TIER’s Coronavirus update from 26th February 2020 which contains useful information including a WHO/UNWTO statement on coronavirus and tourism.
 
UK picture

• As of 09:00 26 February, a total of 7,132 people have been tested in the UK, 7,119 have been confirmed negative. Four further patients have tested positive bringing the total to 13. The virus was passed on in the Diamond Princess cruise ship and the patients have been transferred to specialist NHS infection centres.
• Globally as of 26 February at 10.00am there are 81,050 cases of which 78,064 are in China, 1,146 are in the Republic of Korea and 322 are in Italy. The fatalities to date are 2,768 (of which the following are outside China: Hong Kong SAR (2), Iran (15), Cases on Diamond Princess Cruise ship (4), Italy (10), Japan (1), Taiwan (1), France (1), Philippines (1) Republic of Korea (11)). 
• British Airways is continuing to operate to and from Italy and they are continuing to monitor the situation closely. They have introduced flexible rebooking options for customers booked to travel to/from to travel between London and the Northern Italian destinations including, Milan (Linate and Malpensa), Turin, Bologna, Venice, Bergamo and Verona up to 2 March 2020. Customers can rebook to a later travel date up to 31 March 2020.
• easyJet and Ryanair flights are still operating as normal.

​Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice for outbound travel
·         The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) is still advising against all travel to Hubei Province and against all but essential travel to the rest of mainland China
·         The FCO is also advising against all but essential travel to:
o    the cities of Daegu and Cheongdo in South Korea
o    ten small towns in the Lombardy region and one in the Veneto region of Italy

The FCO is not advising against travel to any other country/territory as a result of coronavirus risks.  Other travel measures, advice and updates: 

• The World Health Organisation and UNWTO have issued a joint statement on tourism and COVID-19 calling for coordination. The key points are:
  • Tourism’s response needs to be measured and consistent, proportionate to the public health threat and based on local risk assessment, involving every part of the tourism value chain – public bodies, private companies and tourists, in line with WHO’s overall guidance and recommendations.
  • UNWTO and WHO stand ready to work closely with all those communities and countries affected by the current health emergency, to build for a better and more resilient future. Travel restrictions going beyond these may cause unnecessary interference with international traffic, including negative repercussions on the tourism sector.

 
ITB updates

• On 26 February the organisers of ITB Berlin announced that on the advice of German public health authorities all exhibitors at ITB Berlin will be required to fill out a declaration form. The declaration form is a condition for access to the exhibition grounds and serves to identify persons belonging to a COVID 19 risk group.
• They have also said “This is a precautionary measure in order to protect those participating in ITB Berlin and the public in general. The Federal Ministry of Health and the Robert Koch Institute have assessed that the health risk in Germany remains low. “

 
Practical advice and guidance

• The World Health Organisation has issued advice to the public ‘If you are not in an area where COVID-19 is spreading, or if you have not travelled from one of those areas or have not been in close contact with someone who has and is feeling unwell, your chances of getting it are currently low.’

 
In the meantime you can visit the VB website where they continue to share advice for businesses and links to key updates and information.

The UK Government’s Point’s based Immigration paper has been launched (click the link to download a copy). A new system will require people wanting to work in the UK to achieve a total of 70 points or more. The allocation of points being as follows:
 
Mandatory Requirements

• Offer of job by approved sponsor                                                             20 Points
• Job at appropriate skill level                                                                        20 Points
• Speaks English at required level                                                                 10 Points

 
Salary Requirements

• Salary of £20,480 (minimum) – £23,039                                                     0   Points
• Salary of £23,040 – £25,599                                                                         10 Points
• Salary of £25,600 or above                                                                           20 Points

 
Addition Points Available

• Job in a shortage occupation (as designated by the MAC)               20 Points
• Education qualification: PhD in subject relevant to the job             10 Points
• Education qualification: PhD in relevant STEM subject                     20 Points

 
 
There are also a number of other changes to immigration requirements that are important to know about. These include:

