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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of providing additional sector specific support to the tourism and travel industry.

We continue to engage with tourism stakeholders to assess the role of the Government’s unprecedented support measures in supporting the sector through this period. Ministerial colleagues in the Department for Transport are doing the same with the travel sector.

In total, over £25bn has been provided during the pandemic to the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors in the form of grants, loans and tax breaks. The Government is continuing to support businesses and individuals - including through various government-backed loans, grants and the extended furlough and self-employed support schemes. A UK-wide VAT cut for the tourism sectors from 20% to 5% is in place until September 2021, and 12.5% for the rest of the financial year.

The Government published the Tourism Recovery Plan on 11th June. Alongside addressing short and medium term challenges, the plan sets out a long-term framework for how the Government will work with the sector to build back better from the pandemic - and develop a more sustainable, innovative, and data-driven tourism industry.