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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment the Government has made of the economic effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the (a) overseas and (b) internal tourist trade; and what support he plans to provide to (i) York and (ii) other cities which are dependent on tourism.

We are aware that COVID-19 has significantly impacted the tourism industry. We remain in regular contact with outbound and domestic tourism stakeholders to closely monitor COVID-19’s economic effect on UK tourism, and continuously assess the impact.

We have supported Destination Management Organisations - including in Yorkshire - to continue their vital business support roles via a £1.3 million VisitEngland scheme. Two Yorkshire Destination Management Organisations (Make it York and Welcome to Yorkshire) have combined received over £40,000 in support from the VisitEngland scheme.

My Department has launched the Cultural Renewal Taskforce to help our sectors to safely reopen. To inform this taskforce, I chair a Visitor Economy Working Group which specifically focuses on developing guidance for restarting tourism activity.

We will continue to engage with stakeholders to assess how we can most effectively support tourism’s recovery in cities across the country. We are actively considering all the recovery ideas suggested to us by stakeholders.