Tourism industry ‘will lose billions’
THE BRITISH tourist industry is likely to lose billions because of the coronavirus pandemic, sector leaders have said as they spoke of a lack of confidence among people even when it comes to travel within the UK.
Losses are being felt from the sharp decline in visitors in international and domestic markets and there is a worry that more businesses will go to the wall in autumn, a parliamentary committee heard.
Patricia Yates, acting chief executive at Visit Britain, said 2020 has to be the “year of domestic tourism” but there will be a serious challenge in convincing people it is safe to travel.
She told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee an October bank holiday could help to extend the season beyond the usual summer months, saying the industry had lost the benefit of the two May bank holidays due to the lockdown.
Giving estimates of how much was likely to be lost, Ms Yates told the committee: “Every time we do the modelling the figures get worse. So for inbound, I mean we were looking at the beginning of this year at about £26.6 billion coming from inbound tourism – we reckon a £15 billion drop on that. And for domestic, an industry that’s normally worth about £80 billion, a £22 billion drop on that.”
She said those figures were before the impact of any quarantine measures yet to be introduced were factored in.
She said: “Really to get British tourism up and running this summer, and the summer is hugely important, you’re going to need that domestic audience. I think the worrying thing we see is the lack of confidence in the British public about travelling.”
She said there is a “a real job to be done there in convincing people that it’s socially responsible to travel and enjoy a holiday, and that it’s safe to do so”.
Her comments were echoed by Ros
Pritchard, director general of the British Holiday and Home Park Association, who said there had been cases of “vigilantes” in some communities nervous of people visiting after weeks of tourists being told to stay away.
She said: “When we’ve got holiday parks, say with NHS workers because we’ve been accommodating key workers when we could, we’ve had vigilantes checking up and reporting them to the council and the police – who are these people on your holiday park, what are they doing there?
“That negative, anti-feeling is going to be an issue.”
She added that Government leadership is required for the message to switch from telling people to stay at home to encouraging visitors.
Specific assistance is needed for seasonal tourism businesses that earn their money between March and October, she said, suggesting they are looking at “three winters in a row”. She said: “We’ve lost the 2020 season, effectively. And we are going to need help to get through to next spring. So I think the winter is when we will see businesses fail without that support.”