With less than two years to go until the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to make Great Britain one of the world's top five tourist destinations, he announced last week in a speech delivered to a crowd of industry representatives at London's Serpentine Gallery.
As his nation moves from recession to recovery, the £115 billion a year that tourism generates in the United Kingdom will be "fundamental" to rebuilding the British economy, according to Cameron, who pointed out that between 2008 and 2009, the United Kingdom had fallen from sixth to 11th place in the World Economic Forum's travel and tourism competitiveness ratings.
"Tourism is a fiercely competitive market, requiring skills, talent, enterprise and a government that backs Britain," Cameron said. "It's fundamental to the rebuilding and rebalancing of our economy. It's one of the best and fastest ways of generating the jobs we need so badly in this country. And it's absolutely crucial to making the most of the Olympics and, indeed, a whole decade of great international sport across Britain."
Cameron said the United Kingdom's new coalition government is committed to building the "strongest possible tourism strategy" and called on industry leaders to help develop that strategy — focusing on ways to stimulate both domestic and international travel to Great Britain — by the end of this year.
To help stimulate tourism, Cameron has appointed a new Minister for Tourism and Heritage, John Penrose, and plans to reduce employment and business taxes for his country's 200,000 tourism businesses. He also has pledged to revisit everything from visas to infrastructure — he said he supports improving visa services in key markets like China and India, for instance, and developing a new high-speed rail network across the country — to help Britain improve its tourism product.
"I believe we can come together in a new nationwide effort to make this coming decade the best ever for tourism in Britain," Cameron said.
For its part, Britain's tourism industry praised Cameron's proposals. "We are delighted that, in challenging economic times, the U.K. government has recognized the importance of travel and tourism, an industry that currently generates more than 3 million jobs, or one in every 10, in the U.K.," said Jean-Claude Baumgarten, president and CEO of the London-based World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). "This announcement comes at the right moment for the U.K. to take full advantage of its Olympic opportunity in 2012."