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Tourism

My Lords, I, too, am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for his introduction to this topic. I also regret that it is at the end of a Thursday afternoon, but we are used to having regular debates on tourism and therefore I am sure that either he or another noble Lord will arrange a further debate in due course. Each debate gives us a chance to update developments and consider fresh issues. I shall deal with just one canard. I do not know whether it escaped the Opposition’s notice but there was a general election in May, and the appointment of Ministers to departments at that time was unlikely to presage the disappearance of any department within three or six months. During the summer it was being canvassed that the DTI was about to go. Now the noble Lord suggests not that the DTI will go but that the DTI will pick up tourism from the DCMS. I can only say that these are strange rumours in the ether and they should be counted as such. There is no substance to them whatever, so the noble Lord can rest assured that he will be debating tourism issues for the foreseeable future with a representative from the DCMS, where tourism is to be located. I heard the noble Lord’s point about congestion. On the whole, I think that the proliferation of buses in the capital city is a very good sign. I recognise that at times it may be thought that a rather large number are in one place. They are not causing too much congestion in dedicated bus lanes, which are present in the street that the noble Lord mentioned. Also, the availability of good public transport is an absolutely essential part of encouraging tourism. It is also an important component of the Olympic bid. The noble Lord is right to emphasise that we need to consider other aspects of public transport, such as the increased use of the river, with a view to enhancing the position for 2012. I emphasise that the increase in the number of buses in London is for the Londoner, for the tourists who visit London from within the UK and, of course, for overseas visitors who often rate the humble London bus as one of the key features that they appreciate. On the general issues that have come forward, the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, was kind enough to recognise and appreciate that tourism in this country took a savage dip in London in July. We all recognise the reasons for that and there is no point in camouflaging that. It had a short-term, severely detrimental effect on tourism. In the wake of the disastrous events in July, it was not so much that people from abroad or from other parts of the United Kingdom failed to come to London as that people from outer London and the Home Counties failed to come. They are important to the use of facilities in London, particularly at half-term when children go to all the sights that everyone knows and loves. It is clear that those very sights have seen a significant decline. That market was severely hit when people exercised a choice to go to theme parks outside London rather than into the centre of the city. I have no doubt that we shall see a recovery and, in some respects, recovery is already markedly on its way. There is no point in gainsaying the damage that was caused over that short period of time. As the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, emphasised, tourism is a spectacularly important and impressive industry. I am not sure that I can go all the way with him on his figures, but I can go with him on the concept; namely, the Government are certainly prepared to ensure that tourism satellite accounting operates. We are using those figures. The only difficulty is that I did not recognise the figure that he quoted, as ours is rather more modest. Calculations in regard to tourism are notoriously difficult. We are placing a great deal of attention on that. We need to improve our tourism statistics and data for the development of the industry. On his idea of the concept we should adopt, I can assure him that we are already in favour of that and are using it. Improvements will be attendant on that development. The noble Lords, Lord Clement-Jones and Lord Addington, emphasised the issue of regional development agencies. We are in discussions with them on improving statistics and we recognise the important role that they play in tourism. There is no doubt that we need a devolved model. I accept the contributions to this debate that emphasise that tourism is marketed well when it is marketed locally and pays attention to the features of the area. I appreciate the wonderful description of the delights of more modest tourism by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves. It is more modest in economic effects because hikers and mountaineers are not consumers of huge resources in quite the same way as other tourists.