Lake District tourism industry 'struggling to find workers'

Windermere and the surrounding areas draw huge numbers of tourists each year

A Lake District cruise company has launched a major recruitment drive as it warns the area's tourism industry is struggling to fill vacancies.

Windermere Lake Cruises said it had 100 roles available, including on its boats and in shops and cafes.

It said finding staff "has been a challenge" over the last two years.

Despite being one of the country's most popular visitor destinations, the county of Cumbria has one of the smallest populations.

The problem has been made worse by there being fewer workers from abroad since Brexit, a rise in holiday lets reducing the number of year-round residents and people taking higher-paid jobs elsewhere.

Ian Wilkinson, of Windermere Lake Cruises, believes a number of issues are to blame for recruitment troubles

Ian Wilkinson, HR manager at the cruise firm, said there had been "all sorts of issues finding staff".

"Many tourist businesses are struggling to recruit. For the last two years it has been a challenge.

"We've not been able to recruit people to all the roles we'd want to, which has to some extent impacted our services.

"We've got issues related to Brexit, and a lot of hospitality roles in Cumbria are live-in jobs but we can't provide accommodation so the people who used to come to us are now working elsewhere leaving a smaller pool for us."

Mr Wilkinson said the firm welcomed a trend of employing more older people looking for to work two or three days per week "but the knock-on effect is we need more people".

The firm is holding a recruitment event at Bowness Pier from 10:00 - 16:00 GMT.

England's largest lake, Windermere sees thousands of tourists flock during the summer months with many travelling across the water on "steamer" vessels.