CTA has joined with other tourism trade bodies to challenge the government policy on allocating discretionary grants to support the sector’s businesses affected by Covid lockdowns. CTA, alongside The Business Visits and Events Partnership (BVEP), Confederation of Passenger Transport, English UK, ETOA, Tourism Alliance and UKinbound, has expressed their despair and disbelief that Government has again chosen to deny businesses in the inbound tourism sector, which generated £28.4billion in export earnings for the UK economy in 2019, access to the latest Covid-19 support.
Since March 2020, the Government has stated that sexual entertainment venues and hostess bars are specifically eligible for Business Grants, Local Restriction Support Grants and Business Rates Relief. However, four incredibly valuable export-earning tourism and transport sectors, which have been effectively closed for almost a year, continue to be excluded, including Coach Operators, Tour Operators/Destination Management Companies (DMCs), Language Schools and Event Organisers.
CTA chair Robert Shaw is quoted in the press release:
“Direct government support to coach tour operators during the pandemic has been patchy at best, with many left to cope without any significant support beyond furlough since the first lockdown. Our sector’s customers will be desperate to take coach holidays once it becomes safe to travel again, and it is vital that coach businesses are able to meet that need and continue delivering tourists and their significant spending power to destinations and regions across the UK.”
