PM urged deliver fresh package for tourist industry

Boris Johnson is coming under pressure to deliver a fresh multi-million pound package of support for the tourismindustry with the PM warned the sector is set to suffer three winters in a row because of the pandemic.

A cross-party group of MPs are joining with industry bodies in calling for an extension of chancellor Rishi Sunaks support schemes such as grants, loans and furlough payments for as much as six months to the spring of 2021, when they can expect revenues from bookings to start flowing again.

The tourism industry has specific problems because it operates on a feast and famine basis, with businesses making enough during the spring and summer to see them through the winter, said Lib Dem MP Tim Farron.

Covid-19 came just at the end of the famine, and it closed everything down just as the feast should have been beginning when we get to November when the support schemes have all run out, they are knackered, because the usual summer feast has just been a picnic and you are really in a three-winters-in-a-row scenario.

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