Assembly Question 9454/17-22

Question: To ask the Minister for the Economy for an update on the Tourism Recovery Steering Group, including; (i) how often the group meets; (ii) how many times in total the group has met; and (iii) any recommendations that have been made thus far.

Answer: I established the Tourism Recovery Steering Group, which I chair, to help our hard pressed tourism and hospitality industry deal with the many challenges presented by COVID-19. Membership of the Steering Group is comprised of relevant Government Departments, Tourism NI, Tourism Ireland, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and tourism and hospitality industry representative bodies. The Steering Group is supported by a Tourism Recovery Working Group which is chaired by Tourism NI.

The Tourism Recovery Steering Group met in May, June and September 2020 and, most recently, on 24 February 2021.

The Steering Group (supported by the Working Group) developed Phase One of the Tourism Recovery Action Plan which has been instrumental in securing additional funding to help the tourism and hospitality industry deal with the impact of COVID, in terms of supporting business survivability, improving industry resilience and driving essential visitor demand.

Progress in respect of implementing Phase One has included:

1. implementation of “We’re Good to Go”;

2. focussed marketing on the domestic, GB and Republic of Ireland markets to drive visitor demand;

3. targeted grant support aimed at a wide range of tourist accommoation providers;

4. support for wet pubs;

5. capital grant support to develop new (and upgrade) existing visitor experiences to meet post COVID consumer expectations;

6. grant to support tourism businesses to develop their websites to secure future business through online bookings;

7. grant support towards the cost of consultancy support to assist businesses plan their response to the COVID pandemic;

8. support for NI tourism businesses participating on international virtual sales platforms to secure business from international tour operators in 2021 and 2022;

9. support for event promoters;

10. support for international tour operators and Destination Management Companies to programme and promote Northern Ireland as a tourism destination to international consumers for 2021 and 2022;

11. supporting the conference sector in retaining conference activity planned for Belfast in 2020 but postponed due to COVID, and in securing post COVID business in what will be a very competitive market; and

12. marketing grant support for businesses to help with the cost of their own marketing in NI and the Republic of Ireland alongside Tourism NI’s marketing campaigns.

In addition, other Departments have also played important roles in supporting businesses in the tourism eco-system, for example the Department of Finance’s support for Northern Ireland’s airports and the Department for Infrastructure’s support for coach operators.

I am very aware that 2021 will be another challenging year for our tourism and hospitality industries, albeit one where we can start to get back on track and begin recovery. I have, therefore, tasked the Tourism Recovery Steering Group with developing a draft of Phase Two of the Tourism Recovery Action Plan