In today’s @CommonsDCMS we looked at the impact of Covid-19 on the tourism sector. Here is a short thread on the questions I asked @bernarddonoghue, Director of @alva_uk. It's quite clear the tourism industry has been one of the hardest hit sectors and urgent government is needed
I asked Bernard to give an honest assessment of the impact of Covid-29 on the tourism sector. He tells me it has not only highlighted how important tourism is to the British economy but also how vulnerable it really it is.
I asked him about the impact of the lack of visitors from overseas. He tells me two years ago more visitors went to the @V_and_A, the @sciencemuseum and the @NHM_London combined than visited the city of Venice.
I then asked about the impact of the government's proposed two-week quarantine for overseas visitors. He tells me most tourists stay on average for less than two weeks, so the proposed quarantine would effectively remove 90% of the inbound tourism market.
Finally, I asked him what policies he would like to see from the government to help protect the tourism industry for the future. He begins by telling me some of the UK's biggest and historic attractions rely on ticket sales and are especially vulnerable.
He then listed his three particular asks of government: 1) Visitor attractions run by local authorities to be exempt from business rates. 2) The tourism sector furloughing to be extended until the new year. 3) Creative ways to help attractions which do not receive state funding.
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