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A major factor for many rural enterprises is that of seasonality. Across Europe this is traditionally the major holiday period of June to September, which coincides with school holidays and generally warmer weather. This is far less noticeable in urban settings given the shift from ‘business’ to leisure custom over this period. However, for rural and coastal locations this can be a problem outside of the high days of June through August, which was more noticeable for 2006. In the LDNP the highest occupancy was achieved in the September/October period – slightly better than for June/August. This was largely attributed to a combination of factors, as respondents commented:

• ‘The season is now longer’ (18%).

• ‘More people are taking winter breaks’ (16%).

• ‘More day visitors in winter’ (16%).

• ‘Increase in numbers of visitors overall’ (12%).

Further enquiries into the performance of the business over the previous 5 years found that the majority of enterprises reported an increase in profitability and an increase in staffing over the same period. Also more of the rural enterprises were achieving a consistent level of activity and profitability over the year (less markedly seasonal). Allowing for these factors, participants in the 2001 stage noted that this performance was also due to improvements in service offerings and especially promotion, development of internet usage and websites, etc. This is well illustrated by Country Lanes, the Windermere-based company that operates cycling day trips, short breaks and longer tours in the Lake District which gained a top E-commerce 2000 Award. To quote Country Lanes:

The trick has been to transform our traditional niche travel business into a global e-commerce enterprise. And I’m happy to say that our web site now generates 90% of our business (Anon., 2000b, p. 5).