ACCOMMODATION is desperately needed to put up the growing number of revellers flocking to the town's bi-annual gothic weekends.
The events held in April and October, which have been worth millions of pounds to Whitby's economy since they began in 1994, are perhaps the biggest crowd-pullers of the year apart from Whitby Regatta in August.
But organiser Jo Hampshire said des
pite there being plenty of accommodation in the town, their customers are finding it "really hard" to find somewhere to stay in the Whitby area for this October's event on Friday 31 October to Saturday 1 November.
She is appealing to anyone who is not registered with the town's Tourist Information Centre or who has a spare room for let over the weekend to email or phone them.
Mrs Hampshire and her team are looking for small farms that have a couple of spare rooms, new b&bs which have just opened to holiday cottages and flats – in fact anything will be considered as people will take a taxi out to Robin Hood's Bay or Sleights.
"There are a lot more people coming here," she said.
"They are not necessarily buying a ticket and are coming for the atmosphere and are taking up accommodation.
"The problem is there isn't a venue big enough to hold everybody.
"We have more or less sold out for years and years.
"For the first five years if you didn't get a ticket for the Pavilion there would be seven or eight people sat in the Elsinore."
Mrs Hampshire said a lot of younger people are coming to the event and bringing along their mums and dads and it's no longer just goths who frequent the event – bikers, people wearing Victorian fancy dress and transsexuals make the weekend an eclectic mix of people all wanting a good time.
"It's a diverse mix to the point where we have almost thought of calling it Whitby Gothic and Alternative weekend," she added.
She said when people are contacting the town's TIC for accommodation providers for the weekend, they are told there is nothing within a 30-mile radius of Whitby for people to stay.
But Mrs Hampshire says this isn't strictly that isn't true as she says the TIC will only give out details of people registered with them who pay to advertise and there is other suitable accommodation out there for people to stay in.
"The problem exasperated since we started coming to Whitby all those years ago. So many b&bs and hotels have been converted into flats," she said.
"There is an accommodation crisis in Whitby.
"Local people can't find anywhere to live.
The full article contains 447 words and appears in Whitby Gazette Tuesday newspaper.
