Impact of Covid-19 on Coastal Tourism

Since the initial lockdown on 23^rd March 2020 the NCTA have been undertaking regular business and industry surveys as well as gathering research and data from external sources on the impact of Covid-19 to coastal tourism.

Our latest summary can be found here or a presentation of headline data can be found here .

Key headlines:

• Coastal Tourism pre-Covid was valued at £13.7bn in England and £17.1bn for Great Britain. 32% of all visits take place in July and August, 84% between March and October. As such, the Covid-19 outbreak happened at the worst possible time for Coastal Tourism.

• To date at least 7% of businesses have already permanently closed on the coast and the economic impact for 2020 is forecast to be a cut in tourism spend of £7.96bn in England (£10.3bn GB).

• 62.5% of coastal tourism businesses say it will take more than a year before they can return to a profit and 33.8% of businesses are unsure about their survival until March 2021

• A wide range of independent reports have also highlighted the vulnerability of coastal communities to the economic and health impacts of Covid-19.

To support recovery of the sector, the NCTA have prepared a three-year recovery programme and presented this proposal to the Chancellor and Tourism Minister – read our letter and responses from government here.

Page updated: 10th December 2020