Exhibition News April 2022 | Page 6

DMO goes into administration

News

The month at a glance

The stories , topics and trends making headlines in recent weeks .
Russia events ban
Culture secretary Nadine Dorries has called for Russian participation to be stopped at all UK events .
Speaking in the House of Commons Dorries called for events organisers to block Russian involvement and called for the cancellation of the UNESCO World Heritage Conference due to be held in Kazan , Russia , in July .
Farnborough International Airshow announced that Russian participation would be suspended from the event in July . IMEX Group has also suspended Russian state enterprises from attending IMEX Frankfurt , which takes place 31 May-2 June . Several events industry associations including the Events Industry Council and Meeting Professionals International have also condemned the war in Ukraine .
The Ukraine-born president of Euroindex Kyiv , and UFI Board member , Valerii Pekar , issued a call for international support to help stop the war .
Revenue decline
Data published by the Office for National Statistics has revealed that 16.2 % of businesses in the coaching , language school and events support sectors are suffering a revenue decline exceeding 50 %, following a request from the Tourism Alliance .
The data shows that 8.2 % of all businesses in the UK are suffering from a revenue decline more than 50 %. The true scale of the impact on events businesses cannot be accurately reported as only those using the Standardised Industrial Classification ( SIC ) codes ‘ Activities of conference organisers ’, ‘ Activities of exhibition organisers ’, and ‘ event catering ’ have been included .
In December , the UK Government launched a £ 1.5bn Business Rates Fund to be distributed to those businesses most impacted by Covid-19 but not eligible for the Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief .

DMO goes into administration

Welcome to Yorkshire , the county ’ s destination management organisation ( DMO ) has been put into administration .
Before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold the events and tourism industries were worth £ 9bn to the Yorkshire region .
The DMO had launched a comprehensive recovery plan in 2021 to attract tourists and event organisers back to the region . A four-week digital campaign , launched on 4 June 2021 , focused to attract people to the cities of Bradford , Hull , Leeds , Ripon , Sheffield , Wakefield and York .
It was reported that September 2019 , Welcome to Yorkshire was granted an emergency loan of £ 500,000 by North Yorkshire County Council in order to pay its staff . During the pandemic , the total number of staff has been reduced from 49 to 22 .
A statement released on 1 March referenced “ legacy issues ” as cause for the decision .
“ These matters , coupled with the impact of Covid and the task of securing sufficient funding from the public and private sectors have made the situation increasingly challenging .
“ Sadly , the decision of the Yorkshire Leaders not to commit to a multi-year funding package means that Welcome to Yorkshire cannot continue in its present form .”
06 — April