encouraged many in the farming community to stay in their homes and farms in
voluntary quarantine to avoid spreading the virus to or from themselves. The media’s coverage, especially that of the pyres, also dissuaded visitors to the countryside. 22
Eric Worsely worked as an independent consultant to many Lake District
Hoteliers; Worsely also ran the website www.no-vacancies.com, which became a valued source of information for the hospitality community during FMD. 23 Worsely
highlights the disparity in loss between the food, agriculture, and tourism sectors.
One of Worsley’s clients, who ran a busy hotel in Lakeland Fells, confided in him that
he had lost £35,000 worth of bookings in just a few hours. This was greater than the value of all the sheep combined in the local area. 24 Worsely also makes mention of
the frustrations of the governments and MAFF's mishandled accounts of policies.
“What none of us involved in the tourism industry were aware of was that those in
authority would effectively shut down our industry and then announce it to the
world…what was not expected was for an official of the National Park Authority to go
on television and announce, ‘if you don’t have a reason to come to the lake district then don’t’.” 25
The region’s largest landowner, the national trust, followed shortly after this announcement. 26 The mass closure of the countryside in this manner could be seen
as overacting on the side of the government, and this was, in fact, the opinion of
Chris Smith, the then minister for British Tourism. After six weeks, the devastation of quarantine was becoming apparent in the rural economy, and on April 16 th, Smith admitted that, in his opinion, the government had “overreacted”. 27 Although harsh,
the farming community took up the quarantine measures implemented by MAFF to
help try and protect themselves and others against FMD. However, the main issue
again affecting the tourism and hospitality sectors was the mishandling of information
22 Beirman, Restoring Tourism Destinations , p.177. 23 Eric Worsley diary entry in Graham, Foot, and Mouth, p.25.
24 Ibid. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid. 27 Beirman, Restoring Tourism Destinations , p.177.
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