SIR, - I AM an ex-pat sandgrown'un now living in South Africa.

Up until 1985 I owned The Capri Grill on Squires Gate Lane - and before that the SandGate Hotel on Wellington Road.

I was educated at Thames Road and Arnold school, which I left 1972.

I read with interest the item on re-investing in tourism.

One good place to start would be getting Blackpool included in overseas tours from places like South Africa, with companies such as Trafalgar Tours.

Trafalgar runs Round Britain Overnight tours which take in Chorley and Preston, so what is Blackpool Tourism doing about this?

Surely a go-ahead place like Blackpool should be chasing the opportunity to put itself in a world-wide tour brochure.

Why on earth don't they approach Trafalgar and educate them on the lights, the Tower, the Winter Gardens etc, etc.

How about getting some of the hoteliers to give discounts to travelers on airlines such as BA and SAA - and even Virgin - and getting themselves and the town included in their brochures.

What about adopting a B&B voucher system which some companies are offering?

It seems to me that Blackpool has been resting on its laurels for a long time - Tower founder Alderman Bickerstaff must be turning in his grave!

Oh yes, why did we leave?

Simple, a miners strike (remember those fun days) nearly put us out of business and there were no suitable jobs in the area for me in the Information Technology industry.

Philip Knagg,

South Africa

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.