A leading inbound operator has secured two meetings with her own MP, one with tourism minister Nigel Huddleston, another with backbencher Theresa May and one more with the head of policy at the CBI – all in a bid to save her business.
Emmanuelle Spriet, owner and chief executive of destination management company E-Voyages Ltd, was also lobbying at the travel industry Day of Action last month, desperate to persuade the government to open up international travel and give tailored financial support the sector – both inbound and outbound.
She said: “Our industries are falling through the cracks. We are just invisible as far as the government is concerned. Let’s not kid ourselves; this government hasn’t got a clue what it takes to run a business.
“At some point, the cash is going to run out. The majority of businesses in our sector are independent SMEs and the effect of this pandemic on us all is dramatic. Business owners will start to lose their homes. It could get to that point soon – even for my own business – unless we get some support.”
Spriet said her business, which brought 20,000 people into the UK each year from across Europe and Canada pre-Covid, was unrecognisable now.
“I have had to make half of my 40 employees redundant. We’ve made use of furlough but not 100% as we’ve needed people to work. We took out a CBILs loan but that was only supposed to be for six months and I was rejected for a £25,000 grant. Costs can easily get to £15,000-£20,000 a month and yet we’ve had zero income for 16 months, so I have been lobbying all I can. It’s taken up a lot of my time but I’m doing it to save my business and to save the industry,” she said.
Spriet said she had had two meetings with her MP for Beaconsfield, Joy Morrissey, to explain her plight.
She also joined a round table with Huddleston who had maintained the government was giving “unprecedented support packages” already. She said May had been more receptive, listening and taking notes, and had promised to write to the chancellor; and said the head of policy at the CBI had seemed “shocked” when she had shared her facts about the state the inbound industry is in.
She said: “I’m not giving up. I set my business up 15 years ago. I poured my heart and soul into it and I don’t want it to be taken away from me through no fault of my own. Nobody in the travel and tourism sector can be blamed for losing their business. It’s not our fault and I just hate the feeling of injustice of it all.”
Spriet continued: “I don’t want to have to sell shares in my business to keep it afloat, but if it’s that or bankruptcy, I might have to. We’re faced with these impossible choices and it makes me sick.”
But she added: “At this moment in time, whatever the government decides, summer’s gone and we can’t go through into winter without income.
“It’s obvious the government’s agenda is to push domestic tourism but domestic tourists spend three times less than international ones.”
She said ministers were really short-sighted because companies like hers could actually influence and drive tourism in line with the government’s own agenda.
“We can drive business away from the hubs and out to the regions, like they want, so why would they stop us trading and why wouldn’t they give us a way to survive?” she said.
Spriet said she would not give up lobbying for help.
“If everything goes wrong, I want to have no regrets. I owe it to myself and to my remaining employees to fight until my very last breath,” she said.