Alex Sobel, Shadow Minister for Tourism and Heritage visited Knowsley Safari on the day that outdoor tourism attractions opened their doors for the first day since the lockdown.
Alex, who is the Member of Parliament for Leeds North West was welcomed alongside his family by the Earl of Derby and Managing Director Edward Perry.
It was confirmed by the Government last week that outdoor tourist attractions could open their doors from Monday 15th June. This has come as a relief to many in the industry who have felt the hard-financial impact of lockdown, due to the substantial ongoing costs such as maintaining high animal welfare standards.
Alex Sobel said:
“It was a great pleasure to be welcomed with my family to Knowsley Safari and I’d like to thank Edward and his team for a wonderful experience. Like many other animal centred attractions, the park has kept many of its team in post during lockdown to ensure the welfare of their animals. It is clearly a relief to them that they were able to open today and welcome guests. It was fantastic to see the care that they have taken to ensure that visitors were as few and far between as possible, as well as a high standard of social distancing measures on the site itself.
“Attractions like Knowsley are the standard bearer for the next phase of living with Covid-19 and I hope that the Government take seriously the measures that they and other leaders in the domestic tourism industry are calling for. The Government needs to change its one-size-fits-all approach to support packages and bring forward packages which fit different scenarios like Zoos, Safari Parks and Aquariums which risk additional waves of unemployment and closure without support.”
