Jobs will go despite government aid, says UKinbound

UKinbound’s new Business Barometer found 72% of operators and destination management companies will still need to make redundancies despite government help.

It said: “When the chancellor announced details of the new Job Support Scheme (JSS) on 24 September, three in four inbound tourism businesses were planning to start making redundancies. This figure dropped to under 50% when the more targeted JSS closed option, for businesses required to shut due to local lockdowns, was announced on 9th October.

“However, because of the nature of their businesses, 72% of tour operators and DMCs…will still need to make redundancies.”

UKinbound found only 40% of respondents stated their business would “manage through” the crisis. Although this jumped to 62% after the 9 October announcement, only 37% of tour operators and DMCs stated they would be operational when business returns.

It added: “Confidence levels continue to be low, with just 17% of respondents saying they are confident about business in the next 12 months, but this is a rise on the historic low of 11% recorded in April.

“A range of reasons were given for this low confidence, including the lack of clear policy from government on travel corridors and no decisive move to testing pre-arrival rather than quarantine.”

Joss Croft, UKinbound chief executive, said “Our research clearly shows that targeted government support does work, but the tourism industry is a diverse range of inter-related businesses that depend on each other for survival, and currently the UK’s 200-plus inbound tour operators and DMCs continue to be left out in the cold, struggling to survive.

“We urgently need government, specifically Treasury and the Minister of Housing, Communities & Local Government, to engage with the sector and provide clear targeted support for these businesses.

“We will be delivering a proposal for targeted support to Treasury soon.”