Tourism Industry

Blake Stephenson Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Blake Stephenson (Mid Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Government support for the tourism industry.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward, and to introduce this debate during English Tourism Week, when people across the country will be celebrating all the fantastic tourism attractions that form part of the fabric of so many of our communities. They range from Land’s End to John O’Groats, from the Needles on the Isle of Wight to the neolithic site of Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands, and from the Titanic museum in Belfast to the Roman ruins of Colchester. Across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, we are fortunate to have unique and interesting tourism attractions. We have them in, I feel reasonably confident in saying, every constituency and every corner of the country.

Tourism is a vast industry. It is worth £145.8 billion to the UK economy, which is equivalent to 6.5% of UK GDP. Tourism supports 3.8 million jobs, and 1.6 million people are directly employed in tourism. Some 328,000 businesses, representing 6.6% of all businesses in the UK, are tourism businesses; 76% of those are microbusinesses. Tourism is the UK’s sixth largest export earner and it feeds into a wide tourism ecosystem, supporting local high streets, hospitality and a wide range of other industries.

This Government have an ambition for our country to reach 50 million tourism visitors a year. It is an ambition that I support, and I hope that in this debate we can examine the role that Government and we in this place can play in supporting tourism nationally and backing our tourism economies locally. I am aware that, as the Member of Parliament for Mid Bedfordshire, I might not be the most obvious voice for tourism in this place. Bedfordshire has been rather left behind by the tourism economy. We are one of the last counties in England without an official local visitor economy partnership. That is despite fantastic attractions such as English Heritage’s Wrest Park, Whipsnade Zoo and Woburn Safari Park—I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests following the safari park’s kind hosting of a roundtable and tour of the park for me earlier this year. We also have Center Parcs Woburn Forest, the Wyboston Lakes Resort, Luton Hoo and so much more.

Anyone who watched my debate last year on tourism in Bedfordshire—I am glad to be debating with the Minister on tourism again—will have heard me extol the virtues of Bedfordshire as a place to visit. However, despite those fantastic attractions, our county has a domestic tourism economy of just £250 million and an international tourism economy of just £100 million. We are not a remote county; we have a major international airport, a motorway and a direct rail connection. Bedfordshire’s tourism economy has so much potential to be a key part of growing the economy.

Where Bedfordshire has lagged, it now can lead. The Government have already thrown their weight behind East West Rail, which has the potential to make a real difference to local tourism, setting our county up as a central piece of an Oxford-to-Cambridge growth corridor that is full of growing businesses and, more importantly for this debate, attractions that embody what it is to be an English county. Like many other colleagues, we have fantastic opportunities in Bedfordshire to deliver new attractions that will boost our tourism economy. The Bedford to Milton Keynes waterway park is one such opportunity, and would be capable of attracting 750,000 visitors, creating 1,000 jobs and bringing in an extra £26 million for our local economy. I will continue to bang the drum to get that delivered as quickly as possible.

The other major tourism project in my constituency is the game changer. Looming like a monstrous shark off Amity Island, a prehistoric predator off the coast of Costa Rica or an Italian-American plumber in the Mushroom Kingdom, the Universal Studios theme park at Kempston Hardwick would transform the tourism landscape in Bedfordshire. Universal is a game changer for Bedfordshire, but also for the whole UK tourism economy. Getting it right represents a £50 billion economic boost, 20,000 new jobs and 12 million more visitors every year. This Government talk a good game on growth and on growing tourism, but the proof is in the pudding, and for this Government the pudding would have the words “Universal Studios Bedfordshire” written on it. I sincerely hope that they will get this over the line.

With or without Universal, it has become clear that the support available from Government to promote our county is insufficient. Getting Bedfordshire an LVEP would help—indeed, getting an LVEP in all counties that are lagging behind would help enormously—but we must also ensure that tourism is a central consideration of English devolution. We must ensure that there is proper prioritisation in the minds of new mayors and proper funding from local government to allow our regions to shout about all the fantastic reasons to come and stay awhile.

If the Government want to get tourism right, they must provide that funding centrally, and resist the urge to consider local tourism taxes as a silver bullet. For Government, local taxes have the allure of a problem handed down to devolved areas to handle, but they will make the UK even more uncompetitive, introducing additional costs and confusion for holidaymakers at home and abroad.

[Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay) (Lab)]

I welcome the hon. Member’s bold efforts to bring Bedfordshire’s tourism economy to the fore. In Cornwall, our tourism economy is already very much at the fore. Does he agree that it has been a mistake to see the industry as a sort of be-all and end-all in places such as Cornwall? Given the seasonality of the employment, the lack of infrastructure and the many opportunities beyond, it must be recognised that it can sometimes be a mistake to bed tourism so centrally into our growth plans.

[Blake Stephenson]

It is important that local economies are balanced, and I recognise that in some parts of the country it feels like the economy is imbalanced. Perhaps there are communities suffering from too many tourists, and I am sure that hon. Members may talk about that in the context of Cornwall. I thank the hon. Member for his intervention; it is important that we have balanced economies throughout the United Kingdom. However, tourism in the United Kingdom has the potential to grow without the negative consequences that Government Members may wish to talk about.

The cost of tourism is already far too high. Evidence from the World Economic Forum puts the UK 113th out of 119 countries on price competitiveness. Our visitor visas are uncompetitive internationally: a 10-year visitor visa costs £962, but the United States charges Chinese visitors just £135 for a visa of the same length. Repeat visa applicants face a bureaucratic process that requires them to resubmit their biometrics, which is often a complex process for visitors from rural areas, who may need to travel significant distances to provide their biometrics. Lower-cost, longer-lasting and simpler visas will help to make the UK much more competitive as a tourism destination.

Our international price competitiveness was already low before the Government hiked the price of electronic travel authorisations by 60%—a policy that they admit will cost the UK just over 100,000 visitors every year. That is 100,000 fewer people staying in the accommodation sector, eating and drinking in our pubs and restaurants, and enjoying everything great that Britain has to offer and recommending a visit to their friends back home. The Home Office estimates that that means a cost to the UK economy in the region of up to £734 million over five years—in the same breath as the Government talk about being a Government for growth and growing the tourism economy to 50 million visitors per year.

If we are to achieve the Government’s goal of 50 million visitors per year, we need to make the UK more attractive to visitors at home and abroad, and less attractive as a source of revenue for the Treasury or local authorities. The evidence shows that for every 1% decrease in the cost of visiting the UK, the earnings of the UK’s inbound tourism economy increase by 1.3%. For every £74,300 increase in tourism revenue, a new full-time-equivalent job is created in tourism. Tourism is a growth-generating machine that the Government hold the keys to, but it is a machine that needs more careful maintenance than it is currently getting from this Government. Since the general election, businesses in tourism and its supporting industries have faced significant Government-imposed barriers to growth. Most notably, the Government’s decision to tax job creation and business expansion has left many tourism businesses putting their future plans on ice. Tourism businesses were already struggling, with 19% reporting that they are either in survival mode or performing quite badly.

Profitability for tourism businesses is down. The decision to increase their employer’s national insurance, taxing them for creating jobs and helping to grow the economy, all while reducing business rates relief, will have a devastating impact on the industry. If our tourism businesses fall, the attractiveness of visiting the UK falls with them, and tourism businesses are already falling. Just this month we have seen a theme park in Wales closed, citing national insurance as a contributing factor. As I mentioned earlier, in Bedfordshire we hope to be in the business of opening theme parks, not seeing them slip away. We know that where tourism thrives, it benefits the whole of the local economy, from accommodation providers and high street shops to pubs, cafés, museums and restaurants.

When tourism succeeds and grows, it brings the whole of the local economy with it. When tourism fails, it puts at risk not just the future of UK tourism and the Minister’s growth plan, but the whole ecosystem that it supports. The great British pub is a staple of British culture and a key attraction for visitors to the UK. Pubs like The Bell in Woburn, The Oddfellows Arms in Toddington and the Star and Garter in Silsoe are a key part of what makes Mid Bedfordshire a great place to spend time. One in four pubs believes their future may be untenable, and the Government’s £500 million hit to the cost of our pubs doing business will leave at least some of our destinations without the great British pub, something that is so attractive to visitors. I believe that the Minister is earnest in his desire to see 50 million visitors come to the UK each year, but I hope he will appreciate my concern that we need to do more to ensure that there are thriving businesses here to provide things for those visitors to see and do.

I would like the Government to focus more on supporting our best visitor attractions, including the great British pub and the British high street. We must also ensure that the planning system protects and enhances our tourism offer. That means faster approvals for game changers such as Universal, so that we can continue to be a fantastic place for projects and investment, such as that proposed in my constituency. That will mean better transport infrastructure across the whole country.

[Helen Grant (Maidstone and Malling) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate in English Tourism Week. Tourism in the fantastic county of Kent is worth around £4 billion per annum. It supports 77,000 jobs, and there is still unmet need. Does he agree that the reinstatement of Eurostar stopping at Ashford and Ebbsfleet would help the county to grow this vital sector further?

[Blake Stephenson]

That is a fantastic idea. I was travelling just yesterday on the Eurostar and thinking to myself how great it would be if the train stopped at Ashford and Ebbsfleet and passengers could get off, having come from the Netherlands, to savour the delights of Kent, a county that I know very well. I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention; it is a fantastic idea. Perhaps the Minister will have an update on what is happening with Eurostar.

[The Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism (Chris Bryant)]

He might.

[Blake Stephenson]

He might.

[Chris Bryant]

Or he might not.

[Blake Stephenson]

He also might not. Let us see.

Better transport infrastructure across the whole country would help our tourism industry, which would include Luton airport expansion in Bedfordshire—perhaps the Minister has an update on that; or maybe he does not.

That will mean finding the right mixture of development in areas like mine to allow for some of the things that we need to take advantage of the opportunities of tourism. In particular, in Bedfordshire we need more accommodation to ensure that people stay awhile in our communities, rather than visiting for a day and going somewhere else for the bulk of their visit. We will also need to protect and enhance some of our beautiful countryside and landscapes, which distinguish our country and our counties from our international competitors.

The Greensand Ridge national character area in my constituency of Mid Bedfordshire is characterised by its ancient and modern woodlands, farms and parkland and the historic look and feel of its small settlements, often former estate villages. Many of those settlements are distinctive Bedfordshire “ends” villages—hamlets or small villages built in a line along the road—but development within the national character area is threatening the character of many of those small settlements. We must make sure that delivering new development does not come at the expense of maintaining our communities as places where people from far and wide will be able to feel a sense of unique local character and pride. If our countryside and our towns become identikit places that we could see anywhere, people who want to experience them can go anywhere. We must embrace what makes Britain, and in my case Bedfordshire, a great place to spend time.

I hope it has come across in this debate that I wish the Government the very best in their ambition to deliver their national visitor economy strategy later this year and to achieve 50 million visitors per year. In me they will find a constructively critical friend willing to work across the House to deliver on the promise of the tourism industry for my local economy in Mid Bedfordshire and the UK’s economy as a whole. I hope that as the Minister continues to shape his thoughts on his strategy, he will consider my remarks in that spirit. I hope that his strategy will set out how the Government will protect and enhance the attractiveness of the UK offer to visitors from overseas and domestic holidaymakers. That means protecting the things that make Britain great, from the high street, the local pub and the beautiful countryside to the many set-piece tourist attractions that we are known for the world over. I hope that his strategy will also set out a coherent plan to make the UK more price competitive with our major international competitors. The Government cannot simply talk growth into being. It takes real decisions—tough decisions—on competing priorities to make the UK more competitive and bring about growth.

I mentioned electronic travel authorisations, but the industry also raised with me things such as tax-free shopping, visa costs and air passenger duty in preparation for this debate. It is clear that more must be done to bring the cost of visiting the UK down to deliver growth in tourism. I hope that the Minister’s strategy will set out, alongside the work his colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are doing, how the Government’s plans for English devolution will empower local communities like mine to drive our local tourism agendas. In particular, I would like to see the completion of the roll-out of local visitor economy partnerships so that counties like Bedfordshire can take our place at the tourism table and shout more easily about all the fantastic things to come and do in our county.

I would also like to see the new mayors and local authorities backed with a framework and real funding from Government to deliver local tourism strategies. I believe that it is desirable to tie all these strands together for the Government to commit to tourism as a priority. Including tourism in the industrial strategy and having a dedicated tourism Minister working cross-departmentally —not, as he currently is, a tourism Minister stretched across multiple portfolios and Departments—would be a positive first step towards that.

Finally, the Minister knows that I cannot end my speech without a final expression of hope that we will one day be able to cut the ribbon on a new Universal Studios theme park at Kempston Hardwick in Mid Bedfordshire. I know the Government remain locked in negotiations with Universal, and both parties continue to have my full support to do whatever it takes to secure this fantastic investment in my community. I look forward to hearing ideas from colleagues about how we can best support our tourism industry across the United Kingdom.

[Sir Edward Leigh (in the Chair)]

I remind Members that if they wish to speak they need to bob.

--- Later in debate ---

[Blake Stephenson]

I thank the Minister, hon. Members and hon. Friends, who have joined me to debate the Government’s strategy to support the tourism industry. I was delighted to secure this important debate in English Tourism Week. I was even more delighted that Members from across the United Kingdom came and we learned all sorts of things about the United Kingdom —we did not just confine ourselves to England.

This week we rightly celebrate the brilliant tourist attractions across our country. It is an opportune time for us as parliamentarians to reflect on the valuable contribution that tourism makes to our local economies. I very much enjoyed the tour we took through the UK this afternoon. I am not sure whether I would prefer to go dolphin spotting and whiskey drinking in Northern Ireland, and neither am I sure which order we are supposed to do those in, or go to the spa in Scotland—alone, perhaps, not with other Members.

All of us in this place will have in our constituencies businesses, venues and attractions that benefit from a vibrant tourism economy. That is why I support the Government’s ambitions to achieve 50 million tourism visitors by 2030. I will be eagerly scrutinising the tourism strategy the Government will bring forward later this year and, from what I have heard today, the Minister will reflect on the points made as he brings together the strategy. I hope that that will include a reflection on the role of English devolution, on how the Government can help to increase the UK’s price competitiveness and on how his Department will work across Government to support the industry and ensure that we have the right business support. That particularly applies in the context of the increase to employers’ national insurance contributions and the other overheads that hospitality and leisure businesses are facing.

I cannot conclude this debate without repeating my desire to work with Government to grow our tourism economy in Mid Bedfordshire and Bedfordshire as a whole. Universal’s proposed theme park in my constituency would absolutely turbocharge the local economy, and we must make sure the UK as a whole has the right strategy to take full advantage of it.

[Sir Edward Leigh (in the Chair)]

It is only a pity that nobody mentioned beautiful, bracing Skegness in this debate.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered Government support for the tourism industry.