This mirthless Labour Government is unaware of the untapped economic potential of tourism in Yorkshire - Jayne Dowle

However, if the evidence so far is anything to go by, this mirthless Labour government seems not only unaware of the untapped economic potential of tourism, but determined to put both domestic and overseas visitors off.

Ministers have already cut the budget of VisitBritain, the official national tourism agency of the UK, responsible for marketing our country worldwide and developing its visitor economy, by more than 40 per cent, from £18m last year to £10.5m.

Heritage organisations including The National Trust and English Heritage, which between them manage or own at least 1,000 stately homes, castles, nature reserves and historic monuments, sound the alarm about the tough financial climate, with job losses and the possible closure of important sites. Campaigners complain the government is turning a deaf ear to a perilous situation.

And, even more damaging, when it comes to overseas visitors, the government has increased air passenger duty, a departure tax that applies to travellers leaving UK airports, ruled out VAT-free shopping for overseas visitors and is introducing an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) visa system for in-bound travellers.

This is no time to be pulling up the drawbridge. “The government is sabotaging the UK’s tourist industry with deliberate policy choices and we are losing out to our European rivals,” argues Julia Simpson, president of the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).

Clearly, the opportunity to boost tourism post-Covid is being missed. Visitors to the UK spent £40.3 bn in 2024, according to WTTC, down 5.3 per cent on 2019. This equates to a loss of £2.2bn to the economy, a sum which might have gone some way towards filling Reeves’ infamous ‘black hole’.

In the face of rising global temperatures and wildfires in Greece, Spain and France, we should be cashing in. Yet there seems to be a colossal failure of imagination from the government, determined to hit visitors where it hurts – in the pocket. And that’s before they even have to shell out for a hotel room or holiday rental; it’s at least £200 a night now for a double room in even a modest city hotel at the weekend in most of the UK’s major cities. The cost of living crisis and increased costs on employers is driving accommodation prices out of reach of all but the affluent.

And this is before we even address the ‘tourist tax’ local councils are being encouraged to levy in the name of devolution; in other words, central government sniffs a cash cow and a way of off-shifting Whitehall investment.

Northern cities popular with visitors, including Manchester and Liverpool, have already agreed to wage the levy; Manchester’s £1 a night City Visitor Charge, introduced in April 2023, is reported to have raised £2.8m so far, which has been spent on street cleaning and marketing campaigns.

However, tourism industry leaders are divided. In Liverpool, where a £2-a-night tax has recently been introduced, mandatory for premises over a certain rateable value, Whitbread, owners of Premier Inn, are appealing, arguing that the government is actually holding back growth by making it more expensive for visitors to stay in the city.

In York meanwhile, which welcomes around 9 million visitors a year, with the most recent figures, for 2023, including 1.7 million overnight stays and 7.3 million day visitors, some hotels, guesthouses and hospitality businesses say they have concerns over how the money would be spent. They fear this extra tax could put visitors off by making York less competitive and affordable than other historic cities.

Meanwhile, under the leadership of tourism minister Sir Chris Bryant, the government has set up a body named Visitor Economy Advisory Council, with the stated aim of delivering a joint long-term national strategy for tourism by autumn 2025.

Interestingly however, the membership seems to include no leading figures from Yorkshire’s own tourism industry, which considering that we’re the largest – and arguably the most beautiful and diverse – county in the UK, seems something of an omission.