South West tourism chiefs are calling on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to provide a £5million investment to “kickstart” the industry’s post-Covid recovery.
The newly formed Great South West Tourism Partnership (GSWTP) said the money is essential to deliver short-term actions and projects to accelerate recovery and further develop a longer-term strategy for the region.
The GSWTP also wants 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.
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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”.
The GSWTP also wants the Chancellor to when he delivers his Budget on March 3.
It said it is imperative that Mr Sunak repeats the Small Business Grant scheme, and continues business rates relief for another 12 months, to March 2022
It also wants support to be offered to businesses who have suffered direct cancellations as a result of “last-minute” lockdown restrictions.
The GSWTP is also asking that whereby workers are paid by the Government while on furlough.
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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.
It has undertaken two business impact surveys since the start of the coronavirus outbreak to measure the impact of Covid-19 and its lockdowns across the tourism sector.
Malcolm Bell, chief executive of Visit Cornwall and a GSWTP spokesman, said the average change in business turnover for 2020 was -52%.
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“Consequently, it is estimated that approximately £3.7billion of anticipated tourism business turnover was lost in the Great South West region,” he said. “If the supply chain is also considered, it is estimated there was a further loss of £798million to the GSW economy.”
He said 85% of businesses saw a reduction in turnover in 2020, with 46% of all businesses seeing turnover decrease by more than 50%.
“Currently, 40% of businesses believe they cannot currently survive beyond May 2021 and a further 29% are unsure how long their business can survive,” he said.
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“Prior to the latest lockdown, the majority of businesses were operating at less than 75% of their capacity in order to implement social distancing measures and 74% of businesses saw a change in their customer profile in 2020, with 45% recording an increase in first-time visitors.”
The GSWTP said the visitor economy in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, Devon, Somerset and Dorset is the largest single visitor region outside of London for domestic overnight stays.
“Employment in the South West is heavily dependent on the visitor economy, rising to over 60% of all employment dependent on the visitor economy in some rural areas,” said Mr Bell.