In Conversation with Katy
Katy is a familiar face to locals and visitors in Newquay. Born in St Ives, her dad was a fisherman and she’s called Cornwall home for most of her life. Now she hosts guests in her spare room at home and runs an Airbnb Experience focused around the shellfish found in Cornish waters.
“I get to share the things I love doing as part of my work with the people that I welcome to my home.”
Katy started out as a Host on Airbnb, welcoming guests into her home, something she feels gives her the benefits of travel, without leaving her home. Guests bring new experiences, different cultures and fresh conversations with them. When Airbnb launched Experiences Katy saw a way to combine doing what she found most rewarding with a way to earn a living. She began to share her knowledge of preparing and cooking local seafood, something which has the benefit of supporting local fishermen too.
“We’ll come up with our fresh catch and get settled in for a bit of savage decadence, enjoy the crab and lobster, and we’ll learn all about it.”
As part of Katy’s shellfish Experience she takes guests down to the working harbour so they get to actually see the crab and lobster being landed. Once they’ve collected the fresh catch it’s back to the house and time to uncover some secrets about how to get beneath the shell of a crab and how to cook a lobster just right.
“The kind of year round visitors have given a lot more energy and activity to the area.”
Katy has seen the change in Cornwall happen over the last decade, one that she believes has on the whole been a positive one. The increase in visitors has created more job opportunities and developed the food culture in the area too.
“The kind of year round visitors have given a lot more energy and activity to the area.”
Katy has seen the change in Cornwall happen over the last decade, one that she believes has on the whole been a positive one. The increase in visitors has created more job opportunities and developed the food culture in the area too.
“We need to preserve what people really love about Cornwall.”
Katy hopes that Cornwall becomes more of a year round destination, not just for visitors from outside the county but for locals too, and to see an increase in businesses whose prime audience are locals. She thinks it would create a very rich culture and community. She believes the proposed regulations for ‘holiday lets’ will help to support locals by dispersing tourism and reducing the pressure on local hotspots.
“We need to preserve what people really love about Cornwall.”
Katy hopes that Cornwall becomes more of a year round destination, not just for visitors from outside the county but for locals too, and to see an increase in businesses whose prime audience are locals. She thinks it would create a very rich culture and community. She believes the proposed regulations for ‘holiday lets’ will help to support locals by dispersing tourism and reducing the pressure on local hotspots.
Read more here about Airbnb’s support of the Government’s proposal to introduce new regulations for ‘holiday lets’.