Knowledge Centre
28th May 2009
Tourist officials in Bournemouth claim that "inaccurate" reports of bad weather over the bank holiday weekend cost small businesses in the town over a million pounds in lost revenue.
The Met Office and the BBC forecast thundery showers on Bank Holiday Monday, which turned out to be the hottest day of the year.
Quoted in the Telegraph, Mark Smith, head of Bournemouth Council's tourism department, said: "We suffer badly from inaccurate weather reports. On Bank Holiday Monday alone we lost 25,000 visitors because the weather forecast was so poor. The average amount spent by visitors per head is £41, so even for one day that cost us over £1million."
The Tourism Alliance, which represents businesses in the industry, has already complained to the Met Office over the unduly "negative" way it covered last summer's bad weather. Local paper the Bournemouth Daily Echo monitored BBC forecasts over 25 days last summer, and found them to be wrong on 15 occasions.
However, some small businesses in the town's leisure industry say the gloomy weather predictions caused no negative effects on their trade at all.
Peter Jordan, owner of the Westbrook Hotel in the Westbourne area of the town, told More Than Business News: "Although weather reports are important to us, we didn't see any downturn this bank holiday. Many of our rooms were booked in advance, but we did get some late bookings in the week leading up to the weekend, so these people obviously hadn't been put off by the supposed bad weather. In fact, we're part of a network of nine other small hotels in the area and we all had to turn people away."
And Oliver Buttling, group curator at the Bournemouth Oceanarium, said bad weather actually meant good news for his attraction. "When the weather is good we find it hard to compete with the beautiful expanse of sand right on our doorstep, so we don't mind a little bit of rain."
Mr Buttling said he found it hard to believe tourist numbers were down in the town. "Although the papers talked of empty beaches, they looked as packed as ever to me," he said.
IMAGE Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Tourist chiefs claim Met Office "cost us millions"
The Met Office and the BBC forecast thundery showers on Bank Holiday Monday, which turned out to be the hottest day of the year.
Quoted in the Telegraph, Mark Smith, head of Bournemouth Council's tourism department, said: "We suffer badly from inaccurate weather reports. On Bank Holiday Monday alone we lost 25,000 visitors because the weather forecast was so poor. The average amount spent by visitors per head is £41, so even for one day that cost us over £1million."
The Tourism Alliance, which represents businesses in the industry, has already complained to the Met Office over the unduly "negative" way it covered last summer's bad weather. Local paper the Bournemouth Daily Echo monitored BBC forecasts over 25 days last summer, and found them to be wrong on 15 occasions.
However, some small businesses in the town's leisure industry say the gloomy weather predictions caused no negative effects on their trade at all.
Peter Jordan, owner of the Westbrook Hotel in the Westbourne area of the town, told More Than Business News: "Although weather reports are important to us, we didn't see any downturn this bank holiday. Many of our rooms were booked in advance, but we did get some late bookings in the week leading up to the weekend, so these people obviously hadn't been put off by the supposed bad weather. In fact, we're part of a network of nine other small hotels in the area and we all had to turn people away."
And Oliver Buttling, group curator at the Bournemouth Oceanarium, said bad weather actually meant good news for his attraction. "When the weather is good we find it hard to compete with the beautiful expanse of sand right on our doorstep, so we don't mind a little bit of rain."
Mr Buttling said he found it hard to believe tourist numbers were down in the town. "Although the papers talked of empty beaches, they looked as packed as ever to me," he said.
IMAGE Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
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