Travelodge targets Lake District

BUDGET hotels chain Travelodge is targeting ten towns within Cumbria’s Lake District as potential locations for potential sites as part of a £135m expansion into rural locations.

The firm is also eyeing up a further four areas in the Peak District and two towns close to the Snowdonia National Park in north Wales as part of a nationwide plan to target the “staycation” market.

The company said that hotels in areas within range of existing national parks such as Cockermouth in Cumbria and Porthmadog near Snowdonia have enjoyed higher locations than many of its coastal hotels as more Britons take rural breaks. As a result, it has drawn up a shortlist of key target towns close to national parks where it intends to develop.

In the Lake District, this includes Ambleside, Grasmere, Kendal, Keswick, Penrith, Staveley, Ulverston, Whitehaven, Windermere and Workington. In the Peak District, it is targeting Bakewell, Buxton, Chapel en-le-Frith and Matlock, and it has just exchanged contracts for a 62-bed hotel in Glossop which will be housed in a former mill building above a JD Wetherspoon’s pub.

The company said that hotel sizes will range from 30 to over 100 bedrooms depending on the location and building requirements. It added that the locations would create more than 500 jobs across the country.

Guy Parsons, Travelodge Chief Executive, said: “The Staycation break is here to stay, more Britons are holidaying at home now than ever before.

“Annually, over 60 million people visit the UK’s national parks and it’s clear that visitors are now seeking to turn their rural Daycation trip into a Staycation in order to make the most of their time away.

“Therefore, to capitalise on this growing trend, I have instructed my property team to go out and find 37 sites either in or just outside the National Parks.”

The Travelodge Hotels business is owned by Dubai International Capital. In 2010, the company made a pre-tax profit of £14.6m on sales of £331.7m.