Victory Report No.14: Holiday Inn, Portsmouth - nd [1975-1986]

Title

Victory Report No.14: Holiday Inn, Portsmouth - nd [1975-1986]

Description

The sign on the railway station platform says PORTSMOUTH and SOUTHSEA, summing up a symbiotic relationship that for many, many years has made the two inseperable as far as the local community has been concerned. Say SOUTHSEA, and most people will say Holiday Resort. Say PORTSMOUTH and they will probably think of HMS Victory, The Dockyard, and perhaps a struggling football team. For centuries, Southsea has been regarded as THE POSH PART of PORTSEA ISLAND, the resort that, if you like, made the money, whilst Portsmouth leaned heavily on what was the Premier Royal Naval Dockyard in the world. But, with the decline of our seapower, a wage earner that was seen as fast becoming almost a white elephant. Over the last few years however, the roles appear to have been almost reversing. There have been sweeping changes to the face of the city. New roads, extensive redevelopment, the coming of the continental ferry ports, the influx of industrial and commercial concerns like IBM and the Zurich Group - a general awakening of the potential of a city partially devastated by the bombs of World War Two. But whilst PORTSMOUTH has been developing - what has been happening to SOUTHSEA - the traditional English holiday resort? Increasingly over the past few years there have been loud complaints from those involved in the holiday trade that virtually nothing - with the exception of a new surface to the promenade, has been done to entice visitors to abandon the increasingly expensive delights of sun soaked foreign holidays in favour of the pleasures of one of the finest seasides in the country. This evening, we talk to local business people involved in the hotel, guest house and holiday catering industry and to the authorities whose responsibility it is to make SUNNY SOUTHSEA an attractive proposition to visitors. But first, away from SOUTHSEA, just off the A3M, a new building is going up. It is a Holiday Inn, the latest in a chain of luxury hotels rapidly networking the United Kingdom to provide travellers not necessarily Holidaymakers - with top class accomodation during their stay. Fritz Ternoffsky is the District Director of Holiday Inns - Why did his Company choose this location? [Box 7]

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Duration

00:11:00

Notes

Left channel only.

Misc. notes

Single Track

Production company

Radio Victory

Extent

1 tape

Credits

Presenter

Guy Payne

Interviewees

Fritz Ternoffsky