Groups representing tourism and overseas tour operators have lined up to criticise the UK government’s new Tourism Strategy for ignoring outbound.
The boss of Thomas Cook has condemned the government’s new Tourism Strategy after it barely mentioned the buoyant overseas holiday sector. And the World Travel and Tourism Council said the government had to realise that outbound was as much as part of the tourism mix as inbound and domestic.
In a media briefing ahead of this morning’s strategy launch tourism minister John Penrose repeated previous claims that the UK outbound industry was in good shape and did not need government help.
Thomas Cook group chief executive Manny, Fontenla-Novoa said attempts by Cook to arrange a meeting with Penrose to talk about how it can help the tourism sector in the UK and overseas continue to grow and contribute to the UK economy have been unsuccessful.
“The government has let the travel industry down – again,” he said. “UK tourism is not just about the inbound traveller and the government seems to have completely forgotten about the 38 million holidaymakers that take their tourism out of the UK to visit new countries, experience new cultures and take advantage of great weather – ultimately taking their hard earned annual family holiday overseas.”
He accused ministers of “consistently failing” to see the benefits to the UK economy of the outbound sector. “The lack of it in today’s tourism strategy only reinforces this,” said Fontenla-Novoa. Thomas Cook is the world’s best known name in travel, built on the heritage and pioneering spirit of one man who wanted to encourage fellow citizens to expand their experiences.
“Yet despite Thomas Cook occupying the exclusive position of being the UK’s largest wholly owned tourism business and the largest provider of holidays in the UK, the tourism minister has refused to even meet with us to discuss his strategy,” he said.
David Scowsill, WTTC president and chief executive, said a fully-rounded strategy would include outbound: “The UK government has got to strike a balance here between promoting domestic tourism and inbound tourism internationally and outbound.
“When travel companies research people’s propensity to travel the British people will look to preserve their annual [foreign] holiday at all costs. They do want to go abroad. Where things are changing slightly is people may have gone abroad three times a year they may not go away so much, but they are still preserving their main summer holiday.”
One of the key goals in the 52-page strategy document is to “increase the proportion of UK residents who holiday in the UK to match those who holiday abroad each year.”