Thu, 23 Apr 2020
The Department for Enterprise has been working with the Island's tourism accomodation sector to establish a number of initiatives to support recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Department has paid out £1m to date through the Strategic Capacity Scheme which was created for the direct benefit of the sector, and continues to identify additional measures for ongoing assistance.
An initial £2.4million has been set aside with further support to be reviewed after industry consultation to ensure the Island retains its strategic accommodation capacity.
Laurence Skelly MHK, Minister for Enterprise, commented: ‘Our accommodation businesses are reaching crisis point, particularly around the issue of visitor deposits. We understand that many simply do not have the ability to refund deposits, even if they wished to do so and we recognise that simply rolling over a booking for a year, particularly with reference to TT bookings, will inevitably result in delayed cash flow issues."
Visit Isle of Man has been working closely with accommodation owners to better understand the current issues.
For businesses looking for further assistance the Department recommends reviewing the package of measures available at https://www.iomdfenterprise.im/coronavirus/