Tourism

Baroness Seccombe Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble]

My Lords, I say to the noble Lord that I do not think we should have any ceiling for the targets. We have to take the opportunity in the United Kingdom to ensure that as many people as possible visit from abroad and indeed that there is as much domestic tourism as possible. I was interested to note that according to the recent Deloitte report there are currently 206,000 direct and indirect tourism jobs in Wales. Indeed, the Great Britain Tourism Survey for last year showed that British residents made nearly 10 million visits to Wales, which was 3.4% up in comparison with the previous year.

[Baroness Seccombe (Con)]

My Lords, there was a startling increase in the number of visitors from abroad last year. Does my noble friend accept that in no small part that was due to the enormous success of the Olympic Games? Should we hope for a similar bounce from the Commonwealth Games this year?

[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.