Our role during COVID-19 (coronavirus)

The tourism industry has been one of the first and hardest hit sectors by COVID-19. The British Tourist Authority has a vital role to play to support the sector in these unprecedented and challenging times.

Our objective is to ensure that tourism rebounds to once again become one of the most successful sectors of the UK economy.

Through the crisis we are focusing on five areas:

1. Government advisory

We are acting as the interface between Industry and Government, providing timely and relevant comms, insight and data. We are working to ensure that the economic impacts on the tourism industry are understood and that Government policy matches the scale of the response needed.

2. Industry support and  communication

We are working to support the industry and have a key role to play as a trusted voice. See all latest relevant updates on our COVID-19 information for businesses page. Sign up for our industry enews to receive our COVID-19 bulletins.

We are also publishing tips and advice to help businesses during coronavirus on our Business Support Hub

3. Recovery preparation

We are already preparing for post-crisis recovery in crisis messaging and post-crisis recovery. 

See our marketing opportunities for ways to get involved in the meantime.

4. Staff welfare

Our people are our most valued and important asset and our number one priority through this crisis is supporting and enabling our staff.

5. Business continuity and compliance

Through this period we need to ensure we continue to run the business in an effective and efficient manner and spend public money wisely.

 

Proposals for government

In May 2020, we sent a paper to the Cabinet Office detailing how government can help the tourism industry recover from COVID-19. The paper was a result of an extensive consultation we conducted across the sector with major industry players who were instrumental in the design of the Tourism Sector Deal, including representatives of Destination Management Organisations (DMOs), businesses, trade bodies and more.

This paper proposed actions and recommendations for government across four workstreams: Timelines, People, Regulation and Long term future

Read the full paper (PDF, 934KB)