts have risen to the challenge of British holiday makers, excellent PR from the public relations and marketing people.

Places like St Ives, Bournemouth, and Brighton have always had a great product for positive PR, now we are seeing people flocking to resorts like seagulls overhead (trying to swoop down and eat your sandwiches).

Apologies if I have missed your great resort, there are too many to name.

Many resorts have been left behind, where striped deck chairs, candy floss, the Sunday band stand and Mabel's B&B still serving evening meals at 6pm - I still hear the gong, a dreadful thought.

Two varied approaches to tourism and promotions stand out. In Blackpool the council has mothballed 6,000 famous deck chairs. Claire Smith President of Stay Blackpool, which represents hotels, said "would love deck chairs back" along with bucket and spaces, donkey rides, they are the British seaside market, they are Blackpool icons, she says.

Whereas in if you look at St Ives we see a different story. With art lovers visiting The Tate and Barbara Hayworth Museum and Sculpture, just two of the number of art places to put the resort on the map, it has seen the second highest visitor related spend in the UK £85m per annum, 540,000 day visitors, 220,000 stay visitors and 2,800 tourism jobs - great advert after the G8 summit.

Two entirely different stories geared up for the British summer.

Are we missing the South of France, Marbella  and the Caribbean? You bet. I love Nice, walking along the Promenade des Anglais, which the English paid for in the 18th century.

I applaud the British PR tourist people. They have had a difficult job, it would be great to have foreign travel in 2022 keep our memories of British resorts and Promenade in Nice.

As I write this blog I hear we are altering the Green List with Malta and Baleric Isles being added. I have no comment, I think people know my opinion of how this is being handled, I was under the impression we were going to have a Hospitality Minister, probably from Fawlty Towers.

Professor James Knight is an international businessman, public relations practitioners and academic. He was Fellow of Bournemouth University Public Relations School, guest speaker at Judge Cambridge, Surrey, Bath and Reading, International Mentor for Oxford Brookes on Hospitality. He is a Fellow of CIPR and the Society of Public Relations of America, as well as a fellow of the Institute of Directors. 

Photo by Michael D Beckwith on Unsplash