Do you think Cornwall will be 'open' in July?

[NoSoapAndGory]

Hi all.

A purely speculative post to gauge opinions, as I know we don't know, don't have a crystal ball, etc etc.

We have booked a self catering holiday cottage near Bude for the first 10 days of July. We live in the South East, so it's about 5 hours drive to get there on a good day. We have a dog so would need to stop at a service station at least once.

As part of general future-focused conversation, DH and I are ruminating about

1: will we be 'allowed' to go
2: if we are, would we want to anyway?
3: if it's 'allowed', will the Bude community welcome us or hate us?
4: will the tourist industry want revenue or not?

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Anyone else having similar discussions, and if so, what are you thinking?

I think we all just have to take it on the chin. I saw this meme earlier and I think a picture paints a thousand words - remembering that this is just the hospital deaths and they are saying if you add care homes and people dying at home that you can double it!

@puffinandkoala I wonder....if you saw entire villages in your county bought up by wealthy Londoners as second homes, to then be left as ghost towns in the winter, if you'd have such a kind and caring view towards those who stay here for a week, bugger off and then proudly proclaim they've done their bit to 'keep us alive'.

We don't hate tourists. We hate tourists who arrive in our beautiful county stomping around believing we should kiss the ground they walk on.

Daffodil my local pub don't think they will be open at all this summer. I've been trying to think of places that I am familiar with that could run a decent operation with safe social distancing measures for visitors AND staff, and it's very very few. Even if they can get the staff to work, and get their supply chains up and running again.
Perhaps I'm being over pessimistic....
The challenge as always with Cornwall is managing the peaks and troughs - if we are 'open for business' again then thousands of people will come and it will be unmanageable. But if we only have a slow trickle of visitors, it will be more manageable for safety but people will not be able to be profitable.
Perhaps simpler for a business to stay closed, save money on stock & staff and hope for a rebate on rent etc, than try and open and go broke very quickly.

I realise I am throwing obstacles in the path of everything.

I've got a week booked in Cornwall for October half term which I'm hoping will be ok. The holiday cottage company and their insurers are saying that they will only allow rebooking not refunds and then only if it is within the governments lockdown order period.

So if the lockdown has stopped but we choose not to go we will have lost out on £2k.

So we either don't have our one yearly holiday that we have scraped to save for and get no recompense or we go and risk it being made known to us that we are unwelcome.

As it happens we holiday in a remote cottage that has no near neighbours and we spend most of our time on isolated stretches of the coast path so we are probably in less danger of passing on the virus there than at home.

We've been to Cornwall many times and loved it but I doubt we'll go again. The aggression and spite from dwellers there on MN has been an eye opener.

Especially as many people are "immigrants" from other parts of the UK.

Genuine Cornish born and bred seem much nicer.

Devon it is then.

I just really want to tell you all that asking people to rebook instead of have a refund is to stop the company going bust.

I rent my cottage out through a small agency and he literally doesn't have the deposits to give back to people. It is the deposits that are used to pay for staff and advertising in the winter when he has no income.

He isn't being mean by not giving refunds, he is trying to save his business and his home. He works from home so is not entitled to any of the business funding. He has given refunds to people who can't book for next year for whatever reason, but he isn't doing it automatically.

There will be a lot of holiday cottages repossessed at the end of this. Those with mortgages who cant pay them are not being offered 3 month mortgage holidays as the mortgage is not residential. There are a lot of desperate people out there at the moment.

Buddleia it's a shame that your interactions on an internet forum override your actual first hand experience of visiting but it's your choice of where to holiday. Devon is lovely even though they put cream first.

honestly, I understand the frustration. It won’t make anyone feel better, but I’ve had to cancel my holiday too.
I’m a doctor in devon... and I’ve worked in most of the hospitals across the region. Honestly, the economic pain is awful, but still more bearable than seeing thousands of people die prematurely & needlessly
The best public health crisis is the one we avoid. The deaths that don’t happen. But we all have to work together to minimise risk. That’s what community is about.

We have a holiday cottage booked for a week at the end of August/ start of Sept. I'm hoping we'll be luck and lockdown will be lifted by then. As long as we can show our toddler a beach and walk the dog I don't mind of lots of things are closed

Elizabella’s post with the CEO NHS Trust’s statement gives assurance that there is some flexibility & capacity for local residents.

I understand concerns that opening up for the summer holiday trade will bring many people into the county, & increase the potential rate of transmission.

I took the point about the schlep up & down the A39 to get to. Nightingale Exeter, so I wonder if there is scope for a Nightingale around Truro to accommodate any visitors to Cornwall who may become too ill with COVID-19 to travel home ?

