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Queen’s Speech

My Lords, I take this opportunity to champion our fifth largest industry, tourism. First, I declare a number of interests. I chair the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, which has 42 members representing attractions that all have more than 1 million visitors per year: from the Blackpool pleasure beach to Westminster Abbey, from the Eden Project to the Tyne and Wear Museums, from the National Portrait Gallery to Chester Zoo and from Historic Scotland to the National Museums and Galleries of Wales. In my capacity as chairman of ALVA, I hosted the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, when he was in another role some years ago. I am also the chairman of Wellington Market Company, a quoted company operating 25 traditional markets across the UK that have a substantial tourist footfall. I have a number of shareholdings in a range of companies, some of which have tourism involvements. I am also secretary of the Lighter Evenings All-Party Parliamentary Group and was delighted to hear my fine chairwoman, the noble Baroness, Lady Billingham, earlier. I shall refer to her speech and the lighter evenings group later. I am also a former Tourism Minister. Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI, said some time ago: ""Tourism matters. It is a major source of jobs and wealth creation across Great Britain—but in many ways it is a forgotten industry, and one that features all too seldom in the political or economic debate"." Yet tourism must be the number one constituency industry for more MPs than any other. Tourism is the dominant industry in the West Country and the number one industry in Yorkshire. We think of our seaside and historic towns—Bath, Oxford, Chester, York. We think of the Norfolk Broads. We think of our industrial towns, so many regenerated by tourism. My friend and opposition Front-Bench spokesperson, the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, knows the Wirral Country Park. We know of tourism in the Lake District and the sad problems that people there are having at the present time. In Scotland tourism is probably the equal number one industry with whisky and in London it is massively important. Sadly, successive Governments have treated tourism like a Cinderella industry. This Government’s record is equally poor. We have no tourism in the title of DCMS. The chairmanship of Visit Britain, our national tourism body, is a six-days-per-month job. There has been a steady reduction in funding for our national tourist board. There is little evidence of any tourism co-ordination across government. On visa charges, air passenger duty and taxation changes on holiday lettings, all the evidence is that virtually no consultation took place with DCMS. The new Secretary of State, Ben Bradshaw, seems to be obsessed with the BBC. In the five months that he has been in post, he has not met the chairman or chief executive of Visit Britain, despite repeated requests. This is an insult to the tourism industry and I hope that noble Lords on the government Front Bench will draw this to his attention. It is a great pity—I say this in all sincerity—that the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, is opening the debate in what is probably the twilight of this Administration. Had he held his present office in the early years of this Government, with his influence, all could have been very different. He could have led and co-ordinated a true national tourism strategy. In the 1980s, with unemployment the dominant concern for many young and unskilled people, the noble Lord, Lord Young of Graffham, brought tourism with him from the DTI to the Department of Employment. The noble Lord, Lord Cope, will remember this because he was a fellow Minister at that time. I was Minister for Tourism in the latter 1980s. I am not claiming any personal credit for this at all but, at that stage, the tourism and hospitality industry was generating in the region of 1,000 net new jobs a week. This year, domestic holiday tourism has seen something like a 20 per cent increase. We have had a very good year in self-catering, caravanning and visits to attractions. We have also seen significant new investment in the industry. Some 11,000 new hotel rooms opened in 2009 and 40,000 are planned between 2010 and 2015. The single most important measure that would boost domestic tourism would be, as the noble Baroness, Lady Billingham, said, the introduction of double summer time. She also listed all the other benefits that there would be. Heritage tourism is also a major visitor attraction. There is some suggestion that heritage and tourism could be separated into different government departments, but this is overwhelmingly rejected by the majority of the industry. British Waterways, a member of ALVA, has done much in restoring many of our canals and waterways and is extremely concerned that the Government may well sell off its property portfolio, which generates something like £45 million a year, without fully replacing the income. Can we have a ministerial assurance that British Waterways will be treated properly if those assets are sold off? The United Nations World Tourism Organisation looked at how some 70 countries have responded to the economic downturn in terms of tourism. Of 18 European countries that responded, 11 have reduced tourism-related taxes, 13 have set up tourism-related credit facilities for businesses, 11 have increased national marketing expenditure and 11 have established public and private marketing partnerships to boost tourism. All we have done in this country is change Tourism Ministers. Our tourism industry does not ask for a great deal. Yes, perhaps there should be somewhat greater funding for Visit Britain, but primarily the industry wants to be allowed to develop without taxation and legislative burdens. Above all, it wants to be granted the recognition that it deserves. I say to the Government once again: take tourism seriously.