Travel and tourism will deliver £1.3bn regional boost, says business campaign group

Ahead of the Autumn Statement, BusinessLDN has called for the Chancellor to introduce cost-neutral measures to boost the UK’s global connections, with new research revealing it would deliver a £1.3bn regional boost.

In a report released today, BusinessLDN pointed to the pre-pandemic contribution the sector made to the UK economy, with 22.2 million jobs and £20bn of GVA supported by global connectivity in 2019. Within this, the international tourism sector is highlighted as a “critical area” to drive regional growth.

For the first time, this report quantifies London as the “stickiest” capital in Europe, where 60 per cent of international tourists arrive and where 54 per cent of international tourist nights are spent.

The report argues that dispersing visitors across the UK to match Paris’s stickiness would bring regional benefits of 17.3m additional nights spent £1.3bn in extra spending, boosting economies outside the capital.

The business group called for a package of low-cost or cost-neutral measures to boost regional growth, including the following:

• The OBR to undertake an urgent review of VAT-free shopping. A reintroduction of the scheme is expected to be lower cost than Treasury forecasts and would bring more tourists back to the UK and boost revenues from non-reclaimable spend which will provide a valuable boost to the leisure, culture and hospitality sectors that have been so hard hit by the pandemic.
• Resource Border Force sufficiently to deliver a significantly improved service that provides a welcome befitting the UK’s global ambitions.
• Ease the visa process for low-risk visitors such as allowing children and young people on organised cultural and educational trips to the UK to travel on a single group ID card.
• Destination marketing must be protected in the autumn statement. The £10m investment in the Let’s Do London campaign provides early evidence of the value of smart marketing in partnership with the private sector.
• Rail fares and ticketing require a comprehensive review and fundamental reform. Working in partnership with destination marketing, offering domestic rail tickets at the point of sale for tourists booking their journeys to the UK could also help without even a notional cost to the public purse.

John Dickie, chief executive at BusinessLDN, commented: “The Chancellor faces tough choices, but we can’t simply cut our way to growth. A credible growth agenda relies on the UK having strong global connections.

“We must bang the drum for London and the South East as the UK’s main front door and then better distribute the incoming visitors. To keep numbers up the Government needs to continue funding for overseas marketing, ease the visa process for educational groups and bring back VAT-free shopping.

“These are no or low-cost measures which would enable us to maximise inbound visitors, better spread growth across the country and show the world Britain is open for business.”

By Matthew Neville – Correspondent, Bdaily

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