Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the contribution to the economy of small and medium-sized travel companies.

Tourism makes a vital contribution to the UK economy, with the industry contributing around £60 billion to the economy each year prior to COVID and directly employing 1.6 million people. The Government has not calculated the specific contribution of small and medium-sized travel companies to the UK tourism sector’s overall value.

We recognise that Government measures to control the spread of Covid-19 are significantly impacting travel companies. We continue to engage with travel and tourism stakeholders, including UKInbound and the Association of British Travel Agents, to assess how we can best support the inbound and outbound sector’s as well as domestic recovery.