Latest news with #BernardDonoghue
The Guardian
21-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
National Trust freezes recruitment after £10m jump in costs
The National Trust has frozen all but essential recruitment and is pausing some projects as it faces a £10m jump in labour costs this year as a result of higher employment costs stemming from last autumn's budget. The conservation charity, which looks after 500 historic houses, castles, parks and gardens, as well as 780 miles of coastline and 250,000 hectares of land, said the extra costs were the result of changes to employers' national insurance contributions and an increase in the legal minimum wage, which both come into force next month. The trust said it did not expect visitors to be affected or opening hours to change as a result of the budget constraints, which have been exacerbated by broader inflationary pressures and a squeeze on household spending. It will still be recruiting for 'business critical' roles and was reviewing projects in its pipeline with the intention of pausing some where there would be no adverse impact on public benefit or urgent conservation. The issues come after a tough few years for the charity, which found itself in the midst of a culture war over its perceived 'wokeness' with threats of interference by the Conservative government. 'While we firmly support fair pay for our staff, the changes to the 'national living wage' and national insurance employer's contributions are a significant increase for us to absorb. And that's not all. A combination of the cost of living crisis, high inflation rates and a lack of wider economic growth in the past few years have also created pressures for our operating and conservation costs,' a spokesperson for the National Trust said. 'The National Trust is not alone in having to make tough financial choices, these are challenges the whole sector is facing. People's support – including membership and donations – has never mattered more. We are committed to continuing our vital charitable work and creating the maximum possible public benefit in everything we do.' The National Trust's cost cutting plan emerged as the body which represents the UK's top visitor attractions – the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) – said it expected more members to cut jobs and reduce investment despite stronger trading last year as they battle higher employment costs introduced by the government. The Tate, which has four galleries across London, Liverpool and Cornwall, has already said it is cutting 7% of its workforce as the British arts institution seeks to address a funding deficit left over from the pandemic. English Heritage is meanwhile planning up to 200 redundancies and the winter closure of various castles, abbeys and other historic sites in its care. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Announcing a 3.4% increase in visitors to its members' 400 sites last year, Bernard Donoghue, the director of the ALVA, said the budget changes had 'effectively wiped out planned surpluses for many attractions or derailed their investment plans, and for some, these unbudgeted, unanticipated costs will result in cuts and job losses'. He added: 'For most visitor attractions, 2024 was a year of steady but not significant growth. The long economic recovery from lockdown during Covid, the effects of the cost of living crisis on consumer spending, increasing business costs and modest inbound visitor numbers to the UK mean that 2024 was a financially changing year for visitor attractions.' Donoghue said overseas visitor numbers were on the rise but were not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels for another year, adding that domestic visitors were being 'more tactical' about their leisure spending as a result of the cost of living crisis – visiting attractions less often and spending less money while there. Last year the most visited attraction was the British Museum and the fastest growing included the Young V&A and Buckingham Palace, which saw a record number of visitors.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Visits to tourism attractions grew 3.4% last year but challenges remain
Major tourist attractions saw a 3.4% increase in visits last year but face challenges from rises in the cost of doing business, according to new research. There were 157.2 million visits to 400 of the most popular UK venues in 2024, according to trade body the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva). That is up from 151.2 million during the previous year but remains 8.8% below the pre-coronavirus figure of 169.7 million in 2019. Bernard Donoghue, Alva director, said attractions will suffer from increased employer national insurance contributions (Nics) and the minimum wage. He told the PA news agency: 'The Government should be fully aware that these unplanned, unanticipated and unbudgeted costs are really taking a hit on the cultural sector, whose profits or surpluses were already incredibly lean. 'For many Alva members, this next financial year would have been the first after the pandemic that they come properly into surplus. 'But for many organisations the national insurance changes have wiped out their projected surpluses, wiped out their investment plans.' He added: 'For some, these costs will result in cuts and job losses.' Mr Donoghue said consumers are 'still being quite cautious about their leisure spending', but are 'prioritising' days out with family and friends, and keeping up memberships of visitor attraction organisations. He also said attractions in the cultural and heritage sector are suffering in particular from the failure of inbound tourism numbers to recover to pre-pandemic levels, largely because of the slow return of Chinese visitors. The British Museum in central London was the UK's most popular tourist attraction for the second year in a row in 2024 with 6.5 million visits, up 11% from 2023. The second most-visited attraction was the Natural History Museum in west London, which had its best year for visits at 6.3 million. In third place was Windsor Great Park, Berkshire, with 5.7 million visits. The most popular attraction in Scotland was Edinburgh's National Museum of Scotland (2.3 million visits) while the number one spot in Wales was taken by St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff (600,000 visits). Titanic Belfast had the most visits out of Northern Ireland's attractions, with nearly 900,000.
