New tourism minister admits to ‘limited scope’ for outbound

The new tourism minister has refused to meet the Association of Independent Tour Operators (Aito) after his diary secretary claimed “there is limited scope for promoting outbound tourism” in his role.

The Conservatives’ John Penrose was appointed to the post following the formation of the coalition government last month.

Aito has been in contact with the minister’s office since May 14 to arrange a meeting to discuss industry concerns as well as to build a relationship with the minister.

However, in the run-up to the election much of the relationship-building by the travel trade had been targeted at Tobias Ellwood who had been shadow tourism minister and was expected to be given the position.

But the association’s attempts to build bridges with the new minister were snubbed by Penrose’s diary secretary, who wrote on Friday: “As you may be aware, John’s portfolio not only covers tourism but also gambling, heritage, architecture, the lottery and the royal parks.

“Demand on his time is therefore very high and unfortunately we are simply unable to accept every meeting request.

“As tourism minister, John predominantly deals with inbound and domestic tourism, as there is limited scope for promoting outbound tourism.

“You also mentioned that you wished to discuss matters such as environmental concerns and consumer protection. While this is certainly of some relevance to John’s portfolio, these issues lie predominantly within the Department for Energy and Climate Change and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ remits respectively. I would suggest contacting these departments as more useful avenues for your members.”

Derek Moore, Aito’s chairman, said: “We understand of course that John Penrose is a busy person – what minister in a new government isn’t? – but we have made it clear that we’re happy to attend a meeting morning, noon or night to enable him to fit as much as possible into his busy schedule.

“We are hugely disappointed, however, having lobbied with the rest of the outbound travel industry for a minister to listen to and understand our sector, to be told a straight ‘no’ to a meeting and to find out, too, that Mr Penrose’s main remit is not travel and tourism, as we had believed it would be.

“We employ a lot of people, and provide a considerable tax take, and we feel that our 140 specialist member companies – carrying over one million people on holiday annually – have a right to be heard in government.”

Moore said the association might resume a campaign calling for a minister solely responsible for tourism. This would back Travel Weekly’s and Abta’s own campaigns urging the government to recognise the importance of the sector.

An Abta spokeswoman added the association had not attempted to book Penrose for its forthcoming Travel Matters convention but was hopeful that Theresa Villiers, secretary of state for transport, may attend the event.

She added: “This is exactly why we lobbied: to have inbound tourism considered as important as outbound, as inbound shares many issues with outbound such as Air Passenger Duty.”