Alton Towers owner in plea to hold off on VAT rise

The Staffordshire theme park's owners, Merlin, employs about 10,000 people in the UK

The owner of Alton Towers has called on the government to hold back on plans to hike tourism VAT in April, warning its Covid recovery had slowed.

VAT on tourism, food and soft drinks is at 12.5% following Treasury support in the pandemic but is set to rise to 20%.

Merlin Entertainments says the move promises "a significant adverse impact" on the group and wider sectors.

It said recovery had been dented by the Omicron variant and the Plan B restrictions, since eased, to curb it.

The government had said previously in the pandemic, when VAT for the trade was raised from 5% to 12.5%, that there had been "extensive support" for the industry.

Mike Vallis, divisional director at Merlin, which in addition to the Staffordshire amusement park owns tourist attraction Madame Tussauds, said the group was seeking to recoup its pandemic losses from the past two years. He also called for more help to aid its longer term progress.

He said although UK visitor attractions "benefitted from domestic tourism during 2021", there continued to be "a dearth of overseas visitors which continues to have a significant adverse impact on overall numbers and revenue for the sector as a whole".

Mr Vallis stated that in addition, the recovery was "significantly slowed over the winter period".

He said: "In light of this, we continue to support the collective view of our industry that a lower rate of VAT needs to remain in place for tourism.

"We firmly believe that keeping the current lower rate of VAT in place will help drive demand, create jobs and give the tourism sector a strong boost on the road to a long-term, sustainable recovery."

Hospitality bosses have also called for the 12.5% VAT rate to be continued ahead of the Chancellor's spring Budget announcement.

Merlin, which employs about 10,000 people in the UK, made the calls a week after sealing a deal to take control of Birmingham's Cadbury World attraction.