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Cornwall’s tourism chief has said fears of an “invasion” of people into the country’s level two and three restricted areas will not happen.
It comes after a bar owner told BBC Radio Cornwall that he feared an “invasion” of visitors to the county in light of Cornwall being one of three areas along with the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight in level one, the least restrictive of the levels.
The initial announcement raised fears that people from other areas would seek to visit Cornwall due to the easing of restrictions, and Phil Lafferty of the Britannia Inn, Par told BBC Radio Cornwall that he feared an ‘invasion’ of visitors, saying: great news [that Cornwall is in tier one] for wet ad pubs, but my fear is what kind of invasion we may have now, how we control it, and what it might do with our infection rate and our stats that put us level one in the first place. “
However, Malcolm Bell, CEO of Visit Cornwall, said that Christmas in Cornwall is very different from summer with far fewer people visiting and that he did not expect that to change.
He said: “Christmas in Cornwall will not be the same as the summer when we had two million visitors and the infection rate did not increase. The clear message for people living outside of Cornwall is that visitors are welcome, but they must abide by the rules of the area where they come from. Although it will obviously be difficult, I know that companies will work to keep people safe. For example, in a pub or restaurant, visitors have to eat while locals can simply buy a drink. “
Bell also said that one of the factors that means Christmas will be different from summer is the demographics of those who come on vacation at this time of year and the weather Cornwall sees during the fall and winter seasons. He continued: “During the summer, one of the reasons we saw so many visitors was the fact that people from the interior of the country were at home locked in the sun and wanted to be near the sea and, like many, they couldn’t go abroad. , they came to Cornwall too. That won’t happen this time unless the sun is shining and the temperature rises twenty degrees. While we are busy during Christmas, it is not as busy as the summer, there are fewer places open during the Christmas period.
“Also, with the schools up and running, those who come to Cornwall at this time of year tend to be older visitors who come to walk their dog, stay in cabins or trailers and generally tend to keep their distance anyway and it is also the demographic group that this year has tended to adhere to social distancing. Another reason that people are not likely to come to Cornwall at this time of year is that the holidays tend to be abroad to snowy places like the Alps and we don’t have that and therefore it is a totally different from summer ”.
The head of tourism also added that regardless of where someone comes from, it is important for everyone to follow the rules to ensure Cornwall remains at level one. He said that where someone is from does not mean they are more or less likely to follow the rules, saying, “Ultimately, the people who adhere to the rules will, whether they are local or from elsewhere, if they intend to follow the rules that they will follow and those who do not believe they will apply to them will not do so regardless of where they are from, so all we can do is get as many as possible locally to comply with the rules and keep every other safe. With the arrival of the Christmas bubble, the more everyone adheres to the rules, the more we can minimize the potential impact of spreading the virus and that also applies to friends and family who visit us.
“However the virus is already here in Cornwall and ultimately whether someone is visiting or local we still have to do everything we can to protect each other and make sure Cornwall can stay on the level one”.
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