Tourism Industry:
Covid-19 Recovery
(Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)
What steps his Department is taking to support the tourism
industry's recovery as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport ()
I thank my hon. Friend for raising this timely topic ahead of
English Tourism Week, which kicks off this weekend. In total, we
have provided more than £25 billion already to the tourism,
hospitality and leisure sectors to see them through this
challenging period. With large parts of the sector now reopened,
we are working with partners to champion the UK’s tourism offer
through the “Escape the Everyday” marketing campaign, for
example. Businesses can also benefit from the VAT cut, business
rates relief and other measures. Our tourism recovery plan will
set out the role that the Government will play in accelerating
the tourism sector’s recovery from covid-19.
I thank my hon. Friend for that answer and for his excellent work
in promoting this sector, an important part of which is business
tourism, which is also getting going again. For example, keeping
it very local, Harrogate Convention Centre will host Clarion
Events’ Home & Gift Buyers’ Festival in July, and that will
bring many thousands of visitors to the town. This sector of the
industry is large in scale and consequently has a significant
supply chain, both directly and indirectly, including, for
example, hotels and guest houses in Harrogate. Will my hon.
Friend assure me that he will do all he can to ensure the best
restart possible for this important business sector?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right and I pay tribute to his
support for the tourism sector—business tourism as well—both in
his constituency and right across the country. Business events
are indeed highly valuable to the UK economy, directly
contributing more than £31 billion each year before the pandemic,
supporting a vast supply chain and filling hotels, often in the
tourist off-season. The Events Research Programme held its first
business event pilot in Liverpool last month, which I was
delighted to attend. That is a big step forward in our work to
fully reopen the sector. Our tourism recovery plan will soon set
out more detail on how we will support business events with their
long-term recovery.
