Save The Three Cups Hotel

The Three Cups Hotel

Campaigning for preservation of the hotel where J.R.R. Tolkien stayed and gained inspiration for his mythology. Jane Austen, G.K. Chesterton, Tennyson and H.W. Longfellow were also guests. The hotel featured in the film, “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”. Please send articles to me, Andrew Townsend, at afmt@btinternet.com or add a comment. Thanks to David Moss for all his work. Comments are closed at WDDC for the plans to redevelop the site but you can still write to the papers.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Diversifying into cultural tourism?

According to an article in the Bridport News, Palmers Brewery, the owners of The Three Cups, are thinking of re-opening it as a hotel.

To maximise the potential of this famous historical building would require diversification from selling beer into cultural tourism and selling hotel accommodation on historical associations. Both these subjects have been covered many times on this blog and I hope the resources here will be of benefit. In particular, I would draw attention to the various literary societies for authors such as Tolkien, Tennyson, Longfellow, Austen and Chesterton. Students of Whistler and Turner would be interested that they stayed in Lyme Regis and although I have not read that they stayed at The Cups, it would been somewhere they would have visited as it was such a popular destination in their time. And could be again now!

One important source of business for hotels in Lyme Regis which I haven't covered is accommodation for geology field trips or fossil festivals. The Lyme Regis Development Trust are the experts in this area.

The potential is there but it requires a special marketing approach and an understanding of the buyers' needs and aspirations. Just as it seems to be accepted that a new restaurant requires a celebrity chef who loves good food to be successful, The Three Cups needs owners and management who know and love the literature and the history associated with it to make it a must visit destination for tourists from around the world.

1 Comments:

Anonymous dubious, lyme regis said…

After twenty years of missdirection and stories so full of fantasy that Tolkien would have put down his pen in shame and taken up a career in street sweeping, do we believe a word that Palmers and their agents say? They are often so utterly blatent that it makes my blood boil. Do they really think we are all so thick? Palmers say that they are paying someone to look into the viability of a hotel which they have already told us they don't want. Please god let's hope these people have more scruples than the money grabbing fat cats that are employing them.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home