• The skills threshold has been reduced from RQF6 to RQF3 (ie., from degree level to A level)
• The cap on skilled workers has been “suspended”
• The resident labour market test has been removed which should simplify the process for businesses
• MAC will be commissioned to produce a shortage occupation list covering all jobs encompassed by the skilled worker route and to keep the list under regular review
• MAC will determine where there are sector shortages and allocate the additional 20 points for temporary periods.
• Skilled workers will be able to be accompanied by their dependants.
• The Home Office will consider adding further flexibility into the system including additional attributes that can be ‘traded’ against a lower salary such as greater range of qualification levels or other factors such as age or experience studying in the UK
• The Youth Mobility Scheme will be retained, but not expanded
• Students will also be covered by the points-based system and will achieve the required points if they can demonstrate that they have an offer from an approved educational institution, speak English and are able to support themselves during their studies in the UK.
• EU citizens will be able to continue to use e-gates, but the Govt will keep this policy under review
• For employers sponsoring skilled migrants, the process will be streamlined to reduce the time it takes to bring a migrant into the UK by up to eight weeks.
• The Govt plans to have the application system up and running by Autumn 2020, so that migrants can start to apply ahead the system taking effect in January 2021
• The Govt will set out detail on phasing out the ability of EU nationals to use of national ID cards to enter the UK shortly.


• ​This announcement is just the policy paper and that the Home Office will be publishing further detail on the points-based system

including detailed guidance regarding the points tables, shortage occupations and qualifications over the coming months.

Over the last 12 months the Destination Pembrokeshire Partnership (DPP) – comprising Pembrokeshire Tourism, Pembrokeshire County Council, PLANED and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority (PCNPA) – have been working closely together to produce two key pieces of work to drive tourism growth in the County.

The first is a new five-year Tourism Strategy known as a Destination Management Plan (DMP). Feedback from the trade and other partners through online questionnaires, face-to-face consultations and workshops have helped form the new DMP.The new plan will run from 2020 to 2025 and will cover the priorities and aspirations for Pembrokeshire as a tourism destination.

The second is an exercise looking at whether some tourism services could be managed more effectively by operating in a different way, with the aim of supporting the multi-million-pound tourism industry.  Currently, a wide range of services are delivered by the Destination Pembrokeshire Partnership with each of the partners focusing on different areas of activity.

On Wednesday, 5th February, and Monday, 10th February, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority and Pembrokeshire County Council respectively approved both the DMP strategy and the proposal for a new Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO). The resources and staff from the County Council’s Tourism (Destination Marketing) department will be transferred to Pembrokeshire Tourism, the county’s tourism trade organisation, with support and resources also coming from PCNPA and PLANED.

The new Pembrokeshire Tourism organisation will be led by the trade and will be able to deliver a wider range of activities including: destination marketing activity; campaign and project delivery; industry liaison and support; research and intelligence; advocacy, and other activities such as supporting and potentially delivering some events. 

Jane Rees-Baynes, chair of Pembrokeshire Tourism said: “We at Pembrokeshire Tourism are delighted that the proposals have been approved by all DPP partners. We believe this is an exciting new start for tourism in Pembrokeshire. We will be working hard over the next few months to establish this new trade led organisation as one of the leading DMOs in the UK. Our members will continue to receive the same great benefits through the transition and can look forward to an enhanced offering once the new organisation is in full operation.”

Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Economy, Tourism, Leisure and Culture, Paul Miller, said: “Far better than numerous, disparate entities working to support tourism in isolation, we will now have a single, joint plan together with a strong, well resourced, trade led organisation driving the Pembrokeshire 'destination'. It’s an exciting opportunity for the County to further develop our incredible tourism offer and to ensure Pembrokeshire is discovered by even more visitors from right across the globe.”

Iwan Thomas, Chief Executive, PLANED, said: “The delivery of this new strategy clearly demonstrates the commitment to partnership working here by these key organisations within Pembrokeshire. PLANED’s role has been to support the voice particularly of communities within the county, and the importance of the tourism and hospitality sector to those communities. With this new and exciting approach, we will continue to support our partners and the industry, to promote the alignment of communities to this key economic driver for Pembrokeshire, and the further opportunities this now presents.”

