A Bournemouth hotel is installing a huge, new dance floor to meet the growing demands of ‘dance tourism’.
The Marsham Court Hotel in Russell-Cotes Road is building a 1400-square foot, semi-sprung oak dance floor, which can accommodate up to 100 dancers at a time.
The work comes just weeks after the closure of one of Bournemouth’s oldest dance floors at the Wessex Hotel, which will shortly be demolished to make way for a new hotel and flats.
The Marsham Court saw its specialist breaks business rise by 20 per cent last year, with particular growth in dance holidays.
The dance floor forms part of a complete renovation of the hotel’s main restaurant which will take three weeks to complete.
Rosie Wallace, whose family has owned the Marsham Court for 30 years, explained: “We are all very excited about the new dance floor and believe it will be a big hit with our dancers as well as our conference guests and regular guests.”
Rosie continued: “The Marsham Court has long been associated with dance.
“In Edwardian times the ballroom hosted high society tea dances and the garage would be lined with chauffeur driven cars.
“The hotel has remained a mecca for local dancers and in recent years we have seen demand for our specialist holidays, especially dance breaks, boom.
“We now welcome dance clubs and dance tour operators from as far afield as the Midlands, London and the South East and we hope the new dance floor will tempt even more dancers to Bournemouth.”
The restaurant, which can accommodate 230 people will also have new bar and four, large glass skylights and new tables, chairs, serving stations, carpets and window shutters.
The renovations are being carried out by the award winning Chewton Bespoke Design and Build of Highcliffe.
Owner Darren Crain said: “Creating and building such a large dance floor, in such a short period of time is a real challenge, but once it is finished it will be superb.
“Before we can install it however we need to tackle the job of relocating the room’s large, central pillar and replacing it with two separate room supports. This is a challenge all in itself.”
Rosie added: “We are hoping some of the groups which previously enjoyed dancing at the Wessex will come and try out their fancy footwork on our new dance floor. They will be most welcome.”
The Marsham Court also hosts Whist and Bowls breaks, watercolour painting breaks and Mahjong holidays.
For details visit: www.marshamcourthotel.co.uk