BUSINESSES in West Somerset are bracing themselves for a Bank Holiday and summer tourism boom as temperatures are predicted to soar.

After the unseasonably chilly start to the month, temperatures will climb during the week with the warm weather expected to last into the May Bank Holiday and until the start of June, according to the Met Office.

And those in the tourism trade have welcomed the news, confident they can cash in on the balmy weather.

Lesley Penniston, spokesman for Butlins, said that its Minehead resort had seen profits rise 12% compared to last year and anticipated a Bank Holiday sell-out with the resort already taking enough bookings to fill 90% of the seafront attraction.

Elsewhere, Denise Sage, manager of the Porlock Visitor Centre, said the feeling within the village was that the tide was beginning to turn for rural businesses.

She said: “There is a feeling that people are coming back. We have to keep goodwill and the quality high. If we have the good weather everyone is predicting it could just be the boost we need.”

A spokeswoman from the Beach Hotel, in The Avenue, Minehead, said they were yet to see business pick up but said she was confident of a summer revival.

John Hammond, a Met Office forecaster, said this weekend would signal the start of the warm season, adding: “We’re on for seeing some hot weather.”

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