The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published a report on the impact of COVID on the tourism industry that brings together a range of data over different time periods. The main findings of the report are:

• Accommodation and travel agency businesses saw the sharpest decline in turnover during the first national lockdown, falling to 9.3% of their February levels in May 2020.
• The proportion of businesses in travel and tourism industries trading peaked at 85% in October 2020, before declining in response to increasing restrictions in November.
• In the three months to June 2020, employment in accommodation for visitors fell by 21.5% compared with the same three months of 2019.
• In travel and tourism industries overall, the number of people aged 16 to 24 years saw the largest fall in employment of any age group between Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2019 and Quarter 3 2020.

Monthly air passenger arrivals to the UK were very badly hit while Greater London saw the largest fall in room occupancy of any English region.