Tourism Alliance Coronavirus Updates
Feedback On Recovery Plan and Delay
There is a Tourism Industry Council meeting this Wednesday at 1:30pm at which we will be discussing the Tourism Recovery Plan and the impact on the tourism industry of the Prime Minister’s announcement on the delay in moving to Step 4 in the roadmap. If you have any feedback on either of these two issues, please let me know and I will consolidate it and feed it into the meeting.
Kickstart Guidance Video
The Guidance on the Kickstart Scheme has been updated to include a link to a new video aimed at providing businesses with a walk-through on how to apply to employ someone through the scheme.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-kickstart-scheme-grant#how-to-apply-1
The video itself, which is well worth sending to your members, is available below:
Changes to Step 3 Tourism Alliance
After the prime Minister’s announcement last night that England would remain in Step 3 until 19th July (albeit with a review in two weeks), the Government has updated the public guidance to take into account the changes to the Step 3 rules that will apply from 21st June until 19th July.
- What You Can and Can’t Do
The overall public guidance has been updated to take account of the announced changes on:
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- weddings and civil partnership ceremonies and wedding receptions or civil partnership celebrations
- commemorative events following a death such as a wake, stone setting or ash scattering
- large events pilots
- care home visits
- domestic residential visits for children
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-coronavirus-restrictions-what-you-can-and-cannot-do
In addition to this public guidance, more detailed guidance has been published on some of these changes. I’ve detailed highlighted the tourism-related ones below.
- Weddings, Civil Partnerships and Commemorative Events
From 21 June, the rules on the number of people who can attend a wedding or civil partnership ceremony, a wedding reception or civil partnership celebration, and a commemorative event following a funeral such as a wake, stone setting or ash scattering, will change.
The number of people who can attend these events in a COVID-Secure venue or other venue (such as a garden of a private home) will be determined by how many people a venue can safely accommodate with social distancing measures in place, including guests of all ages and anyone working at the event.
A marquee or other structure in a private garden of a private home must have at least 50% of its walled area open at any time for it to be classed as “outdoors”, and for the limit based on safe capacity to apply.
Inside private homes, and in enclosed structures in gardens of private homes, weddings can only be held in line with broader social contact rules of up to 6 people or 2 households, except in the case of an urgent marriage where one of those getting married is seriously ill and not expected to recover (‘deathbed weddings’). These can take place in private dwellings with up to 30 people.
Some restrictions on these events will remain in place to enable them to take place safely. This includes table service requirements, face coverings, social distancing, and restrictions on dancing and singing, as at present.
For those organising weddings in gardens of private homes or on private land, you will need to make your chosen venue as safe as possible. If you plan on having more than 30 people, you must complete a COVID-19 risk assessment to determine how many attendees will be able to attend, and follow Government guidance to make the event as safe as possible. Guidance on how to complete the risk assessment will be provided.
Further guidance has also been published for people on how to safely plan a wedding
- Large Events Pilots
A limited series of pilot events will take place to produce additional evidence on reopening events safely. Attendees will need to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test. This will include some UEFA EURO 2020 matches at Wembley and a small number of other sports, arts and music performances. The full list of pilots, and further details about the events, will be announced shortly.
- Overnight Trips For Out-Of-School Groups
Out-of-school settings can organise domestic residential visits for children in consistent groups of up to 30 children. This replaces the current limit of 6 people or 2 households.
