CUMBRIA’S first ever Residents Week will take place this year, aimed at encouraging local people to visit tourist attractions in the area.

The scheme has been introduced to help businesses in the county ‘bounce back’ from the effects of Covid-19 by promoting these tourism businesses as well as encouraging Cumbria’s residents to sample the great attractions, venues, eateries, hotels, shops and more on their doorsteps.

Cumbria Residents’ Week will take place from October 2 to 10, 2021 with all businesses that operate in the visitor economy being invited to take part.

The objective of the week is to promote participating businesses to local residents, offering them a chance to win prizes in a draw after making a qualifying purchase of more than £10 between October 2 and 10.

There is no cost for businesses to participate other than donating a prize, which could be free entry, an overnight stay, a free meal or gift voucher for example. Businesses will need to pass on a code to Cumbrian residents once they have made a qualifying purchase so that they can enter the prize draw.

The scheme has been organised by the six district councils along with Keswick Tourism Association and Cumbria Tourism.

Joe Broomfield, tourism development manager for Allerdale Borough Council, said: “We recognise the importance of tourism to the whole of the Cumbrian economy and are being fairly broad in our definition of ‘tourism businesses’ in this instance.

"We would welcome any Cumbrian business that has a significant number of tourists as their usual customers to participate in the initiative.”

It is hoped that, if all goes well in October, the county can welcome the Residents' Week as an annual event.

Any business that wants to participate should complete the form at https://cumbriaresidentsweek.co.uk/ and organisers will then be in touch nearer to the time with further details about how the scheme will operate.

For more information visit tourism@allerdale.gov.uk