Howells under attack from restaurateurs

Restaurateurs have again attacked the Government over its failure to include them in a new body set up to represent the interests of the UK tourism sector.

Speaking at the Restaurant 2001 conference in London Ian McKerracher, chief executive of the Restaurant Association, said his sector had been "conspicuously ignored" by Government when forming the Tourism Alliance, launched earlier this month.

He said: "95% of the restaurant industry doesn't have a voice in the Tourism Alliance at the moment. I can't help but feel we are somewhat B-class rather than A-class citizens in this."

McKerracher also criticised the selection of the CBI to transmit the ideas of the alliance to the Government. He said he was not aware of any involvement by the CBI with tourism and hospitality and added that the industry was big enough and powerful enough to have its own voice.

The attack on the new body came after tourism minister Kim Howells asked delegates to give him "bullets to fire" at the Government to get the industry the help it needed.

Most delegates seemed unimpressed with Howells. One felt that he was "quite out of his depth" and would not be asking what the industry needed if he really understood its concerns.

Last week McKerracher criticised the exclusion of restaurants from the Tourism Alliance in an article for Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine.