Tourism is one of Cumbria’s most important industries, employing 65,000 people and bringing £3 billion into the economy.

Burnetts’ cross-discipline Leisure and Tourism team play a leading role in the sector with grounded, expert and specialist legal advice.

The team work for a vast and diverse range of leisure and tourism clients, including hotels, restaurants, visitor attractions, leisure operators, B&Bs and tourism membership groups.

Our experience includes the following:

• Sales and acquisitions

The 'standout' team has advised on the sale and acquisition of numerous hotels, caravan parks and leisure businesses throughout the Lake District, Cumbria and beyond. This includes the transfer of multi million pound luxury hotels, caravan parks and notably a £40 million acquisition of a globally recognised fast-food outlet franchise.

• Commercial Property and Planning

Described as 'unfailingly excellent', Burnetts, property specialists have advised on numerous acquisitions, sales, refinance and lettings of hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, pubs, time-shares and visitor attractions. We also have specialists who deal with associated licensing matters. Within the banking sector, and often working to challenging deadlines, our property team also provides due diligence support to enable tourism businesses to be financed or re-financed.

Our in-house planning experts work extensively in the sector helping tourist attractions, tour operators, caravan park owners and others to achieve their development and expansion goals, especially within the constraints of the Lake District National Park and World Heritage Site.

• Employment and HR

Burnetts’ 'go-to' team of employment lawyers and HR consultants provides the full range of support to leisure and tourism businesses including: the provision of seasonal and permanent employment contracts; day-to-day advice on managing grievances, absence and other HR issues; delivering high level support for difficult or sensitive employment tribunal claims.

• Commercial Litigation

Advice on commercial disputes is provided by our 'truly pragmatic' dispute resolution lawyers. They have helped accommodation providers, attractions and hospitality businesses with a wide range of commercial disputes, including property disputes, customer complaints, breach of contract claims and loss of tourist business.

Burnetts is a member of Cumbria Tourism and Keswick Tourism Association and works closely with several other leading sector organisations in the Lake District.

* Quotations from The Legal 500 2020