Shiningstars

There seems no stopping Cornwall’s popularity as a tourist destination. What trends have you seen over the years?

The thing about Cornwall is that it’s got a hard-to-put-into words magic about it, which teamed with an extraordinary home to retreat to after a day’s exploring, really is a dream holiday combination.

Our guests are looking for us to help shape their holiday experiences to better embrace our community connections – so they can travel responsibly, have more time to slow down, switch off and escape the everyday.

Increasingly guests are discovering new ways to make the most of their beautiful Cornish Gems home-from-home, by bookings inproperty experiences that offer greater privacy, flexibility, and personalisation. Our expert team have established partnerships with brilliant local companies, so guests can also enjoy extra special additions whilst staying with us such as private chefs, spa-treatments, or wine-tasting – which prove especially welcome with celebratory stays.

Another trend is advance bookings. Our guests are planning ahead much more than pre-Covid, to secure their preferred dates, property and location. There is also an uplift in multiple trip bookings, with guests not just having one holiday to look forward to but two or three in the pipeline over 12-24 months. As a result, we make our availability calendars available well in advance and our 2024 calendar is already filling up fast.

It also seems like Cornwall has become more popular all year round now

Since lockdown, and the challenges with international travel, the perception that UK holidays are just for summer is certainly shifting.

The summer months of long hazy days at the beach are, of course, truly wonderful. But Cornwall is genuinely a year-round destination – and more people are realising it can feel even more special at other times of year.

This year we’re already seeing an increase demand for out of season stays, in larger and dog-friendly properties, particularly in lesser-known locations. There’s been a 15% increase in stays of two weeks (YOY), in bigger properties offering greater flexibility for multi-generational groups.

How’s the coming season looking?

We’re fortunate to have a wonderfully loyal customer base, who repeatedly trust us with their holidays – 60% of our peak season stays are from repeat visitors, and 40% have stayed with Cornish Gems three or more times. 2023 is already tracking well, and we’re confident to achieve another record-breaking year.

How many properties do you now have and what is your specialty?

Our speciality? Top quality throughout. We take the hassle out of holiday planning, so guests can focus on making memories with loved ones.

We offer a collection of 200 quality properties and know all the best places to stay in unrivalled locations. And we can take care of the finer details too, from ensuring our guest’s home-from-home is kitted out with baby essentials, to arranging food deliveries, offering a choice of welcome gifts, and providing hand-made sustainable children’s activity packs.

How do you stand out in what is now quite a crowded market?

As an independent company, we do things a bit differently to the corporate templatewe’re proud of our entrepreneurial spirit and sustainability is at the heart of the business. We feel lucky to call Cornwall our home, that we’re rooted in the local community, so we work with passion and integrity to do right by people, whilst looking after the environment.

Our biggest accolade is that our guests trust us with their holidays. We set the highest standards in holiday homes, and our success lies in the strength of our team of regional experts – there’s no scripts, just great knowledge and attention to detail.

It’s been a pretty crazy few years for tourism - how did you deal with it? We can’t deny, it was nothing short of a rollercoaster!

For all of us, it was a time of adaption with lots of curve balls. We’re fortunate to have a brilliant team, of 100 local people, and because Cornwall’s our home sharing it with our community is what we do best. So, while we needed to be nimble and flexible, we were also able to confidently uphold our quality service and standards to support both guests and owners.

What are your goals in the coming years?

We’ve got big plans. And have hit the ground running for 2023 revealing our major rebrand and new leadership, following our fifteenth anniversary last year. Tamsin Huddy and I have been appointed to oversee the day-to-day business operations, supporting Cornish Gems founders Julianne and Nadia – which is a huge privilege and marks an exciting new chapter in the business’ evolution.

Our commitment to sustainability, remains at the core of the company and we feel passionately about using our business as a force for good. We’ve already introduced a wave of positive change from reducing energy consumption and waste, boosting social involvement, to winning a

Green Tourism Award – but we’re really pushing ourselves to do better year-on-year.

For example, we’ve just submitted our B Corp application, which is a big step forward to leading sustainable tourism in Cornwall. And just one of many goals we’re striving towards this year. Thinking ahead we’re also hoping to raise awareness, education and inspire our wider community and other business to join the journey with us too.

We’re firm believers that small steps can lead to big strides!