Why Sidmouth's businesses have reasons to be cheerful

Denese Molyneux is a Chartered Financial Planner and a Registered Trust and Estate Practitioner. She has been advising clients in the Sid Valley for over 20 years. Here, she shares some very positive thoughts on what local businesses can look forward to, once the Covid crisis is over.

For those old enough to remember Ian Dury's song way back when, they may recall some of the items in the song being rather insignificant: porridge oats; yellow socks; nanny goats. In fact, if you look the lyrics up on Google, pretty much every item on the list is something small. It's a lesson in gratitude based in the old 'count your blessings' saying.

With everyone crushed under a third lockdown and the economy seemingly going to hell in a handcart, is there anything to be grateful for at all and where will it all end for a seaside town such as our own?,

Emphatically, YES, there is plenty to be grateful for and, dare I say, plenty to look forward to.

I will leave it to others to extol the virtues of the beautiful place in which we are fortunate to live and the amazing people who populate it. I want to give you my thoughts on why I believe 2021 is going to be a great year, economically, for us in our corner of Devon.

'A potential bonanza' in store for the tourist and hospitality trade

Here are two figures to ponder: £100bn and £20bn. £100bn is the amount of savings accumulated over the last year and which is just sitting in bank accounts. £20bn is the amount of short term debt (credit cards and consumer loans) that have been paid down over the same time. In other words, money and credit availability just waiting to be spent.

The Sidmouth economy is based on tourism and hospitality. The vaccination programme is proceeding apace and people are itching to get out. No crystal ball required to see that hotels, guest houses, restaurants, cafes, pubs and anyone else who serves such an economy is looking at a potential bonanza.

There are already reports of holiday destinations in the second half of the year being fully booked and ski resorts are already turning people away for next winter. There is a lot of pent-up need for relaxation and leisure out there – and the means to fund it.

Over the last year local hospitality businesses have turned their business models inside out and upside down at every change in government directive. If they managed to keep going through all that, and can hold out just a little longer, they will be able to surf the tsunami of business that is about to come their way.