Can I ask you to post the following:
It may be common knowledge to locals, but I heard for the first time that the Council is proposing that the Tourist Information Office on Shore Road should be moved elsewhere (Townhall?) and that the premises should be converted into a money-making Museum of Enid Blyton. I realize that Enid has her partisans, but for me and most of my contemporaries, she is a creature of bourgeois nostalgia, a dated and rather pathetic cultural icon destined for the dustbin of sentimental literature. Why should Enid's sterile mementoes displace one of the few efficient tourist services we have in the best possible location for its purpose? The Information office in its present locale serves a multitude of functions. It is warm and welcoming, a center for lost children and possessions, a first-aid and emergency center, a housing bureau and valuable aid to those providing accommodation, a poster of tides and current events, a provider of maps and pamphlets and histories and Jurassic propaganda - I am sure the list could be extended. It is virtually certain that most of these useful functions would go abegging if the office were moved to the town hall in what is now a back street of the town, almost as inaccessible to cars as the beachfront.
The best possible alternative locale for a money-losing museum that I can imagine is the Mowlem, which is already an Enid Blyton Museum without knowing it, and has always been a bastion of contempt for tourism as its palsied trustees sleep the sleep of the self-righteous. Save the tourist office - say I!
Ian Lowson
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I stand amazed. Swanage was the inspiration for Toytown. I have stirred the bile of a number of bloggers on here in the past by pointing out that it has not changed a great deal in that respect. Can we expect the mayor to lead an annual Noddy parade? Unfortunately the description of her work above makes it sound well suited to the tenor of our dumbed down times.
Swanage eh!
Oh dear.
Who are we trying to attract?
I'm sorry about what I'm about to say, but well, y'know.
Why have elephants got big ears?
Cuz Noddy won't pay the ransom!
Sorry, I'm off to stand in the corner.
I think the TI is ready for a move. It needs modernising and placing where arrivals on the train and by car can access it. Station yard would be ideal. Lost children etc needs to be the problem for the beach police. (What else do they do?) Viv has a track record for what she does in Corfe which Swanage should poach at the earliest opportunity.
Hands off the Mowlem. With luck that will be propelled into the C21 by new tenants in the Autumn.
You know the White House is not listed?
Only about a third of our summer visitors are here with children according to the latest research. Swanage is no longer a "family" resort. This is another attempt to live in the past. What are the couples and groups of friends who make up the majority of our visitors going to make of an author their parents read when they were children? Despite the efforts of the publishers marketing people its all tosh anyway.
"Only about a third of our summer visitors are here with children according to the latest research." Source please. Obviously the coaches come all Summer full of OAPs with no children. They are at school. How do you define a visitor? Its like saying only 1% of our visitors are in wheel chairs so we should ignore them. I would guess during the busy six weeks most tourist orientated businesses take 40-50% of their yearly turnover, when almost all visitors are here with children. Swanage always lives in the past, so no sign of a Harry potter museum then. There is a comical adult side to the famous five which could be marketed to older folk. Still two million copies of the books are sold each year.
I was quoting from the research done by the market research department of Bournemouth University. Have a look at it and if you think they somehow miscounted discuss it with them.
I'm sorry but that aint much help. Its like saying the chemistry paper from Oxford university.
Let me give a better example. During Jazz weekend perhaps 90% of visitors are interested in Jazz. I bet in regatta week that drops to 10%.What do you think?
As I said, read what BU published. If you think they got it wrong tell them. If you have evidence that contradicts them lets have it.
The overwhelming majority of tourists arrive by car so the best place for the TI has to be the main car park.
Praps we should all give up!
"We take a ride on the steam railway from Swanage to the quaint village of Corfe Castle. The village is dominated by the castle ruins which were the inspiration for Enid Blyton’s Kirrin Island in her Famous Five books.
I get comfy on the old upholstered seats and feel I’m in the 1950s as the train chugs prettily across the countryside. It’s all very reminiscent of the Famous Five – I have a sudden hankering for a bottle of ginger pop and a loyal dog called Timmy.
Maybe that’s the magic of Dorset… it can make adults feel like kids again".
Sunday Mirror, a couple of weeks ago.
http://tinyurl.com/4mh9bd
The first irony is that the journalist is writing about stories their parents had read as children rather than themselves and its a fake nostalgia. The second is the roasting the tabloids would give to any parents irresponsible enough to give their children the degree of freedom and control over their own lives Blyton's characters exercise.
I suppose its a fantasy world into which some adults escape. The irony in this is that it is being described in these glowing terms by precisely the media that feed on building the fears these people are escaping from.
While we are at it why not purloin Nutwood and have a Rupert Bear museum here? William Brown could be found space in an old barn somewhere as well.
Having mocked the whole idea I do have to admit there may be money in it. Can we start with an Enid Blyton festival?
Unconfirmed rumour starts discussion!
I heard that the bank behind the TIC is bearing down and is not safe.
As for museum... how many people would visit any museum more than once during their stay? Absolutely poppycock and balderdash!
It's going to be a Macdonalds! (starts new rumour and skips off lightly)
Great idea.
Local job opportunities for chavs.
Local specialities - Punch and Judy burgers.
Looking back to a time that never existed burgers, or as we call it - THE RETRO!
It comes with a whoppa portion of Chavs, sorry, Chips. In fact, so many you'll have one on each shoulder!
Or how about THE LOCAL - crafted from cows that have have been here for at least 500 years, or so you'd think from the aroma, a garnish that resembles one very wide eyebrow and it's priced in LSD.
Initial reports say that it has a rather acidic taste, that is bound to repeat on you!
Then of course there's the ROSE COVERED COTTAGE BURGER - with a liberal sprinkling of some unpronounceable herbs. I'm wrong there, sorry, that one is only avaliable at Waitrose.
Has anyone heard the latest rumour?
That funny old building on the seafront, oh y'know the one painted white - it's going to be a Waitrose.
Yeehaa!
I've certainly heard that many of the man-made bits of the front are slipping seawards.
Imagine - the Landslide burger - you pick it up and it falls to pieces, you re-build it and the same thing happens.
Is this a joke or a parable for the human condition?
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