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Mrs. Jacqui Lait (Beckenham): In pursuing that point, may I ask what the right hon. Gentleman is doing to encourage his Government to give seaside resorts objective 2 status?
Mr. Smith: That matter has not of course yet been finally determined, but I am in close discussion with my right hon. and hon. Friends across government about precisely how best objective 2 status can be applied and where the funds that flow from it can best be deployed.
As well as providing better information for customers, "Tomorrow's Tourism" focuses on the theme of encouraging the wise growth of tourism. Ensuring that that growth is sustainable is extremely important. One of the great debates in tourism around the world is on ensuring that, in encouraging people to visit attractions and places of interest, the quality of the natural environment, built heritage and attractions is not destroyed. Ensuring that the balance is right is therefore very important. That is why the English Tourism Council will be asked to report annually to me on progress on achieving more sustainable forms of tourism development.
We shall ensure that tourism features in the Government's forthcoming White Papers on urban and rural policy. The English Tourism Council will also undertake research on why 40 per cent. of the population do not take a long holiday. Obviously, for some, there may be physical or employment barriers to doing so.
Finding out why such a large proportion of the population do not take any long holiday during the year, and considering how we can ensure that opportunities for them to do so can be created, are some of the items on which--we hope--the English Tourism Council will focus.
We very much hope that the conditions for travellers with physical disabilities will continue to improve as the remaining provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 come into force over the next five years.
There is indeed a bright future for the tourism and hospitality industries in this country. "Tomorrow's Tourism", which we published in February, has been widely welcomed as the best and most comprehensive national tourism strategy ever produced. Over the next few weeks, our regional roll-out of that strategy, as my hon. Friend the Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting talks to people in the tourism industry in each region about how to implement it, will take that process further forward. The appointment of a chairman and chief executive of the new English Tourism Council is imminent, and the reconstitution of the tourism forum will maintain the momentum that we have gained.
As a country, we continue to attract visitors. On the provisional figures for the first two months of this year, inward visitor numbers and spending look very much like improving on those of last year. But we must strive to improve the quality of the overall tourist experience that Britain offers so that we can both maintain and improve our market share of international tourism as well as maximising domestic tourism--encouraging people to take some breaks during the year here in Britain even if they take their main holiday abroad. That is what our strategy seeks to do.
Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West):
Does the Secretary of State appreciate the growth over recent years in activity holidays, particularly for children, which stands to be diminished by the impact of the minimum wage, especially since employers are not allowed any abatement for the granting of full board to their employees?
Mr. Smith:
I am pleased that I gave way to the hon. Gentleman; I did not think that he would make such a fool of himself. He is right to say that that activity tourism is on the increase--and rightly so. Intelligent and innovative hoteliers and facility operators are ensuring that they tailor what they have to offer to the activities in which people want to participate. He is completely wrong to say that the introduction of the minimum wage somehow diminishes the industry's ability to serve the visitor.
The hon. Gentleman cannot have been listening to the remarks that I made about the importance of quality of service. Firm after firm in the tourism and hospitality industries readily recognises that decent remuneration of employees is an essential component of providing a good service. Well-remunerated, well-motivated staff provide a good service. That is what the visitor wants, and what the industry is increasingly providing. I am pleased to say that more and more firms are now far more attuned to the needs of their employees and of visitors than the hon. Gentleman.
Mr. Swayne:
Will the Secretary of State give way?
Mr. Smith:
No, I am drawing to a conclusion.
Mr. Peter Ainsworth (East Surrey):
I thank the Secretary of State for his kind remarks on my reappointment and that of my hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Mr. Spring) to our respective posts. This is my first public opportunity to thank the Leader of the Opposition for keeping us in our posts. It is a sad fact in politics that one spends much time getting to know a brief and then, all too often, just as one is beginning to know one's way around the terrain, one is moved to completely different terrain and someone else must start all over again. I am therefore delighted to have been given the opportunity to continue with what in many ways is the widest and most interesting brief on offer in Westminster.
I am also delighted to have the opportunity to debate this very important industry. The economic case for supporting tourism has often been stated, but it cannot be stated enough. The figures that the Secretary of State gave are worth repeating. If things are repeated, they occasionally sink in where it really matters. The travel and tourism industry is worth more than £50 billion to the economy every year--more than we spend on the national health service. It accounts for roughly 4 per cent. of England's gross domestic product and 7 per cent. of consumer spending. It is a huge employer, providing one in five of all new jobs and 1.75 million jobs overall.
Tourism is big business and it is set to become the biggest business in the world in the next few years. But if tourism were only about business, I would not be here today, and nor would the Secretary of State. If tourism were only about business, it would be sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry.
It is significant, and not a little depressing, that I have recently become aware of a growing body of opinion within tourism that the industry might be better served were it treated like any other business, such as car manufacturing or pharmaceuticals, and sponsored by the DTI--but tourism is different. We are constantly told that, in the next century, we shall work for less of our lives--that we shall have more time to spend on being ourselves. If that is the case--I think that it probably is--the age in which people have been very much defined by what they do as much as by who they are may be coming to an end.
The arts, television, film, the entertainment industry, sport and holidays--these are the things that fill our lives when we are not at work. These are the things that are sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Far from being a rag-bag of peripheral and politically marginal activities, these are the things that make life worth living. Some of those present may be aware of the memorable remark made by the actor Stephen Fry last year, when he said that he doubted that there were many people who would sit up on their deathbed and say, "Oh my God, I wish that I had spent more time in the office."
It has always seemed to me that one of the fundamental purposes of politics is to improve the quality of life. Improving the standard of living is only a part, albeit an
essential one, of that wider agenda. The issues collectively sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are by no means peripheral to our lives, and any political philosophy that treats them as a diversion or a curiosity is in danger of making itself marginal. Tourism is not only by far the largest industry in economic terms that comes under the DCMS banner, but the glue that holds the whole idea of the Department together.
I am acutely aware that the 25.5 million people who visit Britain every year do not do so for the weather. I was told last night that the managing director of a major German company, currently based in the United Kingdom, indirectly offered some advice for this debate. He said that if he were running the British tourist industry, the first thing that he would do would be to mount a major campaign to persuade people that London is not always foggy and that it is not always raining. Looking at the beautiful day outside the House today, it is hard to disagree, so I commend that policy to the British Tourist Authority.
At the moment, however, people do not come to Britain for the weather; they come for the theatres, the galleries, the museums, the historic buildings, the concerts, the sporting events and the fashion. They go to Notting Hill at the moment, too. Without those things, we would have very little to market to the world. The British Tourist Authority knows that, which is why it has published its film map, which the Secretary of State mentioned. Yes, we could do with a world-class modern visitor attraction near the capital; yes, the dome will be the focus of international attention next year--but without the complex, rich, historic and evolving hinterland that is our culture, we would have precious little to offer.
That view is shared by the chief executive of the Association of British Travel Agents. Commenting on the Department's consultation exercise last year, which followed the comprehensive spending review, he said:
"We were . . . disappointed to note that tourism rates virtually no mention in the Secretary of State's preface to the consultation papers . . . The economic importance of travel and tourism dwarfs the rest of the DCMS's portfolio. Indeed, it is possible to argue that without the economic benefits that tourism brings much of the UK's cultural infrastructure would disappear."
I know that that view is shared by the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, which published its very critical report last year. No doubt, the Secretary of State is well aware of its contents and looking forward to the outcome of the Select Committee's current review of the relationship between the Department and its quangos.
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