With foreign travel largely off the menu this summer the Federation of Small Businesses says local hospitality firms are benefiting but that it's not easy.
Hospitality businesses on the Yorkshire Coast are benefiting from the staycation effect but other factors are hampering their progress.
That's according to the latest survey from the Federation of Small businesses.
Scarborough Businessman Richard Askew is vice chair of the FSB's England policy unit he says staffing is a big issue.
The organisation says small firms are finding it difficult to find the staff they need.
Richard Askew says the number of staff getting pinged by the COVID app earlier in the summer also slowed down the recovery.
While the hospitality industry itself has been badly hit by the restrictions that resulted from the pandemic the FSb say there is also a network of support companies who have felt the knock on effects.
In their "Menu for Recovery" report the FSB say :
"many small firms that supply goods and services to business in the accommodation and food services sector, which are just as vital despite being less documented and often undervalued.
Businesses such as laundrettes that supply linen to hotels, coach operators that transport us to our day trips and the catteries that keep our pets safe when we go away, are the unseen support network which underpin and facilitate the public facing businesses. It is important that they are not forgotten. Businesses like nightclubs have been unable to open, and wedding businesses, often small firms run by women, have had to operate at significantly reduced capacity, with little notice of when and how they can operate."
The report also highlights some of the financial effects of the pandemic on hospitality businesses.
The FSB's own survey concluded that:
- 31 per cent of small hospitality and tourism firms in England used the leisure, hospitality and retail grant of £25,000, and 54 per cent used the Small Business Support Grant of £10,000.
- 53 per cent of small hospitality and tourism businesses said they have used a CBILS or BBLS loan.
- 56 per cent of small firms in the sector have taken on new or existing debt as a result of COVID-19 – higher than any other sector.
- Those carrying some form of debt has risen from 59 per cent pre-COVID to 77 per cent post-COVID.
The organisation is calling on the Government to develop
"a hospitality and tourism sector strategy, overseen by the Minister with responsibility for hospitality, bringing together the various departments to focus on short-, medium- and long-term support for the sector."
The FSB's full report on supporting and growing small hospitality and tourism businesses after the pandemic can be found here : https://www.fsb.org.uk/resource-report/menu-for-recovery.html
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