Bank holiday could move to help tourism

Minister says prices could be cheaper out of term-time

The tourism minister is considering moving one of the UK’s bank holidays in a bid to help families enjoy less expensive holidays out of term time. Sir Chris Bryant said he was toying with the idea during a visit to Cornwall to champion British tourism and encourage careers in hospitality and the holiday sector.

We spoke to Sir Chris at Mylor Sailing School, near Falmouth, on Wednesday while he was taking part in some 'work experience”'with businesses in the tourism industry. The purpose was to show people that the visitor economy offers varied and interesting jobs across the country and, despite what he says are some common misconceptions, that it can provide stable careers and a good income.

The Minister also talked about the Government’s existing and upcoming plans for the tourism industry, including the Visitor Economy Growth Strategy which will be launched in the autumn and sets out plans to grow the sector even further in places like Cornwall which are reliant on tourism.

On a beautiful sunny day overlooking the Carrick Roads waterway, I asked Sir Chris what the prospects were for the introduction of a tourism tax in Cornwall. Many European cities charge tourists a tax on the cost of hotel rooms and private rentals, either as a flat rate or percentage of the room charge. Visitors to Edinburgh and Glasgow will pay five per cent on hotel stays from July next year and January 2027 respectively.

“We haven’t got any plans to allow Cornwall to introduce a tourism tax. I hear it both ways. Hoteliers say to me, we’re already highly taxed, we don’t want to pay more taxes. Then I hear people say, we need more investment in local visitor economy.

“How do the two match? That’s our job, to manage that balance. One thing we can definitely do and will do is resolve this issue around short-term lets because it’s an unfair arrangement at the moment.

“It can be an identical room in a hotel or in an Airbnb – the hotel has to meet all sorts of quality standards, health and safety and all the rest of it, and pays tax and VAT. The Airbnb doesn’t. So one of the things we will do is have a short-term lets register and I hope that at some point that might end up becoming a licensing system.

“So, in the first place, at least we know in areas like Cornwall where all the short-term lets are, and then local authorities will be able to makes decisions about how they want to progress on the back of that. The legislation’s in place and we’re doing all the IT now to get it up and running, and I hope it will be ready for April for next year’s season.”

Returning to Sir Chris saying there were no plans by the Labour Government to allow authorities to introduce a tourism tax, it has been widely reported that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner wanted to give councils the power to do just that as part of the new devolution bill. However, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and the Treasury rebuffed the plan due to fears that it could reduce revenue for businesses already struggling with higher national insurance taxes and rises in the minimum wage.

“We had a round table in Downing Street with people from different parts of the tourism sector and some people were demanding the tourism tax and some were violently opposed to it, which is why I say that honestly, we haven’t got any plans to do that.

“I know that in Wales they’ve done something now, they’ve done something different in Scotland. Manchester’s got its version, Liverpool’s got its version. They’re voluntary systems. We’re going to watch all of that, but if I said to hoteliers right now, people have all got to pay an extra £2 a night ot whatever, they’d all go ‘hang on, can you cut our VAT?'”

In his bid to push British tourism, the Minister added: “One of the problems we’ve had in the last few years is that domestic tourism isn’t up to the level that it was before Covid, so we’ve got to do something about those numbers. You see a day like this and go ‘what’s the point of going to Spain when we’ve got this on our doorsteps?’

“I also want to shout out loud that a career in tourism is a really good thing. Historically, in the UK we’ve tended to see jobs in hospitality as things you do when you’re waiting to finish your degree course. Actually, other places in Europe see it as a career.

“I’ve met people today who started off working behind the bar or washing dishes who’ve ended up managing a hotel. Cracking career progression. It’s one of the very few industries where you can go from having no skills and no qualifications to being a highly skilled person within a year. We need more people to work in this industry.”

Surely that will only happen with better pay and more respect for staff?

“I know some people in the sector have said one of the problems has been the increase in the minimum wage, but you’ve got to pay people properly. I think we need a kind of mindset change across the whole of the UK about how we see these jobs. I’ve met two people today who supplement their pension income by working two days a week in tourism – perfect.”

Cornwall struggles with a deluge of visitors in the summer months, while it’s always been a struggle to get people to visit out of season, often when the weather can be better. Is that something the Government can help push?

“I’ve initiated this process to set a national strategy for the visitor economy – it’s the first time we will have done that. One of the key parts is about extending the season. There are lots of things you can do.

“Lots of resorts and towns have found imaginative ways of doing that – vintage car rallies or book festivals, a whole variety of things which extend the season even if it’s by two or three weeks. Who knows, we may even think about moving one of the bank holidays.”

Really?!

“It’s a thought that it might help.”

How serious is that?

“It’s a thought in the back of my head at the moment, but I’m toying with it. I don’t want to be too specific. They’re concentrated a bit and for lots of families it’s really difficult to get away during term time for obvious reasons, but that means the times when they can go away are more expensive. So is there something we can do to balance that out?”

How hampered is the Government in these straitened times in helping the tourism sector financially?

“There are thing we can do to help that don’t require money. The short-term lets thing will help. Secondly, planning is so laborious that it means people worry about making investments in new hotels or refurbishments of hotels because they’re not sure what the economic situation will be by the time they get it through the whole planning system in five years’ time. We’ve got to change of all that, it’s a nonsense.”

Categories: Leisure