THE Cornwall Tourist Board has expressed concern that the county may suffer a drop in bookings this summer in spite of the huge influx of tourists expected for thetotal eclipse of the sun in August.
Hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to travel to Cornwall to see the eclipse which will happen at 11.11am on Wednesday August 11.
At that time, the moon will pass between the earth and the sun and completely blot out the sun’s light. Parts of Cornwall will be in total darkness for up to 2mins.
Penny Moss, campaigns manager for the Cornwall Tourist Board, said the northernmost tip of the county on the path of the eclipse, from Cape Cornwall to Falmouth, and the far West was solidly booked, but she said there was still plenty of availability in the East of Cornwall despite the fact the total eclipse could still be viewed there.
The Launceston and Bude districts are the only places where the total eclipse cannot be viewed.
“There have been a lot of scare stories about the impact of the eclipse, that there will be huge traffic jams and services will be affected and this has meant that in the week before and the week after, bookings have been affected because a lot of people are going to stay away.”
Moss said the coach market had been particularly badly affected.
“Coach operators like to take their customers out on trips every day, but the advice has been to limit the amount of travel around the time of the eclipse to minimise problems with congestion, so some have been keeping away.
“We are confident that the actual week of the eclipse will fill, but otherwise the season is looking very patchy.”