News in brief:
Eurostar to withdraw from Ashford and Ebbsfleet
Eurostar has announced that it will not be reinstating services from Ashford International or Ebbsfleet until at least 2022.
Eurostar has continually been the most pessimistic / realistic of the travel companies. It has already scrapped its Summer services to the south of France until 2022, and there will be no ski trains this year.
The decision to end services from Kent for at least two years has not gone down well with local politicians and the wider business community. Given that the trains are passing through the stations anyway, it appears a strange decision. I accept that the need to operate immigration and security facilities means that running costs are not cheap, however.
Hampton Blackpool hotel gets permission for major expansion
I wouldn’t normally run this story, but it ties in with my review of the Holiday Inn Express Bodmin in Cornwall from earlier this week.
In that article I said that three-star hotel operators like Holiday Inn Express, Courtyard by Marriott and Hampton by Hilton were facing an open goal at UK seaside resorts. They are up against the low quality and high cost of independent coastal bed and breakfast establishments.
The Hampton in Blackpool, on South Promenade, has just been granted planning permission for an extra 74 rooms to add to the existing 130. The demand is clearly there from people looking from clean, reliable and good value accommodation.
You can read more on Lancs Live here.