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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to encourage local authorities to market and promote their areas as part of a wider scheme to promote domestic tourism and support the tourism and hospitality sectors.

We recognise that these are extremely difficult conditions for tourism businesses across the country, including those along the South East coast. We continue to listen to people’s priorities for recovery and will closely monitor the ongoing impact on the tourism industry.

We are looking into ways we can work with local authorities to celebrate the UK’s diverse tourism offer once it reopens. We are actively considering all the recovery ideas suggested to us by stakeholders, including schemes to promote domestic tourism.

Through the Cultural Renewal Taskforce and the Visitor Economy Working Group, we have worked very closely with the tourism sector to develop Covid-secure guidance which will help tourism businesses reopen safely. Guidance documents covering hotels and other guest accommodation, the visitor economy and pubs and restaurants are published on Gov.uk.

VisitEngland have also introduced an industry standard quality mark that tourism businesses can acquire if they are compliant with Covid-19 secure guidance. The ‘We’re Good To Go’ industry standard mark is part of VisitEngland’s ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign, which encourages the public to find out what is open and when. This campaign points consumers toward Destination Management Organisations’ websites, helping people to access up to date local information.