Front and centre of this support is Visit Buckinghamshire, which supports and promotes businesses and attractions across the whole of the county, showcasing what’s on and where to locals, day trippers and visitors from abroad.

If you have a tourism, hospitality and leisure business or attraction, and you have not yet listed it on the Visit Buckinghamshire website, take a look at your promotional options here.

Issues facing the Buckinghamshire visitor economy

The reasons why this type of support is necessary were laid bare at the Business Briefing, with a host of challenges identified facing businesses in the visitor economy.

These include:

• Significant recruitment challenges
• Cost of living increases affecting household budgets, meaning fewer holidays (though some may opt for staycations instead)
• VAT rate returning to pre-COVID levels
• Businesses facing energy price increases
• Repayments of COVID loans

Issues such as the above contribute to some businesses opting to close on certain days of the week, especially pubs and hotels.

Buckinghamshire’s visitor economy in numbers

Some key statistics were highlighted at the Business Briefing, placing Buckinghamshire’s visitor economy in the context of the national picture, and digging deeper into the local visitor economy. Key stats include:

Businesses

• 7% of Buckinghamshire’s businesses are directly in the visitor economy
• Within the county, the majority of visitor economy businesses are in Beaconsfield

Workforce

• 9% of Buckinghamshire’s workforce is employed in the visitor economy.
• There has been 10% growth in the local workforce employed in the sector since 2015, far above the 1% increase seen nationally
• The majority of this workforce growth (31%) has been seen in Beaconsfield

Buckinghamshire’s GVA

• The visitor economy produced a £1.2 billion contribution to Bucks’ GVA
• This is approx. 9.8% of Bucks’ total GVA

Want to come to the next Business Briefing?

Keep an eye on our events programme for the next MP's Business Briefing.