BHA boss: “End of Foot and Mouth is not enough”

Monday, 15 Jan, 2002 0

British Hospitality Association chief executive Bob Cotton (pictured) says that the fact that Britain has been officially declared free of foot and mouth disease will make little difference to the country’s beleaguered tourism industry.

Mr Cotton told TravelMole that the end of the epidemic, which started 11 months ago, would probably warrant “two lines in the newspapers” compared to months where negative coverage and pictures of burning carcasses filled the newspapers. Repeating his calls for a separate inquiry by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport into the effect of the foot and mouth outbreak on the tourism industry, Mr Cotton said plans needed to be made about how any similar events would be handled in the future to prevent a similar scenario ever happening again.

Commenting on next week’s launch of a new multi-million pound campaign to promote Britain’s tourism industry Mr Cotton said: “When you put them in context the figures are pathetic. They are going to spend about £5 million when according to the government’s own figures the British tourism industry has lost billions of pounds.”

According to figures from the British Tourist Authority, the combined cost of Foot and Mouth disease and the September 11 terrorist attacks cost UK inbound tourism between £1.5billion and £2 billion. This increases further if domestic tourism is added.

However the BTA is more positive about the fact that Britain is now free of foot and mouth. A spokesman said: “The foot and mouth outbreak had a devastating effect on Britain’s tourism industry. The announcement that Britain has been declared officially foot and mouth free is certainly excellent news for inbound tourism.

“Although international media coverage of foot and mouth has been superseded by 11 September, BTA can now assure potential overseas visitors with absolute confidence that there is no disruption to our tourism product due to foot and mouth.”

He added: “The new declaration means there is even more good news for BTA to promote overseas in addition to the new multi-million pound concept to be launched on 23 January.”

See TravelMole’s comprehensive guide to the effect of the epidemic on the UK tourism industry: Foot and Mouth/ Tourism latest news.