With the Eurovision Song Contest being held in the UK, as a substitute for Ukraine, for the first time in 25 years – it could be a boom time for tourism and for Liverpool in particular.
Pubs, restaurants and shops in the city are expected to make approximately £470 million throughout the week of the event and afterwards.
If Mae Muller can somehow triumph then the UK would keep the hosting duties in their own right and another city would benefit from a similar boost in 12 months time.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the rest of the UK, as the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) warns that the tourism industry is facing critical levels of staff shortages that are vital to maintain all the businesses that keep guests fed, warm, entertained and rested.
A recent survey of 290 tourist businesses carried out by the FSB found that nearly half said they were having to cut their opening hours and service levels for visitors because they simply didn’t have enough workers.
One in ten of their respondents admitted that they were “barely staying afloat”.
Several said that while they noticed some improvement in trade as post-pandemic travel resumed without restriction, four in ten said they were struggling to generate enough profit to survive.
Tourism Numbers
Because tourism is such a widespread and mutli-faceted activity that also greatly influences other sectors such as hospitality, accommodation, transportation and retail, it can be hard to find accurate and relevant data to get a more accurate picture.
If we look at two tourist specific business areas however, we can identify some clear trends.
Holiday Accommodation, short lets & camping ground insolvencies 2019 – 2022
| 2019 | 13 |
| 2020 | 10 |
| 2021 | 15 |
| 2022 | 23 |
Despite a lot of media focus on “staycations” and “glamping” in the UK compared to foreign holidays, a total of 61 businesses underwent an insolvency process since 2019 with a 35% increase in the past 12 months alone.
Travel Agency & Tour Operators insolvencies 2019 – 2022
| 2019 | 44 |
| 2020 | 94 |
| 2021 | 91 |
| 2022 | 100 |
Similarly, travel agents and tour operators have had a worse four year period with travel bans and lockdowns particularly affecting them.
329 went into insolvency over the same period with 100 in the past 12 months which is an increase of 56% from the 2019 total.
Chris Horner, insolvency director with BusinessRescueExpert, said: “We’ve written previous articles about how badly pubs and restaurants have fared over the past four years and this applied equally as much to the tourist industry as well.
“Travel is a habit and like a lot of other pre-Covid habits, it’s been broken for thousands of people and might not be replaced.
“No industry can cope with a large percentage of its customer base simply disappearing, especially ones with seasonal and varied yearly patterns as tourism.
“While we hope that the next few months offer great weather and everything they could wish for to help them recover from the pandemic years, realistically the damage has already been done for hundreds if not thousands of small business owners and directors – through no fault of their own.”
If your business is dependent on tourists or you’ve been directly or indirectly affected by the pandemic and now the ongoing cost of living crisis and worsening economic conditions then we have some good news for you.
There are several options you could deploy that could see the business given time to be restructured and rebuilt and given more time to repay creditors and clear outstanding debts that are holding the business back.
It might be the case that the business has gone as far as it can and it could be closed with a minimum of fuss and stress with most if not all of its unsecured debts, including bounce back loans, written off.
Whatever your end goal or ambition, get in touch with us today to arrange a free initial consultation with one of our team of expert advisors.
Once they have a clearer understanding of your unique situation, they will be able to advise you what your optimum strategies are. The earlier you make contact, the more choices you usually have.
But only if you book your slot first.