GNF Members Update 19 June - Issue 47


Dear Member,

Unfortunately last night's Government Briefing still gave no confirmation about re-opening plans for tourism on 4 July. The situation is now getting ridiculous, particularly as the Scottish Guidance has now been published and they don't plan to re-open before 15 July!
 
Scottish Covid-19 Advice
UKHospitality has published Scottish COVID-19 advice for hospitality and tourism businesses (it includes Protocols for accommodation, attractions, events, pubs and restaurant businesses) who are due to reopen on 15 July. This is useful background for those English businesses wanting to prepare to open to the public on 4 July as it is expected that England's protocols will be very similar to these when they are eventually signed off by Government.

Republic of Ireland Pub Guidance
Updated guidance for reopening Irish pubs include significant changes such as 1m distancing:
  • Seating time up from 90 mins to 105 mins plus 15 minutes between bookings (2 hours in total). 15 minutes added for adequate cleaning and to ensure customers leave and enter without mixing.
  • Contact tracing: Businesses now only required to collect the contact details of the party lead. The original HPSC guidance was for the full group.
  • Where 2 metre distancing is not possible, businesses are now permitted to implement 1 metre distancing in controlled environments provided other risk mitigation requirements are met and pre-booked time slots in place.

VisitEngland “Get Ready to Open” Business Resource Centre
To help tourism businesses prepare for reopening, VisitEngland has developed a new website to bring together all the guidance and resources available to businesses. This will be added to when the new Government Guidance for the industry and associated protocols is finally published. It also include a wide range of webinars that businesses can sign up to on topics ranging from market insights to using technology to maximise business.

DCMS C-19 Impact Business Survey
The top line outcomes of the DCMS survey demonstrate how severely the pandemic is effecting the tourism industry: 
  • 80% of tourism businesses thought the outbreak was a threat to the viability of their business
  • 32% of tourism respondents said that even with Government support their business would not be viable within 3 months, while 62% said their business would not be viable within 6 months
  • 68% of tourism respondents were generating no revenue at all, while 92% said revenue had decreased by more than half and only 2% said revenue had stayed the same or increased
  • 31% of tourism respondents have accessed Government support of any type
The survey suggests tourism businesses are being impacted more severely than other DCMS-related businesses, but experiencing far greater problems in accessing support. The situation is even worse in the events sector. 

C-19 Rural H ampshire Business Survey
The Hampshire Rural Forum is surveying rural businesses on the impact of C-19 to help inform local authorities, government agencies etc and ensure that future support is focused on identified need and not best guesses. To enable New Forest tourism business interests to be heard, we’d like GNF members to complete the survey which can be found on the link below. The results will then be fed into further discussion forums to help equip rural businesses for the next few challenging years ahead. We hope GNF members will also participate in that stage of the process too.


GNF Updates

Changes to Search Facilities
As previously reported and discussed at Sector meetings, we requested Simpleview to change our search facilities on the destination website www.thenewforest.co.uk across all sectors from drop down to tick boxes, giving more flexibility on search options for our visitors. The changes are now live on the website.

Discover Guide 2020
Order your guides from Places To Go by: Email: placestogo@btconnect.com or tel: 01258 860077 - please include your business details, delivery address and quantities required.

Upcoming GNF Virtual Sector Group Meetings
The following Sector Group Zoom meetings have been scheduled - invitations will be sent to each group with agenda and joining instructions:
Hotels Pubs Inns & Restaurants - Wednesday 17 June at 11am
Attractions - Tuesday 23 June at 11am
Bed & Breakfast - Wednesday 24 June at 11am
Self-Catering - Wednesday 24 June at 2.30pm
Holiday Parks & Camp Sites - Thursday 25 June at 11am
Hotels PIR Group - Wednesday 1 July at 11am

As agreed in the last Update, please send us any recommended suppliers or services that will assist our members in preparing and operating during the re-opening phase. Please send to members@gonewforest.com . In the meantime, we have made a start on recommendations and these can be viewed below.


With best wishes,

Anthony