Yesterday Nigel Huddleston MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism and Heritage, published a letter to the tourism sector in which he wrote:

"During this challenging time, I recognise that the necessary actions we have taken asking people to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives have caused disruption to businesses, jobs and the economy. And that’s why the Government has produced an unprecedented programme of support for workers, businesses and charities."

With the letter he published the following summary of the key Treasury financial support announced to date as follows:

●     Coronavirus Job Retention (Furlough) Scheme where small and large employers will be eligible to apply for a government grant of 80% of workers’ salaries up to £2,500 a month. The scheme will be backdated to March 19 and available for at least three months, with the first grants to be paid within weeks.

●     Self-Employed Income Support Scheme to help eligible freelance workers receive up to £2,500 per month in grants for at least three months. Those eligible will receive a cash grant worth 80% of their average monthly trading profit over the three years up to 2018/19.

●     Deferral of the next quarter of VAT payments for firms, until the end of June - representing a £30bn injection into the economy.

●     £330bn worth of government backed and guaranteed loans to support businesses. The Chancellor has extended the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme so that all viable small and large businesses affected by COVID-19, and not just those unable to secure regular commercial financing, will now be eligible should they need finance to keep operating during this difficult time.

●     Grant schemes - Businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will be eligible for a £25,000 cash grant per property, for each property that has a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000. These businesses will also have a business rates holiday for the 2020/21 tax year.

As previously reported the grant schemes are administered by the District Councils and currently a number of grants have yet to be claimed by eligible businesses. If you pay business rates and have a rateable value of up to £51,000 and associate yourself with the retail, hospitality or leisure sector do follow this up with your relevant District Council: You can find up to date information from Somerset West and Taunton Council here and North Devon Council here .

New Bounce Back Loans

The Bounce Back Loan scheme will help small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000. The government will guarantee 100% of the loan and there won’t be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months. Loan terms will be up to 6 years. No repayments will be due during the first 12 months. The government will work with lenders to agree a low rate of interest for the remaining period of the loan. The scheme will be delivered through a network of accredited lenders. Y ou cannot apply if you’re already claiming under the   Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) . If you’ve already received a loan of up to £50,000 under CBILS and would like to transfer it into the Bounce Back Loan scheme, you can arrange this with your lender until 4 November 2020.

We have been delighted that so many tourism organisations across Exmoor have joined together to collaborate on a joint Recovery Plan alongside ourselves and Visit Exmoor.

The strategy focuses on:

Full background can be found here , or you can download the the Exmoor Covid-19 Tourism Response & Recovery Plan  here  (PDF). Please note this is a 'live' document which will be reviewed and revised regularly as the situation and government advice evolve. 

Key partners in the Plan (to date) include:

Exmoor National Park Authority ,  Visit Exmoor ,  Visit Lynton & Lynmouth ,  Porlock Vale Tourist Association ,  Visit Combe Martin ,  Minehead BID ,  Minehead Information Centre ,  Discover Dunster ,  Somerset West & Taunton Council ,  Exmoor Magazine.

We have also produced an Impact Statement summarising the key impact of Covid-19 on Exmoor's visitor economy - read a summary PDF  here .

We'd love to hear your views - please get in touch with Katrina Munro if you have any feedback or suggestions on the draft so far.

Whilst tourism partners are working on the area recovery plan now is a good time to start planning your own recovery. It can be difficult to know where to start, especially with the lack of clarity on what lies ahead, but that makes it even more important to be prepared. You will need to be flexible - plans will need to change and ideas evolve but use the time now to start the journey,.

'Tourism Know How' have provided free access to their online marketing recovery for small tourism businesses which we would recommend you register for and complete.

We have also collated some initial ideas and links to further advice for different types of tourism businesses and the changes you might need to make to adapt to a new way of working when restrictions begin to be lifted.

Download the guide here (PDF)

Visit Exmoor are inviting ALL businesses across Exmoor and its surrounding area to join a free Visit Exmoor Associate Member Programme. Visit Exmoor are focusing on how they can best support all tourism and visitor related businesses across Exmoor and its surrounding areas through this difficult period.

The "Associate Member" programme is FREE of charge and aims to keep your business updated with relevant support information and connect you with their marketing and PR initiatives and campaigns. 

  Find out more and sign up as an Associate Member .

Lock-down might be freeing up some time for you to catch up with things that sometimes get left behind. Try to use the time effectively to update and improve your website, get better photographs, maybe take some films, get up to speed with social media and keep in contact with your loyal customers while also attracting new ones.

We’ll be keeping you up to date with digital training opportunities in the coming weeks. Here are some free online courses being run by Cosmic:

Somerset West & Taunton businesses

- Focus on Facebook for Business – 7th May

- Getting noticed online – Search Engines and Website Improvements – 14th May

- Instagram Success – 20th May

North Devon businesses - Digital Advantage

- Introduction to Photography for business - Tues 5th May – 9.30am

- Get started with Video for business - Tues 5th May –1.30pm

Instead of the monthly 'How’s Business' survey the South West Research Company usually publish, we would urge you to please respond to the COVID-19 survey link below for April 2020. We appreciate this is neither the first, nor last, impact survey you will have had but it is all helping to build a really helpful picture of the situation on the ground. In particular this survey seeks to collect accurate info on the impact of the situation throughout April (as opposed to second guessing future impacts).

Complete the survey today!

Whilst we can't currently welcome people in person to Exmoor we can continue to build brand awareness and we would encourage all businesses on social media to take Exmoor to the homes of people across the country using the #VirtualExmoor hashtag.

You can share videos, images and stories from Exmoor whilst reinforcing the message to stay home and Visit Exmoor Later. You can also invite your followers to engage with you and share their memories and aspirations for future visits to Exmoor. There have been some great examples of businesses responding creatively on social media e.g. running Facebook Live streams for those wanting their 'dose of Exmoor' which could all be brought together as a unified campaign using #VirtualExmoor .

Who's who - meet the Exmoor National Park Sustainable Economy Team