8 Tourism matters
119. Tourism is not just about tourists; it is much
more than that. It is about infrastructure, transport and place.
It is about employment and economic growth. As one of our witnesses,
Anthony Climpson, put it: "My residents are someone else's
visitors. Someone else's residents are my visitors." John
Dunford of Bourne Leisure asked rhetorically whether tourism is
important: "We think it is important. It is 9% of the GDP
and 9.6% of employment, yet we sit within a sector that is DCMS.
It does not even mention tourism in the name. Is that right? I
know culture, media and sport are very sexy but we would like
to think that tourism could be a real growth engine for the UK."[172]
He told us: "We accept that the Government has choices. There
are lots of things that Government needs to do but, again, we
would like to think that tourism could be a real growth engine
and, with some real focus, could deliver growth for the UK. In
our heads, that means it should be taken more seriously and probably
have a leader who has real clout in the Government. Currently,
we are not seeing that."[173]
His colleague, Dermot King, talked of his frustration that tourism
does not appear to be high enough on the agenda or have "the
same degree of clout around the Government table". He added:
"I suppose I am suggesting tourism should come out of DCMS.
In other countries, it has its own portfolio and tourism to the
UK is pretty important."[174]
The relevance of tourism is rehearsed at length in the Government's
tourism policy, published in March 2011[175]—though
that policy did not merit a mention in the submission to our inquiry
by the DCMS.
120. Brigid Simmonds of the British Beer and Pub
Association and Deirdre Wells of UKinbound were both supportive
of tourism remaining within the remit of the DCMS, not least because
of the interaction with sport, heritage and culture.[176]
Brigid Simmonds said: "I am in favour of DCMS. I think, like
all Government Departments, it has seen cutbacks in terms of civil
servants, but I think they understand our industry."[177]
Mark Tanzer of ABTA added: "We are quite happy with tourism
sitting where it does at the moment provided that the linkages,
as has been said, are there. Sometimes the interests of different
Departments are moving in different directions, so your immigration
policy may be saying one thing and your tourism wants in a visa
policy will be saying something else and I think it is terribly
important that those dialogues happen in a structured way. If
I look at the way other countries organise their tourism business
at a governmental level, they tend to have much more cohesive
bodies, I would say, for directing tourism than we currently have
in the UK. Maybe the tourism council will help to change that,
but historically it has been a question of all sorts of bilateral
discussions with Departments rather than one discussion about
how you build a successful tourism business."[178]
121. Brigid Simmonds put it well when she told us:
"It is easy for tourism and tourism policy to be something
that is nice to have but not essential to Government. It is absolutely
essential that we think in all of these things—whether it
be visas or transport—about the tourist industry, the importance
it has to the British economy and how we can have that at the
forefront of all our minds when any Government makes any decision
about anything."[179]
Bernard Donoghue of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions
described tourism as the "glue" that makes sense of
the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.[180]
We believe tourism should
have a more visible profile in, and be more vigorously promoted
by, its sponsoring Department.
172 Q 74 Back
173
Q 74 Back
174
Q 107 Back
175
Government Tourism Policy, DCMS, March 2011 Back
176
Qq 226-227 Back
177
Q 226 Back
178
Q 227 Back
179
Q 254 Back
180
Q 292 Back
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