The Chairman of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, Councillor Paul Harries said: “We are very pleased to support the creation of the new organisation aimed at improving the county’s tourism offering to enhance our reputation as a leading accessible and sustainable tourism destination.We look forward to working with partner bodies and the tourism trade to further develop work in this area.”
​
The new DMP will be formally launched at the Pembrokeshire Tourism Summit at Rhosygilwen on the 26th February. Contact the Pembrokeshire Tourism office on 01646 622228 to book tickets. 
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Launched as part of the new 5 year action plan, Welcome to Wales: Priorities for the Visitor Economy 2020-25, Brilliant Basics is a Wales wide £10m fund that will support public, third sector and not for profit organisations. It will -

• deliver basic small scale tourism infrastructure improvements, and
• ensure that all visitors to Wales have a positive and memorable experience throughout their stay.

This fund will build on the previous rounds of funding via the Tourism Amenity Investment Support scheme (TAIS). TAIS was launched in 2017, and supported through the Welsh Government Rural Communities Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 (RDP), funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), and Welsh Government.  With the addition of non-EU funding, the scheme is being extended to those areas outside of the rural wards as part of the new Brilliant Basics. This will ensure that all parts of Wales are able to benefit from the new fund. For those projects located within the eligible wards, Brilliant Basics will continue to be part funded through the Welsh Government RDP EU Programme. Funding of up to £10m for 2020 to 2025 will be available to prioritise projects that will:

• develop quality visitor experiences with a Welsh sense of place
• enable a wide range of visitors to access and enjoy new wellbeing opportunities
• improve access to facilities and project an inclusive view of Wales
• invest in facilities that enhance Wales’ adventure offering
• contribute to key WG tourism initiatives including the Year of Outdoors campaign 2020 – 2021 and The Wales Way 
• encourage clean, green destinations for example through sustainable infrastructure improvements
• proactively promote a sense of place, culture and language
• provide year-round facilities across all parts of Wales
• invest in world-class experiences and events facilities

You can Find out more here and submit expressions of interest by 12 noon Friday 28 February 2020.
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Coronavirus - correct as at 30 January 2020
For information the following is the latest update from the latest TIER Group meeting which was before today’s announcement of cases in the UK:

• Health protection teams have been in place at Heathrow since 22nd January and in Gatwick and Manchester since 29th January.
• Posters and leaflets have been sent by Public Health England electronically to all 28 UK international airports and all UK Eurostar terminals.
• Following Foreign Office advice against all, but essential travel to mainland China,  British Airways cancelled their flights to and from Beijing and Shanghai until 31 January with immediate effect. This period has now been extended until 29 February, while they assess the situation. Flights to and from Hong Kong remain unaffected.
• There are still a number of airlines operating between the UK and China so passengers do have other options to get home.
• Other airlines including Lufthansa, Air Canada, United Airlines, Air India, Air Tanzania have suspended flights to and from mainland China.
• Some commercial airlines are still operating but have reduced their services including Cathay Pacific, Lion Air, Air Seoul, Finnair, American Airlines
• The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is doing everything they can to get British people in Wuhan safely back to the UK. A number of countries’ flights have been unable to take off as planned. They continue working urgently to organise a flight to the UK as soon as possible.
• Anyone who now returns from Wuhan will be safely isolated for 14 days, with all necessary medical attention
• Chinese authorities have ordered all their national travel agencies and online travel companies to temporarily suspend business, group travel and ‘ticket and hotel’ products effective immediately
• The Chinese Government is asking travel companies, operators and tourism businesses around the world to facilitate booking changes and cancellations to help reduce the movement of crowds and reduce the spread of the virus. At the moment the Chinese Government are not offering any compensation to cancelled groups.
• Best practice industry examples from accommodation providers such as Jurys Inn and GLH are offering free cancellations until 4 February to guests who are affected by the situation.

