The long awaited Levelling Up White Paper has been published and as well as devolution plans that include the development of County Deals for Suffolk and Norfolk, the Government has set out ambitious targets with key relevance to the visitor economy, including to increase education and skills attainment, improve transport and broadband, improve pay and employment and to boost pride in place.
Suffolk Growth will be working with all local authority partners and sector partners to ensure the visitor economy is engaged in developing programmes.
Return to Plan A and “Living with Covid”
“Living with COVID” is becoming part of the narrative from Government as we expect legal restrictions for COVID to diminish or end in due course in 2022. Announcements in recent weeks have seen welcome news for the easing of restrictions for international travel and tourism. The Secretary of State for Transport, announced changes to the international travel rules from 11 February 2022.
From 4:00am on 11 February, all testing requirements will be removed for eligible fully vaccinated arrivals into the UK, with only a Passenger Locator Form now required.
Arrivals who are not recognised as fully vaccinated will only need to take a pre-departure test and a PCR test on or before day 2 after they arrive in the UK.
The passenger locator form will be simplified shortly, people will need to confirm their vaccination status, travel history and contact details, and people will have an extra day to fill it out before travelling.
Alongside this news Visit Britain have announced a new £10 million campaign to encourage international visitors to visit the UK in a year that Britain hosts a number of significant international sporting and cultural events, as well as the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations
Prime Minister declares UK one of the most open countries in Europe and ready for an international tourism boom
For the current updated guidance on working safely during coronavirus visit Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) – Guidance – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Suffolk Growth has also updated the summary advice and guidance on COVID for businesses and the workforce. The slide deck can be accessed here.