Challenges revealed for tourism businesses in 2020 by UKinbound

Travel association UKinbound has announced that the top challenges for its members in 2020 include a negative perception of the UK resulting from Brexit, alongside recruiting and retaining staff.

These results were revealed during its Annual Convention in Bristol, which took place from 5-6 February at Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel.

The results were collected as part of the association’s January 2020 Business Barometer member survey. The survey was compiled by Qa Research, which also looked at business operating conditions in Q4 2019.

The survey additionally found that only 48% of tourism businesses believe they will be ready for Brexit by the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020. Results showed that visitor numbers, bookings, customer orders and yields remained the same.

One in three respondents said they were experiencing growth from the US market, while Germany and France continue to be the most sharply declining markets.

In Q4, China was the second leading growth market for members, with some suggesting this will be a pivotal market post-Brexit. However, a number of businesses said their 2020 optimism has wavered due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Joss Croft, CEO, UKinbound commented: “It is encouraging to hear that many of our members are experiencing strong forward bookings and that they’re confident about business in 2020.”

Croft continued: “However, there are significant challenges now and ahead for our members due to the impact of the Coronavirus on the Chinese market, negative perceptions of the UK and the looming prospect of the end of Free Movement. Our members are already struggling to recruit employees with foreign language skills and are worried about the administration involved in recruiting non-UK employees post Brexit.”

Croft concluded that UKinbound will work with the government to ensure the new immigration policy “treats the tourism industry fairly and if needed, we will campaign for an extension to the transition period so that businesses have enough time to prepare and adapt.”