New
plans announced to boost UK tourism are unlikely to have the desired
effect unless much more fundamental reforms are implemented, says the
World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
Reacting
to plans from Jeremy Hunt, the UK Secretary of State for Culture,
Media and Sport, for an £8m extension of the “GREAT” marketing
campaign, and a further £2 million to promote domestic tourism,
David Scowsill, President & CEO, WTTC said:
“Jeremy
Hunt should be congratulated for recognising the huge economic and
social potential of Travel & Tourism in the UK. His plans to
invest in a new domestic marketing campaign to draw on the legacy of
the London 2012 Olympics and to specifically target the high-spending
Chinese market are sensible options. Figures from VisitBritain show
that the average spend per visit of Chinese visitors to UK is £1677,
compared to the average spend per visit from all countries of £563.
But,
the UK is beckoning tourists with one hand and pushing them away with
the other. The UK has the highest air tax of any country in the
world. Heathrow and Gatwick are effectively full and there is no
discernible long-term aviation policy that will provide the routes to
China on the scale being provided by other European countries. UK’s
visa policy which requires visitors from key growth markets, such as
China and India, to go through an expensive, time-consuming and
cumbersome process to obtain visas is also a clear deterrent.
Jeremy
Hunt is right to want to “turbo-charge” UK tourism, but a much
more fundamental reform of visa, taxation and aviation policy is
required to make a real difference.”
According
to WTTC figures, the Travel & Tourism industry is expected to
directly contribute £35.6 billion and almost 950,000 jobs to the
British economy during 2012. When the wider economic impacts of the
industry are taken into account, Travel & Tourism is forecast to
contribute over £100 billion to the UK economy and generate 2.3
million jobs – or 1 in 13 of all jobs in the UK.