Tories create tourism taskforce
The Conservative Party has established a Tourism Task Force to investigate ways of supporting green tourism, boosting coastal towns and promoting family holidays.
Former British Tourist Authority chairman John Lewis will chair the Task Force to tackle ways of renewing the UK’s sixth biggest industry which the Tories claim has been “largely neglected” by Labour.
The group will focus on five key areas: promoting green tourism, reinvigorating seaside towns, promoting family holidays in the UK and abroad, harnessing the 2012 Olympic Games and reforming the structures and mechanisms involved in marketing Britain.
Shadow culture secretary Hugo Swire, MP for East Devon, said: “This independent Task Force will be undertaking the radical thinking that is needed to come up with new ideas to support the British tourist industry.”
He added: “Promoting great British tourism will not only help our economy but also our environment. We want to ensure that green tourism is brought into the mainstream and promoted as a viable holiday option.
“We have seen the sad demise of too many of our historic seaside towns. We want to explore ways of reinvigorating our coastal towns and breathing fresh life into our seaside resorts.”
Lewis said the British tourism industry had been neglected by the Government as a whole and under valued by the Department for Culture Media and Sport.
“This wide-ranging review will be a chance to put matters right by considering how best to strengthen our tourist industry and ensure its status and profile within Government is raised.”
The announcement from the Tories coincided with the appointment of Christopher Rodrigues as the new chairman of VisitBritain.
Report by Phil Davies
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