UKinbound, a leading UK travel trade association that represents over 400 tourism businesses, has written to Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) secretary of state The Rt Hon Oliver Dowden MP and tourism minister Nigel Huddleston MP to repeat its ask for financial help for the tourism and hospitality industry, to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.
Ahead of Wednesday’s Budget, the association has reiterated its call for:
- a pause on business rates for a minimum of three months and any quarantined area to have business rates abolished for the period of non-trading;
- a payment delay on taxes such as VAT and PAYE to ease cash flow; and
- availability of low or interest free loans to cover trade disruption
Joss Croft, CEO of UKinbound said: “This is a very stressful and worrying time for the UK tourism industry and travel and tourism worldwide.
“A lot of our members have been massively impacted by COVID-19 and the real worry is that businesses could go under if this situation continues as there are minimal bookings for the normally busy spring and summer months. We are hoping that Government will do the right thing in the Budget this week and provide financial support for businesses that are currently struggling with cash flow and business payments, in order to tide them over until this crisis has abated.
“We also continue to urge our members to be as lenient as possible with each other with regards to their cancellation policies, as we know that in the coming months there will be a huge pent up demand for travel to the UK.”
