The Chartered Fellow helping Cumbria’s tourism and hospitality sectors manage an uncertain future

When Covid-19 struck in early 2020, Sue Clarke CMgr FCMI had an unthinkable task: to tell the world that the Lake District was closed. 

“‘Please don’t come,’ I wrote on social media,” she recalls. “I never thought I’d have to say that. I’m a marketing manager.” 

Five years on and Sue is still heading up marketing at Cumbria Tourism, the local visitor economy partnership for tourism in the region. The organisation is very much back to work, enticing visitors, lobbying for the sector and providing business support to its members.

Pandemic pivot

Covid-19 proved how adaptable managers in all sectors have to be. When the pandemic hit, the crux of Sue’s job became crisis management. Overseas visitors make up around 12% of the region’s total. At that point, the China market was particularly busy. But with the advent of lockdowns, everything had to change.

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Cumbria Tourism pivoted to purely supporting local businesses, many of which were “terrified, as they were being told to close”. For Sue, management became more operational, looking at the financial implications for Cumbria Tourism itself, seeking different funding options and liaising with the financial leads on the non-executive board. 

“Financial management really became key,” she recalls. “We’d set an annual budget, which went completely out the window.”

Sue already had plenty of experience on the front line of hospitality: she’d spent 15 years running her own guest house. She says that taught her how to plan, take personalities out of situations and look at the bigger picture.