Industry Update: 6 August 2020

Latest update on local restrictions in Greater Manchester

On Thursday 30 July, the UK Government announced new local restrictions that apply across the whole of Greater Manchester which aim to minimise the spread of Covid-19.
On Friday 31 July, official guidance was released on the Government website confirming that households should not mix indoors with implications for tourism and hospitality venues such as museums and galleries, hotels, pubs, bars and restaurants. This was then followed by official legislation which was release on Tuesday 4 August.
Yesterday the Greater Manchester Combined Authority held a press conference led by Mayor Andy Burnham and Sir Richard Leese. The press conference contained an update on several issues including a continued slight rise in infection data on average across Greater Manchester, that we need to be wary of, but which is not too alarming. The overarching takeaway from the press conference was a reiteration, firstly, of the request asking people not to have visitors in their homes or not to visit the homes of others, and secondly, for people to wear masks wherever possible.
What this means for the visitor economy is that as it stands we can all continue to support the reopening of the tourism, hospitality and leisure industries; however, it is incredibly important that we abide by the temporary rules on social contact and that people wear masks as much as possible (see story below) in order to avoid more stringent measures being brought in should the rate of infection continue to rise.
All that being said, the situation can change at any point and can shift quickly, so we ask our partners to please stay vigilant, follow the rules and get in touch with our Tourism and Hospitality Support Hub team if you need support.

New face covering rules from Saturday 8 August

Face covering guidance has been extended for various new settings and will be become law this Saturday, 8 August.

Within tourism, hospitality and leisure, the new settings affected beyond retail include: cinemas, theatres, bingo halls, concert halls, museums, galleries, aquariums, indoor zoos or visitor farms, or other indoor tourist, heritage or cultural sites, public areas in hotels and hostels, places of worship, libraries and public reading rooms and indoor entertainment venues (amusement arcades, funfairs, adventure activities such as laser quest, go-karting, escape rooms, heritage sites).

Full guidance on face coverings can be found on the Government website.

In case you missed it: Northern DMOs launch new NatWest Business Barometer

As towns and cities across the north of England reopen their economies, a contingent of DMOs, led by Marketing Manchester, have come together to launch a new fortnightly business barometer which will measure the UK post-lockdown tourism business environment including shifts in employment, trends in revenue and overall business confidence.

Led by Marketing Manchester, nine DMO’s – including Cumbria Tourism, Make It York, Marketing Cheshire, Marketing Lancashire, Marketing Liverpool, NewcastleGateshead Initiative, Visit County Durham and Visit Leeds – are involved and have agreed to recruit panel members from within the tourism economy that will consistently participate in a survey.

The survey is supported and funded by NatWest and will run for three months until the end of October. The first set of responses have been received, revealing several key take-outs which will now form a benchmark to report against every fortnight.

Read the full story here and access the barometer here.


Small Business Recovery Grants

Following the recent announcement that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will be issuing European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grants through the Growth Hub network, the Business Growth Hub is currently applying for Greater Manchester’s allocation which we believe will be agreed late August to early September.

Businesses will be able to apply for 100% funded grants with a value between £1,000 and £3,000 (with grants available up to £5,000 in exceptional circumstances). The grant must support the purchase of either professional advice (marketing, accountancy, HR, legal etc) or the purchase of new technology or other equipment which will support the business being more productive (PPE can’t be funded with this funding).

There will be a focus on support for the Visitor Economy so businesses wishing to express an interest in accessing this funding are urged to complete the details here to register interest.

Watch now: Tourism and Hospitality Talent Hub industry support webinar

Due to COVID-19 many businesses have been forced to reduce numbers within their current workforce and adapt to a new normal. Such drastic change can be incredibly difficult, and The Tourism and Hospitality Talent Hub is here to help you and your staff to navigate this period.

Yesterday the Growth Company and Marketing Manchester ran a free webinar to detail the vast range of support that we can offer the tourism, hospitality and leisure industries.

If you missed the webinar or would like to watch it again, please click here and fill in details to access it.

For more information and general enquiries about the Tourism and Hospitality Talent Hub, please get in touch with Margaret Bartnikiewicz via email: talenthub@growthco.uk or call 07503 620815.


Find Your Space campaign update

We’re delighted to let you know that since launching our Find Your Space campaign on 8 July the website has received 9,500 page views and our #FindYourSpaceMCR social media content has generated 420,000 impressions on Twitter and 1.4 million impressions on Facebook.

You may remember that when we launched the campaign we revealed that our strategy would be to focus the first wave of our campaign on hyper local audiences, encouraging Greater Manchester residents to get out and about in their local villages, towns, cities and countryside.

To support this we have dedicated sections of the campaign website that focus on the nine Greater Manchester boroughs outside of Manchester – Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan.

We are continuously updating the content on these pages as well as our Manchester pages as usual, so if you have useful content or contributions please continue to send them to Ryan.Maley@marketingmanchester.com.


Accommodation partners invited to participate in Find Your Space short breaks campaign

With an annual value of £442 million to Greater Manchester’s economy, short breaks are hugely important to the local visitor economy and attracting visitors for a short break will be an important part of the Find Your Space campaign.

Marketing Manchester will begin to promote short breaks to regional visitors from August before increasing our catchment to national throughout the autumn season.

To make sure our autumn campaign has real cut through, we want hotels to help us to lead with a tactical offer of ‘Have a free night in Manchester’, which we will promote across the UK to capture people’s attention and facilitating bookings.

How the offer is administered will be up to individual hotels allowing greater flexibility around rates and demand. Reservations will be made directly to your booking system via visitmanchester.com with the assistance of our distributor and partner TXGB. This approach has been developed in partnership and consultation with the MHA.

Please contact Laura.Mason@marketingmanchester.com ASAP to register your interest in participating in the campaign and to provide your GDS/booking system which needs to be verified by TXGB for compatibility with their systems.


Partner news you should know about

Partner news you should know about
Some welcome news from our partners that we think you should know about:

Please email your news to press@marketingmanchester.com FAO of Andy Parkinson and also add this email address to your media/press distribution lists.


Sightseeing Manchester bus tours map opportunity

Sightseeing Manchester – the city’s hop-on, hop-off tour bus – returned on 24 July, operating Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The tour is VisitEngland ‘Good To Go’ accredited and have put processes in place to ensure visitors are safe including mandatory face coverings (which can be purchased onboard), sanitising touch points and providing hand sanitiser. Bookings can be made online or with the driver via contactless.

To help kick-start the local tourism economy, the hop-on hop-off bus operator is also publishing a tear-off A3 city map that will be distributed by Manchester city-centre hotels.

There are 19 “business card” sized advert panels available to retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, with an initial print run of 10,000 copies (200 map pads, 50 pages per pad).

If you are interested in getting your business at the front desk of Manchester’s hotels, email: sightseeingmanchester@gmail.com for further details and artwork requirements.


Tourism and Hospitality Support Hub 
 
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis the Tourism and Hospitality Support Hub has been available to ensure that tourism and hospitality businesses are given the most up to date information including reopening standards and guidance. We have streamlined the Hub to give the most useful information; however, we will continue to deliver the service throughout the reopening of the visitor economy and anyone who needs specific and detailed support should contact supporthub@marketingmanchester.com for bespoke help and advice.

I hope you can get out and enjoy the summer, whilst continuing to stay safe.

Kind regards,
Sheona Southern
Managing Director
Marketing Manchester

https://theredhat.co.uk