- The Observer, Sunday March 11 2001
Yet Berger is not a farmer. He is a hotelier. He has lost £17,000 since the outbreak. 'We may have to close permanently if this goes on much longer,' he said. It may not sound like a fortune. But Berger's situation is replicated across the country - and means Britain's tourist industry faces devastation.
With tracts of hill and lakes still banned to humans because of an illness that means only that farm animals fetch less at market, the rural tourist industry has already lost £200 million - all sacrificed to save farmers.
While rescue packages are in place to save the people involved in animal farming, there will be no help for Berger and thousands like him. Tourist authorities yesterday warned the industry was being devastated by the closure of much of the countryside. It is being deluged with cancellations.
Hundreds of jobs are being lost, and some hotels have closed permanently. Owners are bitter that the slaughter policy is costing their industry far more than any of the possible benefits to farming. As the crucial Easter weekend approaches, the damage to the industry will escalate.
The English Tourist Council, which estimates countryside tourism is worth £12 billion a year, says business is 75 per cent below normal. Rural tourism should be worth about £150m a week at this time of year, meaning losses of more than £100m a week. The cost to farmers so far been a fraction of that, estimated at less than £30m.
Thousands of people from overseas have cancelled bookings - and the images have even put them off cities such as Edinburgh and London.
'We are very concerned about what the foot-and-mouth outbreak is doing to Britain's reputation overseas,' said Philippa Swaine of the British Tourist Authority.
She added: 'Call centres for foreign travel are very quiet. The worrying thing is that we are having cancellations from France and the US, which are our biggest markets. This is also the time of year that people are planning holidays for the summer, and they are thinking they will give Britain a miss this year.'
This weekend, the number of cases of foot and mouth reached 139, and chief vet Jim Scudamore admitted the scale of the epidemic had come as a shock. It was hoped that the ban on moving livestock would have helped win the battle against the virus, but the disease is being spread by wind. More than 100,000 animals have been earmarked for slaughter.
As the disease continued to spread yesterday because of the tradition of not vaccinating, cases were confirmed at four farms in Cumbria, three in Scotland, two in Devon, two in Co Durham and one in Anglesey.
The total number of animals facing slaughter was now 114,000, of which 82,000 had already been killed. The Government justifies its strategy of slaughter on the grounds that it will work out cheaper for the livestock industry in the long run than vaccination. But tourism - worth £63bn a year - is being crippled by the moves to protect livestock exports, worth £1.2bn a year. Tourism contributes about four times as much to the national economy as farming, and employs four times as many people.
Not that this will last if the crisis in the tourist industry is not tackled, says Berger, who has already had to lay off three staff at his hotel. 'Maff [the Agriculture Ministry] is running all this, but they're not thinking about other businesses,' he said. 'Tourism is much bigger in this county than farming, producing more income, and it's being ignored.'
In the next valley along from Berger's empty hotel, in Wasdale, Howard Christie has been doing the calculations. Since Maff started telling visitors to steer clear, his Wasdale Head Inn has lost £26,000 of business, with cancellations from the Netherlands, Belgium and the US. This weekend, his 54-bed hotel has one couple staying; this week he will have to start laying off staff.
The losses he is sustaining are far higher than any possible benefit to local farmers. In total there are just 600 sheep in the valley, worth an aver age of just £30 each. 'At local market prices, with the money I have lost I could have bought every single beast in the valley and have money to spare for a great night out,' said Christie. 'I could buy all the sheep, slaughter them, let the walkers and climbers back in and remain open for business - it would make more sense. The policy of blanket closure is not doing me, the farmers, any good.'
Cumbria Tourist Board estimates the county is losing up to £8m a week, with 20-30,000 cancelled bookings. It estimates 350 jobs a week are being lost from tourism, which accounts for a fifth of the local economy.
The same story is repeated across the country. Large parts of the Scottish Highlands are now closed to walkers and climbers, with mountain guides and hotel owners around Fort William, Glencoe and Ben Nevis saying they face financial ruin.
At Northcote Manor in High Hampton in Devon, the phone stopped ringing on Wednesday, when the exclusion zone around a cattle market 15 miles away was extended to its front gate.
The South West Tourism Board reckons the industry in its area will lose £500m. One hotel owner in Devon, already burdened with debt, has simply left his keys and fled. 'It was the last straw,' said a friend.
At the bar of the hilltop Malvern Hills Hotel in Worcestershire, Didier Tabeaud is expecting the quietest shift in years. The bar usually takes at least £500 on a Sunday afternoon. But last Sunday, they took only £20. Sue Thomas, spokeswoman for Heart of England Tourist Board, said: 'We're losing £5m a week in this area. Business is down to a quarter of its normal level.'
The National Mountain Centre at Plas y Brenin in Snowdonia should be getting ready for the busiest weekend of the year, but is closed with police tape swirling across its entrance. Iain Peter, the chief executive, has been forced to lay off 40 staff. 'Everything around here, from pubs to the post office and petrol station relies on the trade we bring in. With nobody here, they are starting to feel the pinch. The Government has put in place some stringent powers without thinking of the implications.'
Other industries are suffering and cutting jobs. Northumberland Cheese in Blagden has lost all of its sales to local markets, has had to close its coffee shop, and lack of milk has meant it has stopped producing cheese. Hopefield Animal Sanctuary in Essex, in the exclusion zone from an abattoir, is closed.'We're losing £400 a week from the situation. I am afraid we are going under - in a fortnight we will be in real trouble,' said owner Paula Clark. 'We should get compensation as well as farmers.'
Maff has used economic grounds to justify its extreme policy of slaughter and eradicate for a disease that is not fatal to animals and does not affect humans; in the long run it will cost the industry less than vaccination, or just letting the disease run its course, which would damage productivity. But its cost benefit- analysis has considered only the cost to farmers, and not the wider cost to the rest of the rural economy.
The Federation of Small Businesses has a £500,000 compensation fund to give loans to members, and wants the Government to set up a similar fund. The federation has received a flow of calls from businesses in distress.Ian Fletcher, head of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce backed the call, demanding: 'Others directly affected by the outbreak should also be compensated.'
That looks a long way off. A spokesperson for the Department of Media, Culture and Sport, which is responsible for tourism, admitted it was doing nothing about the calls of distress it was receiving, and had not even discussed the issue of compensation. Nick Brown, the Agriculture Minister, has ruled out compensation to anyone other than farmers.
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