On 12th August, in his speech, the Prime Minister, David Cameron says that Tourism presents huge economic opportunity. Cameron says he wants to promote tourism as part of his bid to “rebalance” the economy (ie to make it less dependent on the City).
He says,”
I want to see us in the top five destinations in the world. But that means being much more competitive internationally. Take Chinese tourists, for example: we’re their 22nd most popular destination. But Germany is forecast to break into their top 10. Why can’t we?
Currently we only have 0.5% of the market share of Chinese tourists. If we could increase that to just 2.5% this could add over half a billion pounds of spending to our economy and some sources suggest this could mean as many as 10,000 new jobs. Currently we have 3.5% of the world market for international tourism.
For every half a per cent increase in our share of the world market we can add £2.7bn to our economy, and more than 50,000 jobs. At a point when our economy is coming back from the brink – we just can’t let this sort of opportunity pass us by. So what are we going to do about it? I’ll tell you.”
He promised a new tourism strategy by the end of the year. He said this would bring together “the best of the ideas [from the tourism industry] that ensures London 2012 provides the best economic and tourism legacy that any Olympic host city has ever done and that sets us on a path to break into the top five tourist destinations in the world.
