Record occupancy continues into autumn for Cumbria hoteliers

Record occupancy levels continued well into autumn for Cumbria’s accommodation providers, according to provisional figures released by Cumbria Tourism.

Cumbria’s overall occupancy was the highest for a decade in September at 79.4%. It follows the devastating floods that hit the county in December last year, which led to a “collapse” in forward bookings across the region.

Serviced accommodation room occupancy was at 68.3% in October – as strong as the same month last year, which was the highest recorded for several year. Meanwhile, self-catering occupancy hit 66.9% in October, the highest ever recorded occupancy for the month.

Ian Stephens, managing director of Cumbria Tourism, said: “These figures are a welcome boost for the county’s £2.62 billion tourism industry as we approach the traditional quieter months of the year. It was a challenging start to 2016, but the industry has worked hard to welcome visitors to the area and together, we have shown just how resilient Cumbria is.

“The strong occupancy figures over the past six months suggest we certainly have good reason to be cautiously optimistic about the performance of our tourism industry going into 2017.”

However, he added anecdotal feedback from attractions and retailers suggests a more mixed experience.

Cumbria Tourism represents more than 2,500 members and carries out the monthly Cumbria Tourism Occupancy Surveys to monitor performance across hotels, guesthouses, B&Bs, self-catering, and camping and caravan sites.