Gill Haigh has been managing director of Cumbria Tourism during some interesting times.

Taking on the role in September 2017 - shortly after the Lake District became a World Heritage Site - her tenure has spanned the twin challenges of Brexit and coronavirus, both of which have made an already busy job much busier.

But, even in the face of a renewed staffing crisis for the sector, she is determined to see the bright side.

"The best thing for me in the last year has been the way in which each and every business that we've worked with has wanted to work together to share advice, experience, and to collectively choose to help one

Her work as a journalist in Lancashire saw her cover rural affairs, which then led to her becoming regional public relations manager for Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire, Manchester, and Merseyside with the National Farmers Union from 1997 to 2001.

This gave her a good grounding in crisis management in a sector that was dealing with the fallout from BSE. The job involved work on the ‘buy British’ campaign, as well as setting up farmers’ markets and working with retailers to help producers sell more directly to customers.

"I was also part of the team that created the little red tractor that's seen as the British farm standard," she says.

"I absolutely loved it because you were working with real people, right at the sharp end."

A 13-year stint in local government was to follow, working for Lancaster City Council on areas including tourism, cultural venues and event marketing. She next became director of marketing and recruitment for University of Cumbria, the role she was in when she heard former Cumbria Tourism managing director Ian Stephens was stepping down.

"I just couldn't get it out of my head, I just thought it wasn’t a job that was going to come up again and I felt like it really was perfect for me," she says.

"I love working with people directly. It's about using our collective creativity, relationships, and skills to work in partnership to bring things forward. It's communication, it's understanding what the challenges and issues are and I always feel I work best when I really believe in what I'm delivering."

As she speaks to in-Cumbria, Gill has just returned from a week’s holiday recuperating from the stresses of the coronavirus pandemic, a crisis which saw the county’s tourism sector lose more than half of its £3bn value last year.

Gill, who has two sons Will, 18, and Tom, 14, and lives near Kirkby Lonsdale, has been holidaying at home, trying to explore some of the lesser visited parts of Cumbria.

She says her favourite ways to unwind include walking with husband Mike and working cocker spaniel puppy Brian, or riding her horse Violet.

“We really just enjoy exploring in the Yorkshire Dales and the wider parts of Cumbria and good food and drink, of which there are copious amounts here, as well as culture,” she says.

It was a holiday that was undoubtedly welcome after the “rollercoaster” of Covid-19, which has seen Cumbria Tourism and its members having to constantly adapt to an ever-changing landscape of restrictions.

For the organisation this has involved constantly monitoring, communicating and unpicking the shifting advice, as well as gathering data and evidence to lobby Government for support.

“We’ve been really humbled by the way in which businesses, even through those times, have chosen to stick by us and I hope that is a reflection of the support that we've given,” says Gill.

She says the closures and changing guidance over the last 12 months proved almost overwhelming for businesses to deal with, especially for the many smaller operators in the county.

"We were providing a seven-day-a-week phone line and email, we were working Bank Holidays, we were working Saturday nights, we were just responding to businesses as they needed it,” she says.

"We did that having furloughed two thirds of our staff, because we're not a public sector-funded organisation. Only about three per cent of our funding comes from the public sector so we had to protect Cumbria Tourism's finances."

In a particularly cruel twist, the tourism industry is now facing yet another crisis at a time when it should be able to begin getting back on its feet.

A combination of staff moving into different jobs during the pandemic, post-Brexit immigration policy, travel restrictions and competition for employees has created a major staffing crisis, with some businesses forced to limit their services or opening hours.

In a survey by Cumbria Tourism at the beginning of last month 68 per cent of businesses said recruitment of staff was a significant problem, up from 34 per cent in May.

A lack of staff was limiting business capacity for 63 per cent of businesses, as well as impacting on profitability for 61 per cent.

Gill says the more recent issues contributing to the problem come on top of long-term problems Cumbria has faced around young people leaving the county, lack of affordable housing and limited public transport facilities.

"We were saying this really strongly right up until January, February, probably even the beginning of March last year," says Gill.

"You've got the businesses that are now Covid safe, that are allowed to open, albeit within restrictions, but actually those restrictions always require a greater level of staffing. We're in a situation now where we've got places that can't serve food, but can only serve drinks, you've got places that should be open all day but can only open part of the day, you've got ones that can only serve residents. You've got businesses that are closing on a certain number of days.”

She says Cumbria Tourism is preparing to lead a campaign to promote working in hospitality in the hope of changing the perception of the sector.

"I would say to anybody that is leaving school or college this year that these aren’t just jobs, they are careers," she says.

"It's one of those brilliant industries where you start right at the bottom and it doesn't take very long to be the top of the tree. Ultimately you can specialise, whether it's outdoor leadership, health and wellbeing, whether it's marketing or finance.”

In the short-term she believes the Government could begin to run its own national marketing campaign to encourage people into the sector, as well as relaxing some of the restrictions on overseas workers.

“I think they can and I think they must,” she says.

“The Government recognise that the tourism sector is an opportunity, a huge area of economic recovery for the country, and if they don't, then we lose a significant part of that and it will put pressure on existing staff.

"Had Covid not come along we would have been able to use the rest of last year to, hopefully, have got some kind of concession in the way that the agricultural sector has for seasonal workers, to ease mobility or create a two-year visa for young people from Europe.”

However, in the long-term she hopes the Covid crisis will leave a legacy of people buying local, holidaying closer to home and working together.

"I think that one of the long-lasting positives that's come out of this year is that local people have really re-evaluated what we already have here on our doorstep and that it's an amazing, amazing place to live and work,” she says

"I hope that what it's also done has helped us as Cumbria as a whole to really recognise the importance and value of the tourism industry, not just to the businesses, but to the individuals that work with them and to the communities which they serve as well.”