Trade booms thanks to warm weather

The war has not dampened the spirits of customers, claim publicans who are reporting a boom in trade thanks to the good weather.

However many said it was still too early to tell whether pubs would suffer over the next few months because of an anticipated drop in tourists.

It is believed that the UK has become an unfavourable tourist destination because of the increased threat of terrorist attacks.

Bob Cartwright, director of communications at Six Continents Retail, told the Publican: "The extremely good weather of recent weeks has meant that we have been doing very well so it's difficult to say if war itself is having an effect. I think we will have to wait and see."

Neil Gillis, managing director of Greene King Pub Company, said if anything people were going to pubs more than usual to watch and talk about the war. "The same happened after September 11. People want to watch the news and talk about it in the pub."

Simon Townsend, commercial director at Enterprise Inns, said although he hadn't noticed any sudden change he wouldn't be surprised if pubs in Garrison towns and tourist areas were experiencing difficulties.

But Tony Leonard, who runs the Hop Poles pub in Brighton, said although business was better than last year, he had noticed that there were less tourists around. "We get a lot of foreign language students around here and I've certainly seen less of them. I think it will get worse because of the war and because of the terrorist threat here."

During the 1991 Gulf War, both inbound and domestic tourism saw a drop in visits and expenditure and the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001, followed by the attack on the World Trade Centre, caused a drop in overseas visitors by 10 per cent.

However, last month entered the record books as the sunniest since records began 40 years ago and licensees have reaped the benefits.