Tourism

Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke Excerpts

Wednesday 24th April 2013 Grand Committee

[Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Lee, on securing this debate. We all know of his considerable expertise in tourism and he never misses an opportunity to raise the issue. I am delighted to support him and I agreed with almost everything he said; I will reserve my judgement on double summer time, given where I come from.

I also welcome the noble Lord, Lord Gardiner, because of his background in rural affairs. The key thing to remember about tourism is that it is the economic instrument that can reach parts of the country that other instruments do not. That is where my interest in tourism comes from; it is the regeneration of remote communities. I declare an interest as a non-executive director of VisitBritain.

I, too, have been listening to what the Secretary of State had to say today about the economic impact of the arts. She said one thing that almost had me cheering: she wants “participants not bystanders”. If ever there was a compliment to tourism, it is that. I do not make any partisan point in this because, frankly, I am as critical of the Government that I was a member of as I am of this and previous Governments for their failure to put tourism at the heart of the economic debate.

British tourism has been a partner in economic development, and £24 million of partnership funding from VisitBritain has gone to the commercial sector. As a result of the activities of VisitBritain over a four-year period, £100 million has gone into a marketing programme and that has directly contributed £900 million to the UK tourism industry. That is a stunning return on investment.

If we look at the impact of tourism on jobs and growth in the economy, it contributes £115 billion to the UK’s GDP and employs 2.6 million people. Internationally, tourism employment outstrips car and chemical manufacturing in terms of the number of people employed. It is seen in other countries as a major instrument of growth, but we consign it to the cuddly fringes of government. This is an industry that can bring serious economic growth; 9% of the UK economy comes from tourism. One job in every three created between 2009 and 2011 was in tourism. Another key figure is that 44% of those employed in tourism are under the age of 30.

We all want economic growth in this country; we want it outside the south-east of England; we want it in Cornwall, Devon, the north of Scotland, the Welsh valleys and everywhere else. Tourism can bring that, but it will never have the full impact that it could have if it is consigned to the outer edges of government policy. We laud UKTI in our economic debates; we should be lauding VisitBritain, British tourism and the many hundreds of thousands of people who make it one of our great success stories.