Cheltenham hospitality sales slow

Lydia Hislop13 April 2012

Corporate hospitality sales for next month's Cheltenham Festival are "notably slower" than in previous years.

Perhaps, one of the long-term impacts on racing of last year's foot-and-mouth crisis that first struck a year ago tomorrow.

The disease forced racing to shut down for a week and then resume amid much emotive criticism, placed many tracks out of bounds and eventually resulted in the abandonment of the Cheltenham Festival.

But its long-term effects on racing are still being measured, albeit confused by the global economic downturn and the events of 11 September. The March National Hunt championships were sold out when last staged in 2000 and have been an all-ticket for the past three years. Although confident sales will yet rally, Cheltenham officials are facing the possibility that this year's Festival won't play to a capacity crowd.

"Tickets sales are broadly on a par, maybe a little behind," said commercial manager, Peter McNeile. "But the corporate market specifically is notably slower. That could be due to the last quarter's economic slowdown or 11 September or the loss to foot-and-mouth disease of last year's Festival. But there has certainly been an impact on people's budgets."

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