Prime Minister promises new tourism strategy by year end
Prime Minister David Cameron promised to have a new tourism strategy in place by the end of the year in a speech in London’s Hyde Park today.
He said he wanted to increase the amount raised by tourism, Britain’s third largest industry.
"Tourism presents a huge economic opportunity," he said. "Not just bringing business to Britain but right across Britain driving new growth in the regions and helping to deliver the rebalancing of our national economy that is so desperately needed."
A key part of the government’s strategy, said Cameron, is to persuade Britons to spend more of their holiday budget in the UK.
Currently only a little over a third of Britons’ total holiday budget is spent at home and Cameron said the government would ‘think about trying to get this up to 50 per cent’.
He is also keen to attract more Chinese visitors to the UK, which currently gets only a 0.5 per cent share of Chinese tourists. If that rose to 2.5 per cent, it would add over half a billion pounds to the UK economy, he said.
"I want to see us in the top five destinations in the world," said Cameron. "But that means being much more competitive internationally. Take Chinese tourists, for example: we’re their 22nd most popular destination. But Germany is forecast to break into their top 10. Why can’t we?"
Cameron revealed he has not ruled out putting Britain’s clocks forward one hour to put us on continental time. Many in the tourism industry are in favour of the move, which would give Britain lighter evenings and longer days.
VisitBritain welcomed Cameron’s speech. Chief executive officer Sandie Dawe said:
“We are delighted that the Prime Minister has declared so clearly that tourism is fundamental to the rebuilding and rebalancing of our economy.
"And we share his determination to use the coming decade to boost Britain’s international competitiveness in tourism and to take our industry to a whole new level.
"VisitBritain is already focusing on delivering on these ambitions to build the value of inbound tourism. Our activity contributes £1.1 billion to the economy and delivers £150 million directly to the Treasury each year in tax."
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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