The ‘post’ covid world has seen a massive boom in the amount of holiday properties appearing in the UK. Whether that’s pods & yurts appearing in a corner of a farmers field, to the home someone inherited now being listed with Sykes instead of going on the rental market.
Some people I have discussed this with have said how concerned they are about it, whether they are concerned that local housing is being lost for local people or that the market is going to become saturated. I have to admit in part, the later does concern me slightly too.
But here is my take (slightly biased I know) on the holiday property boom. Lets start with our pubs & restaurants, which we can all agree have had a seriously hard time lately. Even if your going to say to me you support your local for every birthday, or you go most Sundays for lunch, or you always support their curry night, it’s just not enough. An increase in tourism, especially when they are staying in self catering accommodation is a massive support for all our local pubs, not only helping to keep them open for that all important pint on a Friday night but also providing jobs for local people.
Our shops, the local co op, florist or the lovely little shops selling clothes & trinkets, no matter how often we use them local support will never be enough. Tourists have time to spend wondering round our towns enjoying these shops & supporting them.
The butchers, the veg shop, the local farmer who sells ice cream & milk, guess what … tourists help them all massively not just helping increase their profits but this also means they are kept open for us locals to use too!
The downside, of course there are some, increased traffic is the first that comes to my mind. But I think it is a small price to pay to help boost our local economies.
As much as I, like others are concerned we are going to end up with a saturated self catering market, my concern being that all of these beautiful properties opening up will not have enough guests to share around them all. I am still a firm believer that a booming tourist industry in this country is a brilliant thing all round & the only way to help, is to promote your local area. Share your local area with your friends from away, share local attractions, pictures & details of local accommodation. Supporting tourism locally will support a wide range of local businesses too!