Tourism Alliance update-28th November 2024

In this newsletter:

• Government commits to boosting inbound visits to 50m in landmark tourism speech
• Tourism Policy Conference roundup
• The next event on 18th March 2025 – save the date

 

Government commits to boosting inbound visits to 50m in landmark tourism speech

Those who attended this week’s Tourism Policy Conference (see below) will have heard a substantive, passionate and ambitious speech by the keynote speaker, Tourism Minister, Sir Chris Bryant MP.

You can read the full text of the Minister’s speech here. He made three extremely important announcements.

Firstly, he announced a Government ambition to grow inbound tourism numbers from 38m in 2023, beyond the 41m we saw pre-Covid, to 50m by 2030

Secondly, he announced the establishment of a new Visitor Economy Advisory Council.

And thirdly, he announced that the new Advisory Council would be tasked with co-designing and delivery a new tourism growth strategy.

 

These three announcements perfectly chime with the level of ambition and collaboration that we have been wanting to see from the new Government. Of course, now attention will turn to delivery of that ambition.

 

In response to the Minister’s speech, we said:

“The tourism industry applauds the Government’s ambition to grow our inbound tourist numbers to 50m by 2030. This is exactly the level of ambition we wanted to see from this new Government in recognition of the strength of the UK’s tourism offer, the sector’s potential to grow, and our ability to contribute to the Government’s central economic mission.

 

“We’re ready to work with the Tourism Minister, Chris Bryant, his team at DCMS, the rest of Government, and crucially, our national tourist board, VisitBritain, to turn this bold ambition into reality.

 

“As well as boosting overall numbers, we agree with the Tourism Minister in his vision to get more international tourists to experience everything the UK has to offer, outside of the more traditional tourism hotspots. Far too few of our visitors venture outside the capital, and a new tourism strategy should place greater regional spread as a core objective.

“One key factor in boosting overall numbers will be to tackle our persistently poor ranking on international competitiveness. The UK currently ranks 113th out of 119 countries for price competitiveness, partly as a result of our high VAT rate compared to other destinations, and other tax rates some of which were increased in the recent Budget.

 

“The Minister absolutely recognises the strength of our tourism industry and tourism offer, and that we can build and grow them together. We agree, and are looking forward to getting started.”

 

Tourism Policy Conference roundup

A huge thank you to everyone who came along to the Tourism Policy Conference in London on Tuesday this week. The conference covered a huge range of policy issues, challenges and opportunities and provided great opportunities for networking across the sector.

As always, we are indebted to all the speakers, panellists and our three sponsor organisations: STAA, CPT and Ecclesiastical.

We will be circulating the slide deck, other materials, and a feedback survey to delegates in the next day or so, but informal feedback is welcome in the meantime (along with any photos you took).

Importantly, we finished the conference by saying a big thank you to Tom Jenkins who stood down as Tourism Alliance chair earlier this year, and to Brigid Simmonds who stood down as a Director of the Alliance after having been involved since the Alliance’s inception, and has fulfilled several roles, including two stints as Chair. Tom stays involved in our work as a Director, but Brigid has departed with our very best wishes and thanks for all she has done for tourism over the years.

 

The next event on 18th March 2025 – save the date

The date for our next conference is set. The Tourism Insights Conference 2025, followed traditionally by the English Tourism Week Parliamentary Reception, will be taking place on Tuesday 18th March 2025.

The conference will return to the Royal Aeronautical Society near Hyde Park Corner this year, and our Parliamentary reception is kindly being hosted by Christopher Bloore MP (Lab, Redditch).

Tickets and more details will be made available in the coming weeks, but do make sure to block the day in your diaries, as it is bound to be a valuable day once again.