Caroline RobinsonSouth West

BBC Aerial view of a beach in Cornwall. There is blue sea and sky and lots of people on the beach. — Ellie Pitt said she loved the industry but it was “very challenging at the moment”

People working in the hospitality sector have been looking ahead at the year to come, some have expressed concerns over business rates and others said they were “cautiously optimistic”.

Ellie Pitt, landlady at The William the Fourth Pub in Truro, said her business rates had increased from £56,000 to £93,000.

Kate Nicholls, chair of UKHospitality, said: “There’s no better place to go on a holiday than the Cornish Coast and the Cornish Moors, and we need people to be doing that and helping to support our businesses.”

A HM Treasury spokesperson said it was supporting the sector with the Budget’s £4.3bn support package.

Ellie Pitt said: “We’re having to think outside the box”

Ellie Pitt, with shoulder length hair and wearing a black top and necklace. In the background is the inside of a pub. — Ellie Pitt said: “We’re having to think outside the box”

Pitt said plans had been made for the year but “the overall idea and worry is, are we going to be here to see that through because the costs are rising”.

Nicholls said: “We need to be making sure that hospitality businesses… have the support they need to be able to… survive…. because they’re so important.”

Previously the next 12 months were been described as “pivotal” to Devon’s tourism sector.

Rick Turner, owner of The Big Sheep attraction in north Devon, said there was a “degree of apprehension” about 2026, adding “this could be the toughest year for hospitality we’ve seen”.

Veryan Palmer, executive director of the Headland Hotel & Spa in Newquay and chair and founder of Cornwall Hospitality Collective CIC, said the year was “looking cautiously optimistic”.

She said business rates were a significant challenge for some in the sector but the rates relief for the retail and hospitality smaller businesses was helping.

A HM Treasury spokesperson said: “We’re protecting pubs, restaurants and cafés with the Budget’s £4.3 billion support package.

“Without this support, pubs would face a 45% increase in the total bills they pay next year.

“Because of the support we’ve put in place, we’ve got that down to just 4%.

“This comes on top of our efforts to ease licensing to help more venues offer pavement drinks and put on one-off events, maintaining our cut to alcohol duty on draught pints, and capping Corporation Tax.”

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