Tourism to cash in as 60pc boom on horizon

THE value of tourism to the UK economy is set to rocket by more than 60 per cent to £188bn in the next 10 years, according to a report published today.

Favourable exchange rates, the appeal of UK tourist attractions and the lure of the 2012 Olympic Games are all being cited as reasons for the huge growth potential in the UK tourist sector

The growth is also expected to see the number of jobs supported by tourism increase by 264,000 to 2.89 million in the next decade, with the amount of money spent each year by overseas visitors expected to almost double from 16bn to 31bn in 2020.

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The predictions were made in a new report commissioned by VisitBritain.

Produced by professional services company Deloitte and forecasting organisation Oxford Economics, it calculated the economic contribution home and overseas visitors currently make to the UK at 115bn a year and only the financial and business service sectors are likely to grow faster than tourism over the next few years.

But the report warns the growth in the industry cannot be achieved without the help of the Government, citing a range of market failures that need to be tackled.

These include co-ordinating marketing to help small and medium-sized tourist businesses that cannot afford to do it themselves, enabling rural firms that face higher costs of operating to adopt innovative technology, and supporting the many districts across the UK that rely disproportionately on tourism as an important source of jobs for low-skilled and part-time workers.

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This view is backed up by Welcome to Yorkshire's chief executive Gary Verity, who said Yorkshire's rural tourist firms were being hampered by a "digital divide".

Mr Verity said many of the region's smaller tourist businesses were held back by the lack of appropriate internet access and called upon Government to help bridge the gap.

"Welcome to Yorkshire has worked hard with the thousands of tourism businesses in the region to grow Yorkshire's tourism economy, now worth an impressive 6.5bn," he said.

"The new government has made encouraging noises about realising the importance of the tourism industry and we believe with strong representation in Westminster it could be worth much more.

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"Yorkshire suffers from a digital divide; on the one hand we have a world leading digital industry and on the other, many of our rural and smaller businesses do not have the budget or the infrastructure to build websites or implement simple online booking mechanisms.

"With Government support that could be easily rectified and make a huge difference to small, rural tourism businesses across our county.

"With strong leadership, and the investment and support our tourism businesses need, I truly believe the tourism industry could dramatically boost the UK economy in the way this report highlights. Now is the time for the government to start taking tourism seriously."

The report said the tourism industry also needs help to improve its ability to predict what facilities would be needed for the tourists that are likely to turn up, to ensure the modernisation of hotels and venues is done in a way that retains their original appeal and authenticity and to adapt more swiftly to new trends such as the growth in older, "grey pound" tourists.

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VisitBritain chairman Christopher Rodrigues said the report's findings were "enormously encouraging".

Regions seen as key to strategy

A suggested way in which the UK tourist industry can grow would involve encouraging visitors to London to go elsewhere.

The study recommends targeting both first-time and repeat visitors on city-breaks to the capital to entice them for regional short-breaks.

"The UK is already at the forefront of innovation but the real challenge will be for smaller, local areas," it states.

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"This will also help encourage visitors in London to take trips outside of the capital – boosting tourism in the other UK destinations."

The study also warns against adopting a "one size fits all" strategy and warns that more local implications of such a move should also be fully considered.