I personally think people should go home if they get the slightest symptom rather than present at Truro. I’d go home for a persistent cough or temperature. Actually I’d go home for loss of smell/taste. I know people who had that symptom and carried on going to work, only to find their entire office then came down sick.

The poster upthread who alluded to disliking tourists buying second homes then buggering off. I’ve got a lot of sympathy with that position. I think St Ives prevented people buying new Built homes? The property prices there are out of control. I’d be pissed off, too.

People will always want to visit though, I’m not sure what the solution would be other than massive places like Tregenba Castle our of town

But if we only have a slow trickle of visitors, it will be more manageable for safety but people will not be able to be profitable.

Lots of businesses will face the same problem - the economics just won't work with smaller numbers. However, there is no magic answer. Even if the government said sod it and opened everything tomorrow, a large proportion of the public would stay at home.

@UniversalAunt, I doubt they would do that. If people have to go for complex surgery etc they still have to schlep up to Derriford and this has been a big problem for years for the local population so I can't see them building another Nightingale just for Cornwall for an outbreak. It would be lovely to think that more money could be ploughed intolocal medical services though :)

I would like the government to make a decision about certain aspects of the restrictions remaining for a longer period than May. So no large gatherings say until September, as I think the Belgians and the Netherlands have done (or October in Germany).

One of these should be that pubs and restaurants are take away only at least for a couple of months beyond some restrictions being lifted. I'd also have no visits to second homes for a longer period, to help local NHS in areas such as North Wales and Cornwall.

I'd cancel OP if I was you. I had not booked a visit in early July (was about to) and will not now.

Enough of the ageist stereotypes please.

‘ Now a county that is packed with old people ...’

Those will be the people who are economically active either through employment or receipt of fixed income, spending locally providing stable stream of income into local businesses & paying taxes into the local authority coffers, AND contributing even further to the community through volunteering & being good neighbours.

I personally think people should go home if they get the slightest symptom.

But by the time you are showing symptoms it is likely that you will already spread the virus.

I’m not sure what the solution would be other than massive places like Tregenba Castle our of town

Their profitability will still rely on maintaining occupancy rates.

Perhaps with a really effective testing and tracing system, and with financial aid to help industries that are most affected implement social distancing measures, tourism could reopen, but I can't see any of that being in place by July or August.

@Elizabella, I hope so.

Part of the New Normal will be to question how NHS services are planned, funded & configured to be agile enough to respond to real need. How interesting that it is the National Services have combined to step up to meet & overcome the logistical challenges.

As a frequent visitor to Cornwall & Devon, I would have no qualms being admitted to a local Nightingale pop-up clinic during the peak months.

When I’m able to travel again it won’t be to Cornwall. There are lots of other beautiful places in the world where I think the welcome is likely to be warmer.

Surely anyone who lives in Cornwall expects tourism to be a part of their life ? You aren’t being held at gunpoint to live there. If you hate tourists, go and live in Wolverhampton or Luton or something

And I’m not a regular visitor either. It’s a shit drive from Lancs and when there it’s just a melee of middle class southerners wearing White Stuff. Surfing is cool though

I see Italy is reopening cafes in June. Why are we different?

The other thing I notice on MN is that some people think schools should stay closed until September. There’s no science behind that, just ‘September.’ This is of course because that’s aligned to school timetables.

And yet when you suggest that holiday destinations may hopefully be open in time for....holiday timetables, people object.

People who feel directly affected will always object and give you a later date when they think it’s safe. I’m sure teachers would prefer December. How scientific that opinion is doubtful.

@BuddleiaTime go to Pembrokeshire. It’s like the SW but with sound people, less busy too

Yeah right, totally reasonable to expect people to leave the area they grew up in, friends and family, for the temerity of not enjoying tourist season.

Also Merry mouse, by your reckoning, nobody should go anywhere because they may be asymptomatic.

How long should we take that stance for? Until there’s a vaccine?

I’m due to travel to South Wales in July to see a patient who has paid to see me and wants specifically to see me. If I’m well, and if we are told it’s safe, should I go? Or should I phone and tell them I can’t come because I might be asymptomatic?

Because it’s a long drive, across several counties, I’ll be there two days and I could start to feel ill.

@category12 100% of people I know who live in Cornwall MOVED there. And then ale posts about tourists on Facebook. Doesn’t it have one of the largest immigration rates from other parts of the UK?

Also why do people HAVE to stay where they grew up? If you hate it, leave. I did! I still see my friends and family !