Campsites, caravan parks and holiday cottages in the Harrogate district are expecting people to go “staycation crazy” over the remaining summer months.
Toni Fernandes is the general manager of the Lido Leisure Park near Knaresborough. It has around 500 caravans that are used throughout the year as second homes. He told the Stray Ferret he was “very, very happy” with the announcement yesterday that they can finally reopen and he has already been inundated with owners who can’t wait to return to the site on July 4.
He said:
“I think there will be a queue! We’ve put a lot of measures in place for the café and the restaurant and the environment is safe for people to isolate themselves.”
He also said that a busy Lido will provide a much-needed boost to the Knaresborough and Harrogate high streets.
He added:
“We can have 2000 people here. The impact that it has on the high street in Knaresborough and Harrogate is massive. We hope opening will really help the local businesses and the economy. We’re very excited and I think staycations are going to go crazy.”
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In Summerbridge, Rosemary Helme owns several holiday cottages that will be open for guests from July 4. She still has vacancies for the rest of the summer and is hopeful that people will be taking advantage of their self-catering facilities.
She welcomed the announcement from the government yesterday on reopening but said guidance on what they are supposed to provide for guests remains “confusing”, especially around cleaning. She said they will be opting for a common-sense approach.
“We’re talking about taking out books, games and things people can move. But you can’t clean a pack of cards for instance, or not without difficulty!”
Nearby in Pateley Bridge, Trevor Brohier and his wife Jules are gearing up to welcome guests to Moorhouse Cottage, which includes both a B&B and self-catering facilities.
Moorhouse Cottage.
Mr Brohier told the Stray Ferret that they are excited to get their business going again.
To begin with, the B&B only be open on weekends to give them a chance to deep clean after guests leave.
He said:
“That will have a really negative effect on turnover but we’d rather be safe than sorry.”
Whilst Mr Brohier said the B&B experience will be as close to normal as possible, fans of familiar B&B staple, the full English breakfast, will have to wait a while longer — as all cooked breakfasts will be off the menu for the time being.
