Politicians in the UK now talk more about tourism, hospitality and leisure than they ever did before.

UK Minister of Tourism, Nigel Huddleston, said this while speaking on a WTM London session looking at the smaller world of tourism, adding that this was evident in the parliamentary debates as well as in the questions posed to the Prime Minister. “MPs now recognise the importance of tourism to their constituency and the local economy more than ever before.”

In terms of government support, Huddleston said the tourism sector had benefited from the general economy grants, which have been extended to March 2021, as well as a few other grants; government-funded discounts at restaurants, cafés, bars and pubs; and a reduction in VAT for the sector.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, recently announced that a cut in VAT for hotels, cafés and restaurants would be extended until March 31.

To help tackle the challenges posed by COVID-19, the UK has also set up a global travel taskforce.

Huddleston said the taskforce would soon make a set of recommendations to the Prime Minister, based on input from the private sector. “The degree of engagement we have had with industry has been phenomenal throughout this crisis,” he said, adding that it had been particularly important in the current context. “Things move so quickly we have needed real-time data and information from the private sector and from industry bodies to say what’s going on.”

According to Huddleston, the government is also working on a tourism recovery plan with the Tourism Council and various other industry bodies and groups.

Commenting on the outlook for the outbound market, Moderator Steve Keenan,

Co-Founder of social and digital consultancy Travel Perspective, cited a recent consumer survey, which found that 52% of UK citizens would want to have a domestic holiday in the next 12 months, while only 27% would want to take an international holiday.

However, Huddleston pointed out that the numbers went up and down quickly because of changing consumer confidence, adding that confidence was a lot higher just before the UK’s second and current lockdown.

“Brits travel a lot; we love travelling,” said Huddleston. “When we went into lockdown, there was something like 1.3million Brits overseas. That’s like 2% of the population,” he said, adding that in this sense, the UK was an outlier.

Mark Tanzer, CEO of Abta (Association of British Travel Agents), emphasised that domestic and international holidays were not substitute products. “There may be some people who make a choice between one or the other, but they are very different experiences,” said Tanzer, adding that the UK did not have mass tourism infrastructure or the climate to support a large scale of domestic holidays.

He added that appetite for international travel in the UK market was still strong. “Our consumer research says that people are looking forward to travelling next year and they are going to spend more than they would have normally done because they didn’t spend the money this year.” He added that this spend was not taken up by additional spend on consumer goods.