Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely has written to Tourism Minister, Nigel Huddleston, with a list of suggestions about how the Government could help get the UK visitor economy back on its feet.
Bob highlighted the fact that there were 2.4 million visitors to the Isle of Wight in 2019, who spent £303 million directly related to tourism. He also pointed out that the wider economic impact of tourism and hospitality on the Island equates to almost half a billion pounds annually.
Bob said:
“Getting tourism-related Isle of Wight businesses back up and running is vital to the recovery of the Island’s economy.
“Businesses largely dependent on visitors returning cannot be left to fend for themselves, they need support, and I am determined to help them.
“I have listened to representations from a wide range of local businesses affected by the lack of visitors and I have sent our collective ideas to the Minister.”
Bob has asked the Minister, alongside with his ministerial colleagues, to consider the following:
- A 5% reduction in VAT on tourism and hospitality
- Additional grants and furlough funding beyond October
- A longer payback period for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
- Local authorities to be allowed to use unspent monies from the Small Business Grant Fund scheme
- An extension to business rates relief by a further six months
- Support for the payment of refunds
- A regeneration fund for tourism
- Flexibilities to trade beyond current restrictions
- An extension of the term for existing Business Improvement Districts
- A reduction in the 2-metre social distancing rule to 1-metre (having regard to recent research funded by the World Health Organisation).
In addition to these proposals – which would be of benefit to both the Island and the rest of the UK – Bob also highlighted the specific challenges which his constituency shares with the Isles of Scilly: how visitors reach us. He referenced the emergency fund of £10.5 million which the Government has made available to support lifeline transport links to these English island communities, before going on to highlight the current efforts (in liaison with the Department for Transport) to get a more regular ferry service operating once again across all 6 cross-Solent routes.
Bob said:
“This is absolutely essential in enabling our tourism and hospitality sectors to receive visitors – both for day trips and overnight stays – once it is safe to do so. I am grateful to the Government for its involvement in both these preparations and the provision of ongoing support to ensure connectivity to and from the Island.”
After praising the work of Visit Isle of Wight – and it’s Managing Director Will Myles – in contributing to the development of national standards for the re-opening of tourism businesses, Bob went on to say:
“The Isle of Wight is leading the way. We now want to become an exemplar for how the tourism and hospitality sectors can get back on their feet.”
What a numpty, trying to protect the Island and the NHS, I think not! Clearly he wants a second spike, reducing social distancing is wrong, it’s dangerous we need the full 2 meters and it needs to be enforced.
Christ
And the most of rest of Europe is distancing at 1.5m or some at 1m.
Let’s just let the hospitality industry and the many many island jobs go to the wall instead.
It’s not like many people are socially distancing anyway.
Let’s just stick our heads in the sand and pretend that the current situation will never change.
Typical so called islander who came over here a year or two ago and thinks they speak for the rest of the Island and own it as well.
You
re not going to stop tourism, but what would be advisable is to wear face masks in shops as well. People move around in shops, unlike on a bus, and its sometimes impossible to keep your distance.We can stop tourism, and it must be paused for this year.
perhaps you can finance the lives of those who are destitute then mark – selfish, very selfish.
no we do not need to be wearing a face covering in shops – entry to shops can be controlled far better and therefore no need – stop being such a sheep
Well done again Bob. You really aren’t looking to be re-elected next time there’s a vote – are you? ??? How often when given the chance are you going to prove you don’t give a toss about the lives and well being of the people that live here?
The thing is, he will be re-elected. Because the last time there was a chance of unseating him, that creep Farage decided that no one here was allowed to vote for the Brexit Party candidate. So faced with the remaining choices, look what happened.
I see elsewhere Bob’s been breaking the lockdown rules. Naughty Bob, only Dominic Cummings is allowed to do that. Well and Robert Jenrick of course.
It’s OK, its allowed locally. Church Litten set the local standard yesterday, so don’t bother Bob.
The protest adhered to social distan ING in groups of 6, unless from the same family!!
Rubbish
Sorry, That was a bit rude. I appreciate many people were trying but it just wasn’t working and people seem to have no idea what 2m looks like. In any case there were far too many people in one place in the present circumstances and it should have been dispersed.
no it didn’t jenny- it was just a bunch of bandwagon jumping, virtue signalling hypocrites, who demand social distancing on their terms only.
These people only turned up because they have nothing better to do.
perhaps they should go and live in another country such as some of the african states and see how white people are viewed, instead of being a bunch of do gooders
Where’s the other Bob Seely story?
The same place as new corona cases. Seem to of stopped according to IE according to my calculations based on IE information in a few days we have gone the full two weeks self isolation period and it’s extinct on IOW.
Oh Bob Seely what a joke you are, I thought you might have had some sense, but from your list of ideas it seems you truly are out of touch with the rest of us. May I suggest that you could resign your seat as an MP here on the island and move to Cloud Cuckoo Land, it is far more suitable. If more people come here in summer and there is a 2nd spike here because of it, the Island itself will be locked down, but those who brought it with them will go laughing all the way back to there mainland homes after their holiday.
Please visit here, scroll down and get in touch with him to register protest….
https://www.bobseely.org.uk/
I wonder if he reported Richard Tice, Isobel Oakeshott and Freddie Gray for staying second homes?
Don’t grass on your own, especially after you ate their sausages.
