Tourism boss says new local lockdowns in the north do not prevent people coming to Cornwall

Cornwall's tourism boss has explained why the new local lockdowns in the north of England will not stop holidaymakers from those areas coming to the Duchy.

Last night it was announced that areas in the north including Greater Manchester and parts of East Lancashire and West Yorkshire were returning to lockdown.

However, unlike Leicester which is currently still in full lockdown, the new lockdown areas do not include full restrictions.

This means that people living in those areas are still allowed to travel freely and could come to Cornwall on holiday.

Malcolm Bell, chief executive of Visit Cornwall, said: "The lockdown in Leicester does restrict movement but in the ones in the north it is restricting people from going to other people's homes in that area.

"The requirements are (for Leicester) that people shouldn't be moving and that in the case of Leicester the accommodation providers have been contacting those people who have been booked to tell them not to come.

"If people do turn up from that area the accommodation providers have been told they can refuse to let them stay as they shouldn't be here.

"The problem we have had with Leicester is that you have to be quite good at geography to enforce it and know what area is covered.

"With regards to the north of England most of the people we have coming to Cornwall come from south of Birmingham – a very small number comes from that part of England, less than 10% or 7%, so the proportion is very small."

The reason for so few people coming from further north is purely down to travel times, explained Mr Bell.

Most people will only want to travel for four to five hours maximum and that is not possible in the far north of England.