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Attractions hope the soggy summer will end soon

Cattle Country Cattle Country in BerkeleyCattle Country
Staff at Cattle Country are hoping for a busy few weeks

Tourist attractions are hoping the school holidays, and a change in weather, will bring a boost in visitor numbers.

Many in Gloucestershire are reporting a slow start to the summer because of the wet weather.

Some have improved their facilities to offer families more to do when the sun does finally return and they can start planning a day out in the county.

Wet weather, the manager of Cattle Country Simon Guy said, "really affects people's perceptions of what they plan to do".

Cattle Country manager Simon Guy
Simon Guy has his fingers crossed August will be beautiful and sunny

Mr Guy, the farm park manager at the Berkeley attraction, said the "weather hasn't been great so far" this year for them.

"We have a lot of indoor areas that we can facilitate people in, but they look at the weather report and they go, oh chance of rain today, I won't bother," he added.

"Or they come and we get really busy and then everyone tries to get inside and we can't facilitate all of them.

"For an operation like ours, we try and plan and operate in the best way we can, but we'd like to know how many people will get in.

"Covid changed people's habits because they were booking when they come on the day. Now it's gone back to people booking a little bit later, again, mainly because of the weather.

"With the schools breaking up we're really optimistic for the rest of the summer and fingers crossed we will see beautiful sunny days throughout August."

Over Farm CEO Rees Keene
Rees Keene says people are leaving it late to decide whether to visit

Rees Keene, who runs Over Farm near Gloucester, said "if it's raining, people don't come to the farm park".

"Farming-wise we want it mixed and ideally a bit of rain a couple nights a week and then nice sunshine in the day. Obviously, we don't get that."

Mr Keene added that "people are looking at forecasts and almost leaving it to the last minute" before deciding whether to visit.

"It's changed massively over the last two to three years from everything being pre-booked to being quite last minute.

"Speaking to other farm attractions they are seeing the same trends as well.

"Long term, we'd love to have some sort of indoor offering, but it costs money."

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