Joblessness soars in hard-hit tourism destinations during Covid

Average 150 per cent rise in joblessness in areas most dependent on tourist work

Portree Harbour on the Isle of Skye (Getty)

The UK’s top tourism destinations cannot be expected to “bounce back” without government help from the Covid crisis that has left businesses in debt and a disproportionate part of its workforce jobless, Labour has warned.

The party produced a dossier showing that the 20 areas with the highest amount of tourism jobs have seen an average 150 per cent increase in people claiming out-of-work benefits during the pandemic, compared to a national average of 109 per cent.

Worst-hit was the ski and hiking resort of Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands, which saw a 241 per cent increase in claimants, followed by Portree on the Isle of Skye (236 per cent), Kingsbridge and Dartmouth in Devon (233 per cent), Pitlochry and Aberfeldy in Perthshire (224 per cent), Ullapool on Scotland’s west coast (206 per cent) and Kendal in the Lake District (205 per cent).

Other tourism-dependent destinations with an above-average increase in unemployment included Minehead in Somerset, Pwllheli and Porthmadog in Wales, Fort William and the isles of Mull and Islay.

Meanwhile, latest figures show accommodation and food service businesses across the country are in more than £6bn of debt from the pandemic, while arts, entertainment and recreation businesses – including tourist attractions like zoos and theme parks – are facing a bill of almost £1.5bn.

And the latest ONS Business Impact of Covid Survey, released on Thursday, showed more than one in 10 hospitality and accommodation businesses has low or no confidence that it will survive the next three months. One in five hospitality businesses said they are at moderate risk of insolvency.

Labour shadow business minister Seema Malhotra warned: “While the vaccine rollout and roadmap to reopening is good news for businesses, it’s clear that ministers should not expect businesses saddled with debt taken on to survive the crisis to simply bounce back. It is far from job done.

“The government must provide businesses with a fair repayment scheme based on the amount they’re making, or risk more people falling out of work and further damage to local economies reliant on trade from tourists.”