Operators and venue co-operation vital to finding sustainable solutions in sector recovery, delegates are told
Industry experts have offered insight into how operators and venues can work together to take advantage of an anticipated rebound in domestic tourism.
Figures compiled by Visit Britain and the European Tourism Association (ETOA) suggests that domestic tourism, while devastated by the global pandemic, is on course for a dramatically better recovery than international tourism.
ETOA CEO Tom Jenkins says: “Those relying on domestic tourists should see a season which looks more similar to 2019 than 2020. There is an argument that that is slightly optimistic, but there are grounds from the inbound point of view.”
2021 forecasts made before the vaccine announcements showed an incoming tourism recovery for the second half of the year as stronger than 2020, but not yet level with 2019, with a market shrinkage from a predicted £30bn before the pandemic to approximately £6bn.
‘Robust’ interest in tourism
But evidence from social media reports and online travel agents indicate “robust” levels of interest in the domestic tourism market. “People are researching holidays and looking to travel,” adds Mr Jenkins. “There are strong arguments to say the second half of this year might be better than the Visit Britain data implies.”
Robert Shaw, Chair of the Coach Tourism Association, offers guidance on how operators might use the recovery in domestic tourism to come back stronger in 2021. Partnership is central to that recovery. “Everything is changing, and a lot of the booking conditions in place now don’t really reflect that. We ought to get the unprecedented message over to our suppliers, and that the consequences and terms of trade reflect the new order. We have to use this sabbatical to raise standards together.”
Benefits of co-operation
Guy Cordery, Managing Director of the JG Theatre Club, says it was difficult to find attractions to accept group bookings when running excursions. This led him to work with Melissa Hackney, Group Sales and Marketing Manager for the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), who has made efforts to establish better partnership working with coach operators and reveals the benefits of closer co-operation.
“From an attraction’s point of view, we could see the demand, but didn’t have a sense of the appetite from coach operators and groups so it was valuable to talk throughout the lockdown period,” says Ms Hackney.
By working closer together, RHS was able to marry industry requirements with its own COVID-safe operation. Ms Hackney urges operators and venues to re-evaluate their positions on working together in group tourism, and recognise the benefits of coach travel as offering a captive audience that can be well briefed on arrival to ensure safe, socially distanced visits, all as part of a green recovery in domestic tourism.
“Coach visits have been labour intensive, but with each group we have welcomed we have found efficiencies and, as operators repeated their visits, the more comfortable operators and passengers became – and I know what a benefit these trips have been for everyone’s yield.”
RHS says as a result it feels more engaged now with the industry than ever before, and with new strengthened partnerships, it hopes to change visitor travel behaviour and promote more green options in the years ahead.
