Tourism chiefs say chancellor must offer them hope

Rick Turner said the tourism sector was "massively impacted" by the last budget

The boss of a rural attraction has said tourism needs to be offered hope when Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the Budget on Wednesday.

Rick Turner, director of The Big Sheep in north Devon, said the government's last budget led to closures and sucked enthusiasm out of the tourism and hospitality sector.

He said: "We need the bright light in the future to see where we're going, rather than just there is going to be more taxes and more spending."

Claire Flower, director of south Devon business Beverley Holidays, said it had been a "tough year", and the government had made hiring staff "more costly and difficult".

The chancellor previously confirmed both tax rises and spending cuts were options.

But Mr Turner said the tourism sector was "massively impacted" by her last changes.

"It sucked out a lot of money from tourism. We're seeing the debris," he said.

"We've had Visit Cornwall close down. We've had attractions close."

Mr Turner said he wanted officials to "even the playing field" with tax rates.

Claire Flower said there was not much money to reinvest

"We're currently paying a lot more tax on tourism and hospitality than they are in Europe," he said.

"They really need to try and encourage businesses to want to actually take things forward to invest in training and development, you know, new facilities and attractions."

He said leaders should inject money into marketing, to provide "optimism and flow of visitors to attractions, holiday parks and hotels".

He added: "Lots of pubs are really struggling at the moment. If you drive pass your local pub it's closed at eight o'clock on many days. Sometimes it's not even open.

"We're trying to come up with a solution and it's brutal. It's tough out there."

Ms Flower said tourism businesses were low in confidence.

"At the moment, there's not much money there to reinvest, which is difficult because you want to grow your company, you always want to have high quality products and offering," she said.

"There is a bit of a lack of uncertainty, you never know what is going to be announced yet."