Tourism

Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

I am sure all noble Lords will agree that the Commonwealth Games give us an enormous opportunity to welcome many friends and visitors from the Commonwealth and well beyond. I was particularly interested in the Anholt Nation Brands Index, which is so important in terms of perception of the UK. The UK overall nation brand has held third place—the same as 2012—and in terms of welcome has moved up three places from 13th to 10th and for sport has moved up one place from sixth to fifth. These are encouraging figures and the whole nation should be proud of them.

[Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Lee, makes an excellent point about including tourism in the name of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Can the Minister name any other private sector industry that by 2025 will have created 630,000 new jobs? Can he also tell the House how remote areas of the United Kingdom will be supported by the Government in increasing tourism jobs, not least in those areas which do not have broadband and mobile coverage?

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

I hope that, by the time the programmes for broadband have finished, all parts of the country, particularly those remote areas which are such wonderful parts of rural Britain to visit, will have benefited. I suspect that I am in difficulties in looking at an alternative but, of course, tourism is made up of many small businesses. That is an area which we are very keen to support. Small and medium-sized enterprises are a key feature of tourism’s success.