Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will create a listings directory of community events occurring across the country, including York's community Viking Festival, to encourage staycations and visits from families across the UK.

Currently, we are focusing on tourism recovery and returning to pre-pandemic domestic tourism levels of 99 million overnight trips and spend of £19 billion by the end of 2022. Tourism Recovery targets set out in the Tourism Recovery Plan were deliberately ambitious in an effort to do as much as possible to return to pre-pandemic levels ahead of independent forecasts.

VisitEngland launched the next phase of its domestic marketing campaign, Escape the Everyday, in February. The campaign will focus on cities as they are impacted by lower numbers of international visitors and it will target a ‘pre-nester’ audience (18-34 year olds), encouraging them to book a short city-break.

2022 also promises a host of unmissable events, including Her Majesty’s Jubilee, with a programme of events over the extended Jubilee Bank holiday; Unboxed, which aims to engage millions of people through in person and digital events; as well as the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, which will drive domestic and international visitors to the region.