The Westminster All-Party Parliamentary Group for Hospitality and Tourism is today launching ‘Pathways to Recovery,’ urgent inquiry into the measures that businesses in these two vital sectors of the UK’s economy will need in order to successfully reopen, recover and thrive in the aftermath of the COVID19 crisis.
The key focus of this inquiry will be assessing what is needed to get businesses back on their feet at the appropriate time, providing forward-looking recommendations to guide Government and businesses as they move to thinking about recovery. The consultation questions will look broadly at what support measures businesses would like to see from Government, while also looking at the internal and operational challenges that businesses face when looking to reopen. There will be four key themes: • Government support • Achieving business compliance • Supply chain re-activation • Stimulating demand for the sector The need for this inquiry is immediate and as such, by design, the time for gathering evidence will be short. The aim is to publish findings and report in full by the middle of May, however, they may push forward the publication date in order to feed findings into Government while important discussions on recovery are being held. If you wish to respond to ‘Pathways to Recovery’ please answer the relevant consultation questions below and send your submissions in to Richard Clifford at [email protected]. The deadline for submissions will be May 1st at 5:00pm. Consultation Questions 1. What further, or continued, financial measures do you envisage your business needing from Government in the recovery period when restrictions begin to be lifted? If relevant, please refer to both national and devolved Governments. 2. What impact would a staggered reopening have on your businesses? (For example, if businesses are permitted to reopen but with existing social distancing measures retained; hotels open with no bar or restaurant area; or a cap being introduced on venue numbers) 3. What specific operational difficulties do you anticipate when looking to reopen your business and will you need Government assistance and guidance ahead of this? 4. How long will it take for businesses to change or reactivate their supply chains and what difficulties may be present in doing this? 5. What, if any, more guidance do you feel that you need on cleaning and hygiene measures ahead of reopening? 6. What fiscal measures should be taken to boost business in the hospitality and tourism sectors in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19 restrictions being lifted? 7. What steps should the Government take to boost UK inbound tourism when social distancing measures are lifted? 8. Are there any other key areas of support that your feel either sector, or your individual business, require outside the scope of the above questions? If so, please outline in under 500 words.
10 Comments
20/4/2020 09:55:54 am
I operate a small tourism business in the Highlands of Scotland. We have 2 boats and are just entering year 6 of trading. We were due to begin in March but obviously that didn't happen. I have boat hire to pay year round and if we aren't open and fully operating by August we simply wont make it through the winter. I don't qualify for any Grant aid as I rent a desk and am waiting to hear if my application for a CIBL has been successful but even that will be unaffordable if we can't trade this year.
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20/4/2020 10:32:22 am
I have a commercial fishery with 3 lochs for fishing (Angling) you hear of other small businesses getting grants no prob but we can’t get anything does not seem fair to me
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20/4/2020 11:25:48 am
I own and run a new angling charter boat micro business with annual overheads of approx 10k per annum just to keep myself trained and the boat coded to take passengers. As the owner, director and only employee I cannot claim anything and with no passengers I have no income
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20/4/2020 06:02:10 pm
Tour Guide in Wales, self employed. Currently living on Credit cards. Currently no bookings in the diary. Not only have I now lost the main period in the year for booking ahead, I will be starting with zero bookings when the government lifts the lockdown.
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20/4/2020 06:28:41 pm
I own and operate a Charter Angling Boat Business, on average we have over 2000 people use our service each year.
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Dene Richards
20/4/2020 08:24:03 pm
We operate a charter angling business from Dover Marina in Kent. We have two 11m charter boats and were fully booked for this year. We are directly affected by COVID-19 and have had to cancel all our angling trips, but apparently cannot apply for the leisure business grant since we don't have business premises that we pay business rates for. We do pay "rent" for our berths at Dover Marina to the tune of £3,500 for each vessel, plus our ongoing insurance costs of £800 for each vessel. Surely we are entitled to some help from the leisure industry grant scheme? We bring a lot of people to the coastal town of Dover and with that business for the local businesses, when parties stay over in the town.
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21/4/2020 08:19:29 am
I own and operate a charter fishing boat out of Lymington,Hampshire.Southampton.
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21/4/2020 02:54:08 pm
Small-scale distiller running distillery tours which have now been halted. Is vital that we can reopen again during summer months when hopefully there will be visitors to Wales again.
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1/8/2022 07:00:55 pm
The consultation questions will look broadly at what support measures businesses would like to see from Government, while also looking at the internal and operational challenges that businesses face when looking to reopen. Thank you for the beautiful post!
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30/9/2022 09:10:25 pm
Continued, financial measures do you envisage your business needing from Government in the recovery period when restrictions begin to be lifted. I truly appreciate your great post!
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