Will tourism count the cost of Cameron's cutbacks?
The tourism industry questions how well its interests will be represented in the Government, after popular tourism minister John Penrose steps down from his post in a department reshuffle. Neil Gerrard reports
It is to be hoped that John Penrose does like to be beside the seaside, because after last week's ministerial reshuffle the former tourism minister and MP for Weston super Mare is destined to spend a little more time there.
Penrose, who has looked after the tourism sector alongside heritage for the past two-and-a-half years had proved a popular appointment.
His return to the coast was hardly the result of Punch and Judy politics - he "stepped down" after Prime Minister David Cameron decided to trim the Department for Culture Media and Sport now that the Olympics have finished, but it was met with surprise by many tourism industry representatives.
"We were very disappointed John was asked to step down - we thought he was one tourism minister who really was doing his best and trying to make an impression," said Martin Couchman, deputy chief executive of the British Hospitality Association (BHA).
That was a view echoed by Michael Hirst, chairman of the Tourism Alliance and also chairman of the Business Visits and Events Partnership, who said: "He was a minister who tried desperately to bring government departments together. He was quite happy to champion the cause."
Penrose's responsibilities have been picked up by Hugh Robertson, sports minister since 2010, who is now minister for sport, Olympic legacy and tourism in a department which has three ministers rather than its previous four.
Although the tourism and hospitality industry was mostly quick to welcome Robertson to his new post, there was also concern that the reduction in ministerial headcount at his department would make it more difficult to get tourism's voice heard, just weeks after the former secretary of state at DCMS, Jeremy Hunt, had announced plans to increase the number of overseas visitors to the UK to 40 million a year by 2020.
Mark Godfrey, chief executive of hotel industry consultancy Godfrey Adamson Associates, said: "With all the worldwide publicity that we have enjoyed because of the Olympics, there has got to be some sort of payback - I would be investing in additional headcount to capitalise on all that investment."
Meanwhile, Martin Couchman also raised concerns that the ordinary business of Government, and specifically the work that was being done with the tourism regulation taskforce, would be interrupted as a result of the reshuffle.
"The problem is that every new tourism minister has to be briefed and has to meet people. In a sense one has to start again," he said.
The criticism reserved for the Government by tourism trade association UKinbound was even more severe. It lamented a "lack of commitment".
Mary Rance, chief executive of the organisation, said: "With the income generated each year by tourism estimated to be worth £115b, and with the prime minister himself identifying the industry as "fundamental" to rebuilding Britain's economy, the decision to add tourism, as an afterthought, to Hugh Robertson's department, and with the newly appointed Secretary of State Maria Miller MP splitting her time between DCMS and the Department for Equality, seems to contradict their pledge to support the industry."
Michael Hirst, though, did not share Mary Rance's scepticism about Robertson's ability to do justice to his new brief.
"I think the fact that tourism has been such an important element of the Olympics success story means that he will come at the new brief feeling quite invigorated by a successful Olympics, and having an understanding that it did boost tourism," he said.
But there are other factors that the Government needs to keep its focus on, as Couchman explained. "They have to keep VisitBritain properly funded. There has been a sort of death by a thousand cuts of tourism expenditure," he said.
And he also warned that making it easier for overseas visitors to obtain tourist visas was a priority, as was a reduction in the rate of VAT, which is still far lower for hospitality businesses in many other European countries.
Get those fundamentals right, and the Government can help ensure that many more people, other than its former tourism minister, can enjoy the delights of the British coastline.
Photo by Rex Features
Hugh Robertson given ministerial responsibility for tourism after Penrose departure >>
John Penrose resigns as tourism minister >>
Tourism minister resignation - what now for tourism's Olympic legacy? >>
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