How the government can support the hospitality sector after Brexit

How the government can support the hospitality sector after Brexit

This article is part of our Brexit Survival Guide: Practical Tips for Hospitality Businesses series, and is written by Kurt Janson, Director of The Tourism Alliance.

While there is a lot of talk about the detrimental impacts that Brexit may have on the hospitality sector, it is important to remember that there are a number of things that the government can do to support the sector as well, both now and after the UK leaves the EU.

When we leave the EU, there will be a range of rules and regulations that the government can change which will encourage growth and investment— one of the most important being revising the package holiday regulations to remove rules that restrict hospitality businesses and attractions to provide value-added products to customers.

However, the most important thing the government can do right now to support the hospitality sector is to agree on a tourism deal as part of the government’s industrial strategy. The industry has presented a bid document to the government that outlines the way that the industry and government can work together to resolve the main challenges facing the industry in a post-Brexit environment. There are four key areas the tourism needs support in:

1.     Skills

This includes a range of initiatives designed to ensure that we have access to sufficient employees with the right skill set

1.     Connectivity

This includes initiatives designed to enhance the ability of visitors to enter and travel around the country easily, so the benefits of tourism growth are spread across the various regions

1.     Productivity

Initiatives to extend the tourism season and improve productivity

1.     Tourism zones

This is an initiative to develop zones in which businesses and councils will be given support and incentives to revitalise, or further enhance, their tourism offering

However, this bid is competing with over 60 bids from other sectors. Therefore, the most important thing that hospitality businesses can do is ask their local MPs to support the tourism bid, so we can get a tourism deal that will help ensure the future growth of our sector.