Tourism Alliance Update (17 February) + UNFCCC Race to Zero

Tourism Alliance Update – 17 February

Please find below today’s Tourism Alliance updates, along with accompanying stake holder proforma and New Years Honours List documents.

  • Thank You Day

For those who are unaware of what Thank You Day is, it was an initiative that was started last year to thank everyone that helped during the pandemic with an emphasis on NHS workers. The initiative was supported by a wide range of organisations and around 2 million people took part. This success has inspired the organisers to turn Thank You Day into an annual event (this year’s Thank You Day is 5th June which is the Sunday of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee) and to lobby for the creation of a new National Holiday.

As a new National Holiday would be of considerable benefit to the tourism industry I’ve been talking to the team there about what we can do to support their lobbying.  Part of this is to get as many businesses and associations to sign to the following letter. So can I ask you to, as well as signing the letter yourself, send it to your members to sign.

They can do this by simply sending an email that has their automatic business signature block at the end of it to Barry Johnston at Purpose Union barry.johnston@purposeunion.com with “add my signature” in the title.

More information on the Thank You Day initiative is available on the following link https://thankyouday.org.uk/

Dear Prime Minister/Chancellor,

On behalf of the British businesses we represent, we are supporting the creation of a new annual public holiday – a Thank Holiday – from 2023.

All of our businesses will be doing our bit during this year’s Jubilee bank holiday to celebrate the Queen’s extraordinary public service.

We ask that you take this opportunity not only to recognise the Queen’s enduring contribution but the service and kindness of millions in our communities, especially during the pandemic.

A Thank Holiday would provide a moment every year for individuals and communities to come together, to thank those who have contributed in ways big and small to making our country a better place to live, and to create new bonds that will strengthen our society.

The campaign has already received widespread support from an extraordinary number of individuals and organisations. We are pleased to show that businesses are also firmly behind the idea.

We are convinced that the benefits of a new holiday would outweigh the costs, as well as serving as a demonstration of our national values and compassion. As a group of business https://thankyouday.org.uk/ leaders, we stand ready to work with you to achieve this.  

Yours,

  • New Year’s Honours

Speaking of the Queen, DCMS has send through the attached forms for nominations for the 2023 New year’s Honours List.

Nominations have to be in with DCMS by 18th March so you have a few weeks to get together nominations for people in your sector. If you need anything further you can contact the DCMS honours team at:

DCMS Honours Team

4th Floor, 100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ

honours@dcms.gov.uk

Impact of Covid on Tourism and Hospitality

ONS has released the latest wave of it’s ongoing research on the impact of Covid on businesses and regions of the UK

https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessservices/articles/businessinsightsandimpactontheukandsubnationaleconomy/february2022

However, what is far more interesting is that there is a dataset that sits behind this which compares the impact of Covid on the Tourism and Hospitality sector and compares this to UK businesses as a whole.

There are datasets on

  • Trading status
  • Workforce status
  • Cash reserves
  • Net turnover balances

These datasets not only compare tourism and hospitality businesses to all UK businesses on all these criteria but also split this down to a regional level so you can see the impacts of covid on tourism and hospitality businesses in different regions.

You can access the data on the following linkhttps://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/output/datasets/businessinsightsandimpactonthesubnationalukeconomy

Additionally, we are delighted to report that events has been added as one of the 13 recognised accelerator programmes to accelerate progress to net zero with the UNFCCC Race to Zero – https://racetozero.unfccc.int/join-the-race/#.