Need to get rid of all this social distancing crap – I cannot believe the mugs on this island are lapping up every bit of crap the government trots out
Social distancing isn
t crap - its one of the few things that really help. Look at what happened in Göttingen (Germany)!yes it is crap – all airborne viruses spread far more than 2 metres – if you do not believe it, then next time you smell tobacco, weed or vape in the street and you see someone upwind of you smoking it, on the other side of the road, have a think how far away they are. Smoke particles are larger than viruses and heavier – yet are carried much, much further than 2 metres in even the lightest winds.
How dare you! A bare- faced callous view of money money money first and sod everyone living here.
is it better to be rich and dead or poorer and alive? but if you think you are immune from this terrible virus then I guess your views make sense.
Why don’t you visit the hospital and let them know all is fine and back to normal. I work there and I would be happy to show you around.
This kind of thinking proves that the Tourist Board rule the Island and cannot conceive of this as a place which used to function very well without tourists!!
I am old enough to know so do not tell me we would sink without them; or maybe it is just people like you who like to get rich and then tell us we do not matter
Hate to tell you that the island has had tourists for many more decades longer than you have been around. The island economy is seriously suffering. Thousands of people are without jobs this year on the island (hospitality jobs).
The owners are not trying to get rich they are trying to keep their heads above water. Several hotels are already on the brink of going bust.
Like it or not July 4th or possibly later is coming and those tourists will be coming. A plan needs to be devised on how they will be accommodated on the island.
We can’t just let a generation of people be forgotten.
The virus is slowing down and life will never revert back to normal – we need to adapt to a new normal not pretend and hide away.
we are getting back to normal sue – suck it up
get with the program sue – this island depends on tourism – without it, most of us will move ..then what.. you and the rest of the hand wringers won’t have any society to speak of…you won’t have any services, any ferries, any shops, any entertainment – because we will all have cleared off to places where it exists and we can make money to support our lives.
you may be working in the hospital – but you are getting taxpayer funded salaries, which ensures you quality of life stays the same – we are not…the private sector is bearing the brunt of this and we will not forget it easily.
if this virus only affected people under 40, then there would have been no lockdown, as the old people in the house of lords wouldn’t have permitted it.
What a jock strap
There will be nothing here left for them to come back to anyway…the way things are going
Lol,1 meter ,10 meters, makes no difference , unless social distancing is removed, our lives will never go back to normal. Remember, this was to keep the curve down. What bloody curve ,it’s gone! Save the nhs. They are sending nurses home because there’s no patients! I spoke to a nurse today, didn’t know she was a nurse ,talking to her husband, and I said, we all know it’s blown out of proportion, and the hospitals are empty, she said I work at the hospital, and then said, yes your right, loads of staff but no patients, then she said, well we are all over it now anyway. These rules they are introducing are to control us, why can’t you people see this.?
you’re talking crap mr justice, stop making stuff up, my wife works at the hospital and it is NOT empty by a long way. Get your facts straight before you start typing.
st marys is seriously underused due to covid at this time. They reported this fact themselves some time ago and asked that people still come in for their appointments.
I am now lying, this was what I was told, but then again, of course your wife works at the hospital how convenient for your weak argument.! You are nothing be a rude, arrogant and selfish twit.
Not
That’s your pop up MP you voted for…….well done, has anyone ever got a response from him ie getting an email reply apart from his auto response. You lot are treated with such contempt it’s breathtaking!
All I got the 3 times I tried to email him was the same auto-reply, 3 times, and I did say I lived on the island, but still all I got is auto-reply. Bob just tries to prop himself up by trying look good jumping on someone else’s bandwagon. Time for him to leave, maybe he can use the ferries to go and live on the mainland, perhaps be a guest at the Cummings residence.
He was too busy eating sausages in Seaview to reply personally.
Yet again he wants us used as testing ground, this time for reduced social distancing. Obviously all the scientists are wrong, and politicians right. Poop.
It appears all HE wants is to be a headliner ! ! ! !
Problem, is he being used to voice what this money backers want?
If the answer is an absolute yes, then the minute it all falls to pieces, who is going to get the blame??
Not his backers, they will drop him like a ton of horse s***.
Surely, the concept of Social Distancing is now dead as a dodo. Considering that reportedly ‘thousands’ of people gathered or are set to gather in several cities to protest the death of a man in America. Apparently oblivious to the strong possibility that their stupidity will help spread Covid-19 and in so doing kill some of the people they claim to care about!
Why dose Bob get to go to a BBQ with his friends and we cant???? Whats all that about ???? I thought he was ok but now im not sure
I have a business on the island and the best advice i got was to go on to universal credit, as none of the millions the IOW council have floating around to help businesses suit my criteria. They are just trying to keep it for them self.
5% Vat drop on everything or not at all !!! I thought we were all in this together.
Why hasn’t he resigned? Yet again it’s ‘them and us’. It makes my blood boil when mainlanders come here and profess to know what is best for our Island. He obviously doesn’t care about us only himself so he can strut around and say ‘ I did’…. Get rid of him and his counterparts
Maybe old news, but he’s not been observing the lock down so how can we trust his judgement?
Went to a BBQ during the lock down.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-52939446
Interesting how many people on here hide behind fake names
Not really. What someone has to say is far more interesting than being able to check their name against an electoral roll.