The wettest summer since 1914 was just one factor behind a dire summer for local tourism, according to Tenby hotelier Chris Osborne. Mr. Osborne, also a director of Tenby Events, was speaking as a Welsh Assembly Government survey revealed that 40 per cent of tourism businesses in Wales reported a drop in visitor numbers from last year. A guest on the Richard Evans daytime phone-in show on BBC Radio Wales on Wednesday, he said: "It's been a pretty dire summer. The spring was fabulous and people were joking at the time, saying 'I hope this isn't the summer', but unfortunately we were right. It was the summer. June, July and even August impacted badly. "It isn't just the rain. A lot of people suffered from flooding in their houses. The area that was hit, the West Midlands, is very much a main marketing area and a source for people coming into Wales and enjoying Welsh hospitality. So there was an extra whammy there. "Something else to mention is the rising interest rates. If you look at the incidence of the repossession of homes you can see there's an awful lot of pain there in terms of mortgage repayments. "So it's been a difficult summer every which way and to cap it all there was a thin threat, but nonetheless a mention of foot and mouth. Awful." Also speaking on the Radio Wales phone-in, Jonathan Jones, director of tourism and marketing for the Welsh Assembly Government, said: "Tourism no longer, if indeed it ever did, operates in isolation. There are things happening out there in the world that always have an impact on tourism. "Everyone feels better when there's a bit of sun around and when you do have a forecast saying the weekend ahead is going to be bright, people tend to jump in their car or get on a train and go off for a quick weekend. If you are being told that it's going to be pouring with rain, you'll think twice about it. You either stay home or look for things that you can do in the rain. "I can only represent the figures as we've got them - it's a statistical sample of 200 people or businesses. Forty per cent said they had fewer visitors, but that means, of course, that 60 per cent either had the same or more. And the industry tells me that 2006 was a very good year. "I don't deny the fact that the weather is an influencing fact and our marketing, therefore, has to work harder against all the competition."
