Globalisation a "huge opportunity" for UK tourism, says PM

Gordon Brown today urged the tourism industry to grasp the "huge opportunity" that globalisation will present over the coming decades.

Speaking to a national tourism summit in Liverpool, the Prime Minister said that the UK stood to attract millions more people in the years ahead as global tourism flourished in line with the development of emerging economies such as China and India.

"The tourism industry in Britain, with our great cultural heritage, with our historic monuments, our great ability to project culture that's based on the English language, with our sporting achievements and functions, with our willingness to be creative and innovative, we have this huge opportunity for the future," he said.

"This is a great industry, millions of jobs depend on it and it creates a huge amount of wealth for our country and I believe it can be even greater in the future."

The summit, organised by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, was being held today to coincide with a Cabinet meeting in Liverpool this afternoon.

Don Foster, tourism spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said Brown's words were "hollow", pointing to the Government's decision to slash VisitBritain funding by nearly 20%

"Gordon Brown's hollow words will do little to reassure the huge number of Britain's hoteliers and B&B owners facing bankruptcy," he said.

"Rather than taking advantage of the weakened pound to increase the number of foreign tourists, the Government has decided to cut the budget for overseas advertising further. This will end up costing even more jobs in this vital sector."

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By Daniel Thomas

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