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Challenging times for Janet's 'dream job'
TOURISM has been in Janet Deacon's blood ever since her parents moved, from her native Leeds to Scarborough, to run a small guest house.
Recently appointed as Scarborough Council's tourism manager, she talks to reporter IAN DUNCAN about growing up in the town, exchange trips to France and not meeting Cliff Richard.
A WHOLE new world opened for Janet Deacon when her parents decided to move to the coast to run the Beverley House in Crown Crescent when she was just eight years old.
She regularly helped out by waitressing, making sure the rooms were ready and playing with the guests' children while they stayed in Scarborough.
The 43-year-old said: "I grew up in the tourist industry and was waitressing when I was 10 years old. It was fun because I wanted to get out there and meet people. I was meeting different people and finding out where they came from.
"If they brought children we used to go off and play. Some of the people are still coming to see my parents now. It was really good being brought up in that environment."
She added that she regularly used to play in the Italian Gardens, off Esplanade, and her school friends included the children of fellow hoteliers – Richard, David and Helen Frank. "Helen was my best friend through junior school," she said.
From an early age she was introduced to a wide variety of nationalities and the guests would sometimes cook exotic food, from places such as Syria and the Lebanon, for her and her family.
She said: "I remember the Arabic food and tasting those dishes at an early age. They contained cous cous, nuts and had nice fragrant flavours."
During her teens her parents started to take in foreign students and trainee teachers from France and Germany. She said: "I used to go back with them to their homes. It helped me with my languages for school.
"It helped because they wouldn't speak to me in anything but their language if they could help it. I used to pick things up and I don't think they believed I picked up as much as I did. That was a fantastic experience in France spending six weeks with the family."
Janet was staying at the foot of Mont Blanc, in the town of Annecy, and spent her time hang gliding, mushroom picking, cycling and carrying a churn to a neighbouring farm to collect milk fresh from the cow. “If I can give my daughter the same experience I had that would be great.”
She now lives in Pinewood Drive with 45-year-old husband Andrew and 13-year-old daughter Stephanie.
After leaving sixth form her first job was on the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP) at the police station where she worked in areas such as administration, the control room and the front desk.
She said: “I remember them taking me down to the cells and they thought it was quite funny to lock me in.”
This lasted about four months before she was offered a permanent job at Plaxton, where she gained secretarial qualifications, before taking a job as a tourist information assistant with the council in Harcourt Place in 1987.
She said: “I’d been brought up in the tourist industry and when I was at Plaxtons I was in an office and didn’t meet people. That was what I missed.
“The new job did offer me that mix. I used to love it in the summer months, we’d have holidaymakers queuing up from the office right round to Huntriss Row.
“I remember we used to get every last bed filled and that sense of achievement of all the holidaymakers going away satisfied. They used to just turn up expecting accommodation to be available. It was more difficult than they imagined.”
She added that her managers recognised her potential and gave her every encouragement to get better qualifications – she has just completed a degree in business management.
In 2004 she became the customer services manager for the Customer First one-stop-shop in Scarborough. She said: “I loved that job. It was bringing different teams of services together to deliver a quality service.
“I love working with people from all cultures and walks of life. I think we learn a lot from working in Customer First and having that understanding that everybody’s a different individual and everybody’s got very different needs.”
She was appointed tourism manager in April and said there were a number of challenges with her “dream job”. She said: “I love where I live and I am really passionate about it. I want people to come here and experience the area as well.”
One of her challenges is to make the Spa Complex one of the best venues for conferences and entertainment. “It’s not doing too badly but there’s more to be done and there’s always room for improvement.”
She added that she wanted to encourage younger bands to play the venue after the recent success of a gig by Feeder.
She said: “We’ve got a meeting to discuss the next Coastival event.”
But she added that other events at the venue, such as the orchestra and jazz festival, would always be popular.
Janet and her family regularly visit Alvor in Portugal for holidays and the entertainer Cliff Richard has a vineyard in the area. She said: “He spends a lot of time over there.
“Andrew and Stephanie had gone down to the village to have an ice cream in a cafe and he was sat on a table opposite with a couple of his friends.
“My husband said ‘There’s Cliff Richard over there, he’s a singer’. They came back and she said ‘Mum, we’ve just seen Cliff Richard, who’s he?’”
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Weather for Scarborough
Friday 10 February 2012
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Temperature: -6 C to 3 C
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