Opportunity or Threat?

Jeremy Irons has been criticised for speaking out about the dilapidated state of The Three Cups Hotel but is there another way of looking at this situation? Click on this link to read the story in The Bridport News.

The owners of The Three Cups seem to see conservation as a threat. I would see it as an opportunity. I do not imagine a restored Three Cups as a lifeless time-capsule; I imagine it as full of life and visitors and guests. I would like to see it as a major attraction, being profitable in itself and bringing in business for the whole of Lyme Regis and the surrounding area.

I think any marketing analysis would show that the best return on this asset would come from trading on its history and literary heritage. And the best aid to achieving that business success would be an endorsement from a celebrated actor who has appeared in a famous film which featured the hotel.

Lyme Regis has suffered for too long from the sad spectacle of this famous hotel decaying in its centre. I would propose that the greatest tourist attraction in Lyme Regis should not be The Cobb (breakwater) but The Three Cups Hotel. However, no one would want to see it its current state. (Apologies to fans of Jane Austen and John Fowles but I trained as a civil engineer so that takes some saying.)