Quarter of visitors to Teesdale stay for just one night

ALMOST a quarter of visitors to Teesdale and the North Pennines stay for only one night, a survey has found.
Carried out by the North Pennines AONB Partnership, the survey of tourism-related businesses reveals that most people coming to the area do so for only short breaks – with about half staying no longer than two or three nights.
Included in the survey were bed and breakfast and guesthouse establishments, artists, activity centres and tea rooms and restaurants.
A third of those who responded to the survey said that they had seen a growth in customers over the past year while about a fifth reported a decline. About half said trade had remained the same. The top five reasons given for people coming to the area were peace and tranquility, enjoying the view, walking, visiting the North Pennines as a destination and visiting because of the area of outstanding national beauty designation.
Of the businesses, a third had been in operation for less than five years and another third had been in existence for more than 21 years.
About 33 per cent of businesses reported an annual turnover of up to £25,000 and only 13 per cent reported turnovers of £150,000 and more.
When asked to estimate the percentage of turnover spent on goods and services in the local economy 45 per cent reported between 21 and 60 per cent. Almost half (43 per cent) of all stays with accommodation businesses were short breaks of between two and four nights. A fifth (23 per cent) of all stays were for a single night.
The AONB thought those who stay only one night were associated with recreational routes such as the Pennine Way, Coast to Coast Cycle Route and Isaac’s Tea Trail.
A call was made among the businesses for more national publicity to bring visitors to help pay for improvements.
It was thought Visit Durham was Durham-centred which “shows a lack of care or understanding about this
area”.
A respondent said: “Many of my customers come here en route to somewhere else or even by accident, thinking it is the Lake District, but then stay longer when they realise that it has attractions. The trouble is that nobody has heard of the North Pennines. In that respect your organisation needs to up its game.”
A problem identified by a business was that the AONB straddles local authorities with each council only focussing on its own attractions.