‘Decisive’ action needed to halt domestic tourism slide
A slump in the number of UK domestic holidays taken in the summer peak month of August has sparked industry alarm.
Latest figures from VisitBritain show that the number of overnight trips fell by 11% – equivalent to 1.7 million fewer trips – over August 2007. Spending was down by nine per cent.
For the year to the end of August, overnight trips have dropped by three per cent.
There was even a drop in the number of overseas holidays taken in August, down by two per cent year-on-year to 8.5 million.
The UK tourism figures prompted a call for government to better support the industry.
The call by the Tourism Alliance came on the back of a recent study by Deloitte and Oxford Economics that show that the wider tourism economy represents 2.8 per cent of the UK’s GDP and supports 1.36m jobs.
Tourism Alliance chairman Bob Cotton said that the figures showed that there had been a considerable downturn in domestic tourism since the start of the year, which was likely to continue into 2009.
“Domestic tourism is on the slide. Unless decisive action is taken to support it a considerable number of tourism-related jobs will be at risk,” he said.
Cotton added that the Spanish government had just announced a financial package of assistance to its tourism industry worth €400 million.
“Spain recognises the value of its tourism industry which is hardly the case with the UK government,†he said.
“Implementing these two measures would go a long way towards protecting the UK tourism industry. Without them, tourism revenue will fall and job losses will multiply.”
The Tourism Alliance called for two key measures of support:
*Review existing and proposed legislation to see where costs to tourism businesses can be reduced.
Proposed regulations on employment, food labelling, service charges/tipping, and licensing will lead to additional costs that businesses can ill afford.
The increase in Air Passenger Duty, announced in the pre-Budget Report, will deter people from visiting the UK just at the time they are needed to boost tourism.
*Instead of cutting back government funding for tourism promotion, new public/private sector campaigns are needed to stimulate demand and take advantage of the fall of the value of the pound.
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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