Plymouth’s tourism and hospitality businesses are calling for crucial support from Chancellor Rishi Sunak in order to survive until they can reopen after it emerged they lost £169milion in visitor spend – before the third lockdown.
The city’s visitor economy has lost more than half its income during the past year of Covid-hit trading and is expecting figures to be even worse when January/February stats are processed soon.
Businesses are now calling on Mr Sunak to announce a support package in the March 3 Budget, with a particular call for the furlough scheme to continue.
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Amanda Lumley, executive director of Destination Plymouth and co-chair of the Great South West Tourism Partnership (GSWTP), urged the Chancellor to take action.
“In Plymouth we are over 55% down year on year and many of our businesses are finding trading conditions still very difficult,” she said.
“We are hopeful that the Chancellor’s Budget will give us the crucial support which is needed to help them survive the next few months until the sector can reopen. “
GSWTP research shows 40% of the sector’s businesses believe they cannot currently survive beyond May 2021 and a further 29% are unsure how long their business can survive.
“We have lost over £169million in visitor spend up to end November,” said Mrs Lumley. “We should get Jan/Feb stats next week which will show even higher losses.”
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The GSWTP has drafted a request to Government, which has received “strong support across the region from MPs and key organisations”, and has called for a £5million cash injection from Westminster to “kickstart” the South West tourism and hospitality sector.
Mrs Lumley said other tax and job support measures were needed from the Budget and said: “In addition to our £5million ask we have asked for business rates relief to be extended to March 2022 along with the 5% reduced VAT rate.
“We also asked for extended furlough and a strong push from Government to ensure that banks are extending repayment terms on CBILS and bounce back loans.”
She stressed that in the Greater South West region there are more than 160,000 people still furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and said: “So it is crucial that this is extended or there will be significant job losses.”
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The GSWTP is also calling on the Government to publish a National Tourism Review as soon as possible, including destination marketing structure and long-term funding in conjunction with a Tourism Recovery Plan and Tourism Sector Deal.
The organisation is also calling on ministers to explore options for a minister for hospitality “in recognition of the importance of the sector economically and socially”.
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The GSWTP is formed of organisations from a range of backgrounds including commercial and not-for-profit business, local authorities and business improvement districts across Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset, including Visit Exeter, Visit Cornwall, the South West Tourism Alliance and Visit Devon.
The GSWTP estimates that about £3.7billion of anticipated tourism business turnover was lost in the Great South West region and if the supply chain is also considered it is estimated there has been a further loss of £798million to the Greater South West economy.
The organisation said 85% of businesses saw a reduction in turnover in 2020, with 46% of all businesses seeing turnover decrease by more than 50%.