COVID-19 Update 15th June 2021

Welcome Back Fund

MHCLG has published a new version of the guidance on the Welcome Back fund. This is a £56m ERDF fund available to local authorities in England to support the return to high streets safely and help build back better. This builds on the £50m Reopening High Street Safely Fund (RHSSF) allocated to councils in 2020. Part of the fund will be used to provide support for coastal resorts across England to

support areas as they prepare for a great summer to safely welcome visitors. The fund can also be used by local authorities to:

• • Boost the look and feel of their high streets by investing in street planting, parks, green spaces, and seating areas to make high streets welcoming.
  • Run publicity campaigns and prepare to hold events that will boost footfall and encourage people back into the high streets and thereby supporting local businesses.
  • Install and refresh signage and floor markings to encourage social distancing and safety.
  • Improve green spaces on high streets and town centres by planting flowers or removing graffiti

Accompanying the guidance is a FAQ which provides more detail on what initiatives are eligible and how the

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/welcome-back-fund

 

TIC Agenda

As I mentioned previously, the Tourism Industry Council meeting with the Minister is tomorrow at 1:30pm. DCMS has sent through the following questions that they are seeking input on:

Step 4 Announcement 

• What is the impact of the delay to Step 4 on your part of the sector?
• What is your key concern over the upcoming four week period?
• Have you already received, or are you anticipating visitor cancellations or postponements?
• Do the concessions relating to weddings and out-of-school residential stays make a difference?
• What are your concerns for the longer term, post summer?

 Covid-19 Insight Session

• What measures have been the most and the least challenging for the sector to manage? (social distancing, Test & Trace, capacity caps, etc)
• How have consumers responded to the various measures? Have rates of adherence been high?
• Has the sector developed innovations beyond the government-mandated measures to make their businesses Covid-Secure?
• Do you have any other views of the government and industry response to the pandemic over the past 12 months?

 Tourism Recovery Plan

• Do you have views on the content of the Plan?
• Are there particular commitments in the Plan on which you are interested in engaging with the team?

If you can provide me with comments on any of these questions by noon tomorrow, I will feed them in.

 

Petition On School Trips From the EU

The youth & educational travel sector brings over £20 billion p.a. to the UK. Bookings for next year are falling whilst demand for countries which allow ID cards, such as Ireland and Denmark, is soaring. This means that the UK risks losing its place at the top of the educational tourism market with associated impact on jobs. This will also impact the UK tourism industry in the long-run as adults tend to revisit destinations that they went to in their youth.

Therefore, could I ask you to circulate this petition to your members to sign in order to raise awareness of the value of this market and the impact that requiring children from the EU to have passports to enter the UK will have on the UK tourism industry.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/587749

 

New Lords Briefing on Tourism

Ahead of the Lords Debate on Tourism next week (24^th June), the Lords Library has produced a new tourism briefing on how the sector has been affected, and the Government’s response, including the Tourism Recovery Plan. It is worth reading this briefing as it will be one of the key documents that shapes the members of the House of Lords views on the sector. It is also worth noting that the briefing continues to use the highly inaccurate figures from ONS’s Tourism Satellite Accounts to provide an assessment of the sectors contribution to the UK economy in terms of GVA and employment. As an example, the TSA calculates that only 52% of the revenue generated by Travel Agents is related to tourism and that only 0.9% of revenue from the conference and exhibition sector is related to business tourism.

https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/promoting-tourism-in-the-uk/

 

Guidance on Volunteers

DCMS says that it has revised its guidance to businesses that employ volunteers to bring it into line with the current restrictions but, reading through it, I’m struggling to see what the changes are. It may well be that they have just updated links to other guidance such as travel restrictions or CJRS. However, if you employ volunteers, it is worth reading the updated guidance to make sure that you are complying with all requirements.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/enabling-safe-and-effective-volunteering-during-coronavirus-covid-19

 

Domestic Cruises

The guidance on domestic cruises has been updated to signal that it expects to remove all capacity limits for domestic cruises on 19^th July.

Roadmap step 4

It is expected that England will move to Step 4 on 19 July, though the data will be reviewed after 2 weeks in case the risks have reduced.

By step 4, the government hopes to remove all legal limits on social contact. This includes lifting capacity limits for domestic cruises.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-cruise-ship-travel

 

Further Update to What You Can And Cannot Do Guidance

There has been a further update to the pubic guidance on yesterday’s announcement that I sent you this morning. The revision provides a bit more detail to the public on the rules and restrictions relate to weddings in an outdoor environment.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-coronavirus-restrictions-what-you-can-and-cannot-do