The Tourism Society has recently announced its support for Campaign for Tourism, launched to ensure all major parties recognise the tourism industry for its contribution to the UK economy and include it in their manifestos for the next general election.David Curtis-Brignell, Chairman of the Tourism Society, commented, “It is ridiculous that an industry that employs 10% of the UK workforce and contributes £134bn to the economy should have been omitted from the 2010 manifestos of all the major political parties. This new campaign will bring the importance of tourism to their attention in a direct way, setting out very clearly why it needs to be positively incorporated into their policy plans from 2015 onwards.”
The campaign’s launch coincides with the cabinet reshuffle which saw Hugh Robertson move from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Curtis-Brignell added, “The continuity we enjoyed during the early years of the coalition has well and truly gone as the role of tourism minister changes hands yet again; we appear to be reverting to the situation we had before where the minister changes on an annual basis. It seems that the government has a lot to learn from the Campaign for Tourism message.”