UK Hoteliers Ask for Urgent Help

Not only hotels in London, Manchester, or Leeds are experiencing troubles today but the entire tourism industry of the United Kingdom. In the latest letter to the Chancellor, UKinbound, the country’s trade travel association, asked for urgent measures that are vital for saving the industry. The letter was sent just before the new statement of the Prime Minister that he is expected to make on February 22 and the Budget news due on March 3. UKinbound suggested four key asks that address the devastating effect that the Covid-19 pandemic causes on the inbound tourism of the country.

The letter underlines that marking holidays as “illegal” and virtually completely prohibiting international travel to the UK is destroying travel and tourism in the UK. Moreover, while setting the strict measures that are currently adopted in the country, the government doesn’t offer any substantial help that could alleviate the negative effects. That is why UKinbound asked for support in four aspects that are vital for hotels in the UK and other tourism-related businesses.

To restore the confidence of businesses, the government needs to reopen borders or at least set up a plan when this is going to happen. Certain destinations that have fewer Covid-19 cases can be opened earlier than destinations that were seriously hit by the pandemic. In destinations with travel restrictions, tourism-related businesses need help to be able to retain their stuff in a situation when they are not making any money.

A possible way of helping businesses that have had almost no activity since March 2020 (the start of lockdown) is to create the Tourism Resilience Fund and enable targeted help. Finally, extending the Business Rate Relief scheme for this and next years could also help the industry to recover. The Covid-19 grants that this program is offering must be also available to wider businesses such as tour operators, language schools, companies that organize events, etc.

When it was decided to cancel travel corridors and select a limited number of hotels as quarantine ones, other participants of the travel industry had to deal with multiple cancelations. Tourists prefer to move their holidays in the UK to late 2021 and 2022. Because of this, many tourism-related companies are struggling as their reserves are running out. That is why it is important to support these businesses as they can speed up the recovery of the UK’s economy in the future.