GovWire

Im delighted to be the Tourism Minister.

Mark Twain wrote in 1904 that travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.

Im not actually sure about that. Most people are probably looking for something rather less highfalutin than having their prejudices and bigotries removed. A fortnight in the sun perhaps. A chance to chill out.

But I have to confess I owe a great deal to travel. One of my fathers first jobs was working in a hotel in Salou on the Costa Brava in the 1950s - which is where he met my mother, when she was, as a BBC makeup artist, on holiday. So, quite literally, I reckon I owe my existence to the tourism industry.

Thats just one of the many reasons that I am delighted to be the Tourism Minister. And I can already state that the tourism industry has broadened my mind. Just a day at the World Travel Market was enough to impress upon me the breadth and depth of this industry in the UK and around the world, and how much the tourism industry is respected.

I know the transformational effect it can have on peoples lives. Im passionate about how tourism supports other sectors in my portfolio and vice versa. People may come here for the heritage but then stay to immerse themselves in our creative industries. Or they might come here expressly for a concert, a gig or a show. Or to see a major art exhibition.

Tourism can also promote opportunity for people - give them a chance to get on in life and make something for themselves. And it can create or rebuild a sense of pride in a place.

Last week I responded to two debates in Parliament on the respective merits of Bedfordshire and Northumberland for the tourism industry.

Local MPs queued up to list their local tourist attractions including castles, stately homes, canals, seaside resorts, museums and natural beauty spots. And we all know how important our own local attractions are to our local identity.

Equally importantly, tourism is a key driver of economic growth, not only in the traditional hotspots but across the whole of the UK.

The UK has always been a great destination for tourism. Canterbury was one of the greatest attractions for pilgrims who wanted to visit the site of the murder of Thomas Becket in the Middle Ages, as was the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. As we know from the poet Chaucer, pilgrims were not necessarily saints, but they certainly had money to spend.

Modern pilgrimages include Kings Cross station for Harry Potters Platform 9, or Highclere Castle - the setting for Downton Abbey, or Framlingham Castle for Ed Sheerans Castle on the Hill, or Paddington for Paddington.

We need to make far more of these connections. Of course we want to boast of our great heritage. But we cant rest on our laurels. Because the danger is that foreign visitors who have the world to choose from could all too easily say: The UK never changes. Itll still be there next year. Lets go somewhere else this time.

But we want people to think the UKs the place to go this year, today, now. And when they get here we want them to have such a fabulous time that they come again and again.

However, we have to be honest about the challenges we face. Covid and Brexit have had significant effects on the sector, some of them predictable and some of them completely unpredictable. Staffing and skills shortages make growth a challenge. And inbound tourism is still not back at 2019 levels.

Lots of us make day trips but dont stay the night either because finances are tight or because they just cant find the right kind of accommodation. Equally worrying is the fact that UK holidaymakers spend more overseas than at home.

I know from speaking to the sector that the costs of running a business remain high and have risen sharply in recent years - especially when it comes to staffing and materials.

I am proud that we managed to prevent the cliff edge on business rates relief that people had feared was coming in April by introducing the 40% rate in the Budget, but I recognise that costs are still high, margins are phenomenally tight and many are concerned about National Insurance Contributions.

I am also conscious that skills and vacancies remain a challenge and that tourism jobs are sometimes viewed as something you have to do rather than a career you can have pride in.

I want to support balanced careers and good wages to attract talent into the sector - and I will say more about that later on.

It will take time to solve some of those issues. But that is no reason to shy away from having ambition for the sector.

But heres the thing. Our new government is determined to grow the UK economy. Its our central mission. Everything else depends on it. So we must bring tourism back to the top table.

After all, few sectors can compete with it. Listen to this: the global travel and tourism sector represented more than 9% of the worlds economy in 2023, and is forecast to grow 5.5% year on year for the next decade.

I want the UK to be far more ambitious for growth. That means we in government need to do everything in our power to help the tourism industry grow and the industry, working with us, needs to do far more to attract overseas and domestic visitors with visits and holidays that are really best in class for value-for-money, for high-quality service, for end-to-end and wall-to wall-enjoyment.

I am passionate about making the UK a top visitor destination that truly rivals our European counterparts.

We are one of the most visited countries in the world - I want us to stay that way. We had 41 million visitors before the pandemic, 38 million last year - I want to reach 50 million by 2030.

But we can only do that if we work together. We need a true partnership between the government and the sector to deliver such growth.

Too many of my predecessors have seen tourism as a nice thing to have and not a priority. I dont. I see it as an essential part of our economy, worth 74 billion and 4% of GVA with a huge potential for growth. We are good at this in the UK and can be even better if we work together.

I want us to have a holistic approach to tourism where we look at every element from a visitors arrival at the airport to buying a ticket for a music gig or finding a restaurant or catching a train to say York or Newcastle.

Two points here. First, I defy anyone arriving at Gatwick Airport to work out which is the right train to catch to get swiftly to central London. Its impossible. Ive tried many times. Let alone do it with the right ticket before the train leaves the platform. Lets get that sorted, so that peoples first experience of the UK isnt a sense of chaotic confusion.

And secondly, why on earth is it so difficult to get to Stratford upon Avon? Shakespeare is one of our icons. His birthplace and Anne Hathaways house are magnets for tourists, as is the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. Yet the train service to Stratford is shockingly terrible. Thats something we need to put right.

Theres a specific reason why the UK should make far more of tourism. We have a lot to offer.

We are one of only two countries in the world who are net exporters of music and our bands are known around the world. I recently met the French Tourism Minister at the World Travel Market, who told me that her favourite band is The Cure and she really wanted to see them live in the UK. Is there any way I could help?

My Italian counterpart wanted tickets for Oasis and when I spoke to my Saudi counterpart he was looking forward to a classical concert at the Wigmore Hall.

Of course, lots of people come to Liverpool specifically to see the home of the Beatles or to sample some of the great new music coming out of the city. But the same is true of our film and TV sets.

We also do theatre better than anyone. The variety of whats on offer every single night is extraordinary. Theres something for every taste. In London this month you can see David Tennant and Cush Jumbo in Macbeth, Sigourney Weaver in The Tempest, or John Simm in A Christmas Carol. Or at least two dozen musicals, if not more.

Its not just London. Reverberation is at the Bristol Old Vic and The Little Mermaid is coming. Leeds has & Juliet. Manchester has Wicked and Tina. And often its much better value here in the UK than on Broadway or anywhere else in the world.

The same is true of our phenomenal museums and galleries. Only in the UK can you see a collection that includes works by Titian, Raphael, Monet, Van Gogh and Goya entirely for free. Or see the greatest collection of major ancient Roman, Assyrian and Egyptian artefacts entirely for free at the British Museum.

And then theres the stately homes. Blenheim, Chatsworth, Petworth, Burleigh. And the castles, varying from Alnwick to Caerphilly, the one dripping in antiquities, the other shrouded in mist. We have more stately homes per square mile than any other country in the world.

Which is to say nothing of the Lake District, the Cairngorms or the Jurassic Coastline.

And lets talk about food. Some of the worlds greatest chefs are British. British wines are winning prizes. But all too often we are a bit hesitant about our culinary offer.

But answer me this. What other country in the world has the variety of puddings that we do? Sticky toffee pudding, Eton mess, treacle tart, Sussex pond pudding, Eves pudding, rhubarb crumble, Queen of puddings, summer pudding, Bakewell tart, jam roly-poly and, of course, spotted dick. I m

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