Government must overhaul tourism strategy urgently if the UK economy is to enjoy boost from Olympics

20 November 2006 by
Government must overhaul tourism strategy urgently if the UK economy is to enjoy boost from Olympics

The 2012 Olympics could boost UK hospitality by £2.2b but only if the Government overhauls its tourism strategy, Travelodge has warned.

The company said the potential benefits were "neither inevitable nor automatic" and called for a number of important policy changes, including:

•Appointment of a full-time Tourism Minister to give the sector proper leadership

•Reverse the current freeze on tourism spending, dating back to 1997, by committing to substantial spending increases over the next five years

•Address industry concerns that the Treasury is proposing a cut to VisitBritain's budget in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review

•Confirm that a bed tax will not be levied on foreign or domestic visitors during the Games as they have a regressive impact on tourism

Travelodge chief executive Grant Hearn said: "Winning the 2012 Games was a fantastic achievement and the potential economic legacy could transform tourism into one of the UK's top performing industries. However, achieving this requires a complete mindset change around tourism."

Hearn said the sector needed to see Tessa Jowell's words matched by explicit actions, which includes hard decisions on spending, tourism strategy and infrastructure development.

"Tourism is the future for Britain and we must embrace every opportunity to move forward," he said. "If industry and Government gets the planning right now, the prize is unprecedented."

•For more on this story see Caterer on Thursday (23 November).

Prepare for post-Olympic boom, industry is urged >>

Government must put money behind the tourism Olympic strategy >>

Call for DCMS to back business event sector >>

By Daniel Thomas

E-mail your comments to Daniel Thomas](mailto:daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk?subject=Government must overhaul tourism strategy urgently if the UK economy is to enjoy boost from Olympics) here.

Get your copy of Caterer and Hotelkeeper every week -

[Sudoku](http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=302619 "A new puzzle every day!") Join the craze and play Sudoku online!
[Newswire For the latest hospitality news, sign up for our e-mail news alerts.
The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking