Tourism industry needs a year of Government funding to survive - Tim Farron

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic will be felt strongly in the tourism industry.The impact of the coronavirus pandemic will be felt strongly in the tourism industry.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic will be felt strongly in the tourism industry. | jpimedia
It is a humbling honour to represent a part of Britain as breathtakingly beautiful as the South Lakes. Our communities here are as strong as the landscape is beautiful.

As is being seen across the border in Yorkshire, hundreds of volunteers, many facing severe hardship themselves, are involved in serving their neighbours in their hour of need.

We may need to stay a safe distance apart, but our communities have never been closer.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I am proud of our people, and I am determined that they should be financially stable and secure at the end of all this. In normal times, we are one of Europe’s biggest visitor destinations.

Richmondshire in North Yorkshire is expected to suffer badly economically in the crisis.Richmondshire in North Yorkshire is expected to suffer badly economically in the crisis.
Richmondshire in North Yorkshire is expected to suffer badly economically in the crisis. | jpimedia

Last year alone, we received 16 million visitors.

Visitors come from Britain and all over the world, not only for the landscape but because we have a world-class hospitality and tourism industry, with the best pubs, restaurants, accommodation, attractions, heritage and history, and an innovative retail sector fully integrated with the visitor economy.

In the Lake District alone, 80 per cent of the working population are employed in tourism or hospitality. The Cumbrian visitor economy contributes £3 billion a year, and £1.45 billion will already have been lost by next month, with 80 per cent of the workers in the hotel and food industries currently furloughed.

Read More
Yorkshire economy on course to lose billions from tourism collapse

The RSA study put Richmondshire, in North Yorkshire, as the constituency expected to suffer the worst economic damage from the crisis in the country, with 6,000 jobs at risk.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Chancellor’s financial package to help hospitality businesses has been really welcome. However, there are still many businesses that are falling through the cracks, receiving no support at all.

People who have become self-employed in the last year, those workers who started new jobs in March, owners of small limited companies, businesses that operate from people’s homes and businesses that pay council tax rather than business rates all continue to miss out. Fitting into the last category are small B&Bs which are vital to the hospitality industry.

After much pressure, I’m glad that the Government have now announced that £617m has been made available for businesses such as these, but it remains to be seen whether this money will stretch far enough to support every business that misses out, or indeed whether many are actually eligible under the Government’s guidelines. We will continue to put pressure on the Chancellor.

For many in the Lakes, the Yorkshire Dales and the rest of Cumbria, hospitality and tourism are seasonal. They operate their trading year on something of a “feast and famine” basis.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The coronavirus hit right at the end of the famine, and now this year there will be no feast. If we do not get this right, we may inadvertently kill off an entire industry that is essential to our wider economy.

When it is safe to do so, the lockdown will ease, but it seems likely that hospitality and tourism will be the last to return to normality under the Government’s plans. We understand that. Our priority is to protect our people and to save lives.

The problem is that if hospitality and tourism are phased back in the autumn, having missed out on the feast of the summer months, they will have to try to keep themselves afloat just as the famine of winter begins.

If we do not provide long-term support for those businesses, we will be faced with tens of thousands of furloughed workers losing their jobs as soon as support ends. That will have a colossal impact on our communities and will push countless families into poverty.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

With 22 million fewer visitors to the UK, according to Visit Britain, the tourism industry faces a shortfall of billions. Alarming research from Cumbria Tourism reports indicated that the cost of coronavirus may reach £1.45 billion by the end of this month for Cumbria alone. This cost also translates into over 18,000 job losses, which will have devastating consequences.

Additional grants and an extension of the furlough scheme will be needed over the summer, but if that is all we do, the Government will simply be delaying the failure of businesses, the loss of jobs and the hardship and misery of the families of the South Lakes. I will not stand for that, and I hope that the Government will not do so either.

That is why we are calling for the Government to protect this vital industry by committing to a 12-month ​funding settlement for tourism and hospitality so that they can survive the winter and be ready to lead the revival in the spring of 2021.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron is MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor

News you can trust since 1754
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice