Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Penrose and Stephen Mosley

Thursday 20th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)]

3. What recent progress his Department has made on the promotion of the UK as a tourist destination.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (John Penrose)]

With private sector partners, the Government are creating a major, new overseas marketing fund. We are looking to create a fund of £100 million over the next four years which aims to deliver 1 million additional international visitors to the UK and £2 billion in extra visitor spend.

[John Penrose]

I absolutely agree. One of the key points about tourism is that it is an efficient and rapid way of driving economic growth and regeneration and that it does that in all parts of the country outside the south-east. It is an excellent tool for rebalancing our economy.

[Stephen Mosley]

My constituency is home to Chester zoo, one of our nation’s foremost visitor attractions. With more than 25 million people visiting zoos and aquariums in the UK every year, what help can the Minister offer to promote such an important part of our visitor economy?

[John Penrose]

We are engaged in a recalibration and reorganisation of local tourist boards—destination management organisations, to use the jargon—which are being refocused to become more private sector-led. The express intention is to give prominent attractions, such as Chester zoo, a much bigger and stronger say in how their local destinations are promoted and marketed to tourists in the UK and abroad.