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"Wish you were here Gordon" - Öpik
April 8, 2009 12:49 PM
Lembit Öpik, Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire, pressed Gordon Brown yesterday to support Tourism in Montgomeryshire, perhaps even holiday in Montgomeryshire.
Commenting on the campaign, Lembit said:
"British tourism can thrive only if the Government is prepared to invest in the industry and adopt a sound marketing strategy to publicise Britain's many attractions.
"Yet Visit Britain, the body responsible for marketing Britain as a tourist destination abroad has seen its funding drastically cut by over £15 million between 2003 and 2010. And the Government has refused to commit to more funding in the sector.
"As a crucial part of the UK economy, tourism deserves to be taken far more seriously by the government. There are numerous reasons why people from both home and abroad should holiday here.
"It is clear that previous cuts to the Visit Britain fund had serious effects on the levels of tourism in Wales. takes increased Government support to do it for the whole country.
"Tourism could provide one of the routes out of the recession. Thousands of jobs could be protected and new ones created if the cuts in the funding for VisitBritain were reversed and steps like reducing VAT on accommodation and entrance to tourist attractions were considered."
Tourism Week is an opportunity to raise national and international awareness of the size, value and importance of Britain's £86 billion visitor economy. Lembit Öpik MP has presented to Gordon Brown a postcard inviting Prime Minister Brown to pay a visit to Montgomeryshire. Tourism employs roughly 10% of the population in Wales and it is essential, both for local economies that rely on seasonal tourism, and the wider Welsh economy that this is not allowed to happen.
Ends/diwedd
Notes:
The third annual British Tourism Week (BTW) takes place this week. Don Foster MP and Richard Younger-Ross MP of the Shadow DCMS Team have launched a campaign to urge the Government to reverse the funding cuts it has levelled at the Tourism industry. The reduction in funding has had severe ramifications including a large reduction in visits to British tourist sites from overseas visitors, causing our tourism deficit to increase and the UK's share of global tourism to fall significantly.
Tourism is the sixth largest industry in Britain. It generates £85bn p.a. for the UK economy (6.4% of GDP) and directly supports 2.2 million jobs (7.7% of the total workforce). In generating £15bn per annum in foreign exchange, it is also the UK's third largest export earner.
• Between 2003 and 2010, Government has cut its funding to VisitBritain, the main body for marketing British tourist sites aboard by £15 million.
• Over the last 10 years the UK's tourism growth has continually under-performed the global average - the UK's tourism deficit has spiralled from £5bn to £20bn per annum, the UK's share of global tourism receipts has fallen by almost 20% and revenue from domestic tourism has fallen by more than 25%.
• The number of overseas residents visiting the UK in the three months of October to December 2008 was down 12% compared with the same period of 2007, whilst spending was down 1% in nominal terms.
• Sterling was (on average) 26% weaker against the US dollar and 20% weaker against the Euro in December 2008 compared to December 2007, meaning that most visitors' currencies are going further.
• The full year-on-year picture is that visit numbers are down 2% for the whole of 2008 compared to 2007 and spend is up 3% in nominal terms.
• Figures for the 3 months of October-December 2008 show that outbound visits by UK residents were down by 8% compared to the same period of 2007.
• UK residents have not reverted to visiting UK sites. Domestic tourism declined steeply in November as the economic downturn deepened. There were 6.6m overnight trips made in the UK by UK residents in November 2008, a fall of -25% from the same month in 2007 - equivalent to 2.2m fewer trips.
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