Tourists improve shopping for Lakes' residents - study finds (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Tourists improve shopping for Lakes' residents - study finds

1:06pm Thursday 4th February 2010 in

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TOURISM is helping boost the shopping experience for residents in the Lake District - new research has revealed.

A study commissioned by the Lake District National Park Authority - which looked at Bowness, Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere, Hawkshead, Coniston and Keswick - has shown that people living in the national park benefit from a higher than average number of retail outlets than communities of comparable size elsewhere.

Though there are still shortfalls in basic non-food essentials.

Policy planner, Carissa Lough, said: “The perception among locals is there is little selection. But, given the size of our towns and villages, there are a lot more shops than you would expect compared to other similar sized places.

“There’s also a high percentage of independently owned businesses, offering high quality service.”

The study, which included interviews with around 60 commercial operators and residents, was commissioned to discover whether the visitor economy improved or adversely affected shopping for residents.

“It seems to be the latter,” said Miss Lough. “Of course, there are exceptions, but overall centres are larger and stronger as a result of visitors.

“However, we accept the Lake District doesn’t follow usual retail patterns and is different from what’s on offer in other rural locations, or even larger settlements.

“It’s been a worthwhile exercise on many fronts, particularly as we’ve discovered all the centres appear to be doing well, despite the recession.

“Interestingly, shop windows are probably as full as they were 100 years ago. This is certainly not the case in many of England’s small towns and villages.”

The study will be used by LDNPA officials to formulate future policies.

The reports finding have been welcomed by Bill Smith, chief executive of the South Lakes Development Trust, who is also a retail specialist.

“My feeling here is that we have a range of businesses that are substantially greater, and service the local need, than we would expect for our population size,” he said. “In Windermere we have two butchers, a bakers, a hardware shop, a dry cleaners and we wouldn’t see this in communities of this size and this is due to the visitor economy.”