CHICAGO David Levin, owner of the 50-room Capital Hotel located in the town of Knightbridge, just west of London, is hitting several major U.S. cities including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles in an effort to dispel the negative hype about foot-and-mouth disease and to encourage American tourism to his hotel this summer.
“The American media coverage of the foot-and-mouth outbreak gave the public the wrong impression. For the animals that contracted this disease, it s like a human having a bad cold. Nobody dies from foot-and-mouth and humans really can t catch it, it was just a matter of infected animals not being suitable for exporting,” said Levin.
According to Levin, as a result of the public s misinformed status on the matter, occupancy is already down 25% at his hotel and from the looks of his advanced bookings, business will not be improving this summer.
In an effort to solve this problem, Levin is meeting face-to-face with the travel agents from which he derives most of his American business, to convince them that his hotel is a safe place to send travelers. According to Levin, travelers from the U.S. comprise 38%-40% of the Capital Hotel s business.
The Capital Hotel will celebrate its 30th anniversary on May 11, and Levin indicated that although he has owned and operated the property through various world events including wars, assassinations and the like he has never seen business drop off this significantly.
In addition to visiting his contacts in the United States to reassure them that it is OK to send business his way, Levin is also keeping the hotel s lower “winter rate” in effect throughout the summer to entice additional visitors.
“Wimbledon is coming up in June and normally right now we would have a long waitlist to get into the hotel for people who are coming into to town to see this popular sporting event,” said Levin. “It amazes me that there is still plenty of space to sell.” (5/7/01) Kelly Wayne