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 potential effect of recent rises in rates of covid-19 infection on the tourism and travel industry in summer 2021.

We recognise that COVID-19 continues to have a significant impact on the tourism industry. We will keep gathering sector intelligence to monitor pandemic-related trends over the summer in order to support the sector’s safe reopening and recovery.

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. In May, we published the Tourism Recovery Plan to help the sector recover back to pre-pandemic levels and build back better for the future. The plan aims to recover domestic tourism to pre pandemic levels by 2022 and international tourism by 2023; both at least a year faster than independent forecasts predict.