The serious challenges for the coach tour sector were highlighted by MPs during a House of Commons debate on 11 September. A number of MPs mentioned the problems for the coach sector following the long lockdown and the lack of support from government during the backbench debate, attended by tourism minister Nigel Huddlestone.
The coach sector was mentioned 42 times during the 90-minute debate which demonstrates the effectiveness of the lobbying which individual operators have been engaged in with their local MPs.
“The strong support expressed in the House of Commons debate was heartening, with evidence that many MPs understand the plight of the coach sector,” says CTA chair John Wales. “Coaches are a critical part of the tourism industry. However coach tour operators, who are predominantly family-run businesses, have been left high and dry for the past six months and most of them missed out on government support because of the failure to recognise them as part of the leisure and travel sector.”
“We would urge the government to consider extending a furlough scheme to tourism businesses which would be perfectly viable if able to operate without the current restrictions. Coach tour operators deliver huge amounts of leisure spending to regions across the UK and need continuing support to get through a challenging winter.”
“CTA is also supporting recent proposals from the Confederation of Passenger Transport for the government to ensure that operators are given support by extending finance holidays for the next 12 months to avoid the potential repossession of family homes of business owners.”
Among the contributions from MPs were:
Dave Doogan (SNP, Angus)
“I want to look at the heart of the tourism industry: the coach sector—the wheels on which the tourism industry literally runs. Tourists do not come here to see our outstanding airports, vital though they are—and I know they have their own challenges; they come to see our country and they see it on a coach.”
“Wherever they [tourists] go—hotels, visitor centres, theatres and restaurants—they get there by coach, yet the coach industry has received negligible support, especially when compared with the billions that the Government have spent on their Covid response. And let us not forget that it is coaches that are the first and only port of call when trains disrupt and flights divert. That is a further warning that the Government take this industry for granted at their peril.
“Many coach operators are family enterprises, not run for vast profit or easy money but instead reinvesting in the long term in their fleets and their drivers.
“The industry is in the midst of an 18 to 24-month winter, and furlough is due to end in the coming weeks. The Government told us that they would do “whatever it takes”. The fiscal levers rest here in Westminster, and the Government must act now.”
Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party, Strangford)
“One of the important things about the coach companies is that many of them are family owned. There are three or four in my constituency and they are all family owned. The impact on those families has been dire …”
Paul Howell (Con, Sedgefield)
“I encourage Government action in consideration of the following: extending finance holidays to ensure that no coaches are repossessed; grouping the coach travel sector with the leisure sector to give it better support; and providing protection to those families whose livelihoods rely on coach travel. There needs to be a moratorium on lenders seeking to repossess family homes.”
Matt Western (Lab, Warwick and Leamington)
“Why is it that 300 people can get on an aeroplane and sit cheek by jowl for three hours, but people cannot get on a coach and do the same thing? I urge the Government to revisit that issue urgently; it would be one of the simplest things they could do to support the industry.”
In responding to the debate, tourism minister Nigel Huddlestone said: “On the coach sector in particular, I assure the House that we recognise its important role in the tourism sector, and we are engaging with the Department for Transport on the challenges it faces.”
Let’s hope that the tourism minister will act as well as listen, and more importantly, persuade the chancellor to act.
