Tourism: Covid-19

Debate between Jim Shannon and Dave Doogan

Thursday 10th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Jim Shannon]

One of the important things about the coach companies is that many of them are family owned. There are three or four in my constituency and they are all family owned. The impact on those families has been dire, so does the hon. Gentleman agree that that is where the help is needed?

[Dave Doogan]

I agree entirely with the hon. Member. The nature of the business is absolutely exceptional, with its organic growth and investing to ensure that passengers get the absolute best experience. These businesses have paid handsomely into the Exchequer for decades, while never troubling the taxpayer for Government support. These are the businesses that the Government must now stand behind—if not for them, then for the 40,000 people employed in the coach sector. And if not for them, then for the £14 billion generated for the UK Exchequer every year by the sector. There is nowhere left for the Government to hide on this issue.

I would like to share with the Minister the example of one such company in my constituency, Black’s of Brechin. It has been family owned across the generations, proudly operating a modern fleet of luxury coaches that reflect very well on our outstanding tourist offer in Angus and more widely across Scotland. The managing director, Robert Black, was the first Angus business representative to contact me at the start of the pandemic. Black’s is a business with a focus not only on daily operations but on the strategic, looking for the threats and opportunities lying ahead. Not long after that phone call, all opportunity for Black’s of Brechin and every other coach operator up and down these islands evaporated, being replaced by overwhelming risk.

With lockdown, tourism stopped overnight. There were mass cancellations of coach tours, wedding hires, golf trips and football hires. Every single booking was cancelled, and although the tourism market theoretically reopened in July, that will not facilitate a recovery for the coach sector any time soon. What Robert Black said to me in that phone call in March has come to pass. He said that the coach industry would be the first to be hit, that it would be one of the hardest hit and that it would likely be the last to recover. I would add that without Government support, many operators will almost certainly not recover, although as we have heard, these are viable businesses. There is scarce time left to save the coach sector. The industry is in the midst of an 18 to 24-month winter, and furlough is due to end in the coming weeks. The Government told us that they would do “whatever it takes”. The fiscal levers rest here in Westminster, and the Government must act now.