Easter. That religious eggstravaganza sponsored by Cadburys, offering a Spring break potential to all of us.
And the big question this year wasn’t if the chocolate egg recipe had changed, but where to go on our leisure break.
For the third time in three years we headed to Dorset. Not an easy journey; drive to our capital city, park up, then fly to Bristol, hire a car and holiday starts. Well, this year Pierre and his amis added over 2.5 hours to the adventure with air traffic industrial action, which impacted on our EasyJet arrival.
But we love the area: we can walk and ramble, enjoy the fresh air, but most of all enjoy a couple of days in boutique restaurants with rooms. OK, the concept of sleeping above the bar sounds like a risk, but it’s not. Over the years we’ve enjoyed the best food and quality accommodation. We’ve taken a couple of risks, but it’s been consistently excellent. Last year our host apologised for the butter being more yellow than usual, on account of the quality of grass. This year I had one of the best meals ever, guinea fowl kiev, while the lovely Alice had the best dish of lamb ever. I know as I ate at least half. Each of these main courses cost £14. Pudding, again created from first principles £6.
Back home I was (un)lucky enough to have a day left and joined my old friend to “rucksack” a Munro, I think that’s the term. There was fresh air, the best of walking, and scenery to beat Dorset. After wheezing off the hill we tried two restaurants in the north Fort William area and were rejected, or we rejected them. Third hostelry was a very busy pub which efficiently served liquid (beer for salt replenishment), and a pub meal. Which was distinctly average, and yes, £16 each.
So, what’s my point? Well, with a recently published Barclays report saying that spending on “staycations” in Britain will rise 25.3% from the 2013 figure of £86.5bn to £108.5bn by the end of 2017 we need to up our game.
Where are our young entrepreneurs with a love of: food, design and hostpersonship?
We should be a great food tourism destination. We, in Scotland, need to be better than Dorset, as tourists don’t need to pass our doors heading for the south coast. They’ve got to make the effort to plan a route here. And we’ve got most of the product, just not enough of the high end premier product, that isn’t premier priced.
So, if you love food, and want to be entrepreneurial, look at the model. Think about our food offering. There’s to my mind a newish market out there to rival glamping, they want the boutique restaurants with rooms. Let’s up sell and create an improved leisure tourism offering that fits with our Food Tourism aspirations.