![]() “I was getting depressed and losing hope,” he says. Hotelier Simon Cowton had a similar experience of falling into the abyss with two small hotels, 23 St Mary’s and St George’s Hotel. But then I decided to put two fingers up to Covid Simon Cowton, hotelier “We’ve decided to wait until the virus is fully suppressed.” I was getting depressed and losing hope. “Reopening just has not been economically viable for us,” says Sophie. After a brilliant few years, winning awards and steaming to the top of the ratings for the city’s accommodation, their recipe of personalised service, high-quality local suppliers and high occupancy rates has not been able to continue. We lost February to floods and then only got two weeks before we were closed down again.”įor sisters Maria and Sophie Scott, who run the Parisi boutique hotel, the year has been a disaster. “We’re down from over 178,000 passengers in 2019 to under 80,000 this year,” says City Cruises marketing manager, Mark Mattinson, “It’s been challenging. Just down the road, alongside the River Ouse, the quayside is normally busy with visitors boarding river cruises, but not this year. Sarah Lakin at Micklegate Social: “We’re being more pragmatic and less hopeful.” Photograph: Kevin Rushby During the first lockdown the bars were refitted and changes made to upgrade signs and sanitation, but this time the changes are different: “We’re being more pragmatic and less hopeful: minimising stock and potential wastage, trying to reach out to locals to get them to risk a visit!” Her bars were closed for five months, then reopened, only to get closed down again. I mean the very word ‘social’ now has negative connotations,” she says. Sarah Lakin, who co-owns the Ice Cream Factory brewery and two bars in the city, Micklegate Social and Fossgate Social, is frank about how the year has gone: “It’s been pretty terrible. When the second national lockdown ends on 2 December, what comes next is profoundly important, not only for York, but for all tourism centres around the country. The situation is equally perilous for smaller businesses: bars, pubs, restaurants and cafes. Big attractions have taken catastrophic financial blows: the Minster, one of Europe’s greatest architectural treasures, has lost most of its annual £6m revenue from tourists and is heading towards a £5.2m deficit for 2020. ![]() Photograph: Sellwell/Getty ImagesĮven the out-of-town sites around York are suffering, with up to a third of lots unoccupied. ![]() York Minster is heading towards a £5.2m deficit for 2020.
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