 
Re: Outbound travel to China from the UK:

• The FCO are advising travellers who want to leave China soon, should consider making plans to do so before any further restrictions may be imposed.
• They are advising against all travel to Hubei Province and against all but essential travel to the rest of mainland China (not including Hong Kong and Macao).
• You can keep up-to-date on the FCO’s travel advice website here: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china

TIER is a small group comprising key tourism industry organisations and government.  The group develops plans for crisis scenarios as well as managing the tourism industry’s response to a specific crisis. TIER is facilitated by VisitBritain and comprises 10+ industry representatives.  Members of the group include the Association of British Travel Agents, UKinbound, UK Hospitality, Britain’s national tourist boards, British Airways and the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. Other groups are called on depending on the location and nature of the crisis. (VB, 2020).
 

First Minister Mark Drakeford launched the strategy 'Welcome to Wales' at the recently opened Rest Bay Watersports Centre, Porthcawl on the 23rd January 2020. The First Minister proclaimed, that: “Over the past decade, tourism in Wales has been transformed, but there’s room for further growth in our visitor economy and we want to support that" announcing that the Welsh Government plans to spend £60m on improving the industry across Wales.

Whilst he stated there had been record numbers of UK visitors to Wales over the last five years, he acknowledged that there are still challenges facing the industry, including from Brexit and that the best response is to continue with our core business to recognise tourism’s ongoing potential to act as a bedrock for the Welsh economy in projecting a positive message of and from Wales.

The WTA's Chair, Andrew Campbell attended the launch (pictured centre) of the new strategy 'Welcome to Wales: Priorities for the Visitor Economy 2020 - 2025'. Andrew took questions and spoke on the panel alongside other industry members. A launch film can be viewed from here https://youtu.be/fFLncNUMFZg. In addition this link https://businesswales.gov.wales/tourism/welcome-wales-priorities-visitor-economy-2020-2025  provides all the background information and documents  which have helped to inform the new priorities.

Andrew Campbell, Chair of the WTA attended the Visit Britain Annual Review (19/01/2020). In addition to recapping the highlights of the year,  Visit Britain launched their new five year strategy to take them through to 2025. This replaces the previous strategy - Delivering a Golden Legacy: a growth strategy for inbound tourism 2012-2020 – which aimed to leverage the London Olympics to generate 40m overseas visitors and revenue of £31.5bn by 2020. The new UK Tourism strategy has the key goal of attracting 49m overseas visitors and generating £35bn in revenue by 2025.

​However, there is no corresponding target for Domestic Tourism as the ambition to increase domestic tourism is predicated on being allocated funding for domestic marketing through the upcoming CSR process. There are five strands to the strategy aimed at supporting the delivery of the 49m visitors and £35bn expenditure. These are:
​

• Growing the value of tourism
• Driving the dispersal of tourism value across Britain
• Supporting productivity optimisation
• Being the expert body on growing tourism
• Delivering a clear strategy for England - Wales has its own strategy, also launched this week (23/01/2020)

While there are no specific targets associated with these five strands, the strategy outlines the initiatives that will be undertaken to take forward the strategy and the market segments that will be targeted to deliver growth. These are:
 
•             Buzzseekers – younger, free-spirited and spontaneous, they like holidays full of action and excitement
•             Explorers – older, they enjoy the outdoors, sightseeing and embracing local culture at a more relaxed pace
•             Culture buffs – image and brand-conscious, travel is seen as a status symbol; they like well-known safe destinations
•         Free and easy mini-breakers – similar to buzzseekers, this younger domestic audience take short breaks to let loose or unwind!

You can view the latest Annual Review and Five Year Strategy . 

The Dept. of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) have announced the appointment of the following people to the BTA:
 
BTA Board

• Carol Hui, Executive Board Director and the Chief of Staff and General Counsel of Heathrow Airport Limited
• Karin Sheppard, Managing Director for Europe at InterContinental Hotels Group
• Peter Gowers, Chief Executive of Travelodge
• Robin Frewer, Commercial Director for Travel at Google