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UK’s tourism minister, Ed Vaizey MP, is to unveil plans for tourism industry’s success in the first Cabinet sub-committee of the year. Vaizey will tell the tourism sub-committee today (Monday, February 15) at a meeting to be chaired by Culture Secretary Andy Burnham that he has been asked to meet previously by business secretary, Vince Cable. The sub-committee, which recently launched and will work on a co-ordinated strategy for the government to stimulate economic growth in the sector, will outline proposals in the year ahead. The UK’s tourism industry is worth £50 billion annually, with the sector growing at an average rate of 8% since the global financial crisis last year, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. Speaking on the sidelines of the Web Summit’s annual travel conference in Lisbon this week, the minister revealed that plans to privatise a number of the country’s tourism destinations had given some assurance about the government’s intentions. “In spite of the difficult times, we have seen the sector remain buoyant and continue to grow,” said Vaizey. “The government believes that the British tourism industry is ready to respond to new challenges, be it in the form of tougher currency markets, the threat of VAT increases, the prospect of over-heating, or climate change.

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“The tourism industry is an absolutely vital part of our national tourism strategy, contributing 1% of national output and employing 550,000 people,” he added. Vaizey also revealed that the government’s financial assistance package for the industry would be included in next month’s budget, although the number of holidays the taxpayer would provide was still undecided. In addition, he announced that the government’s drive to boost travel in the UK would result in 100,000 additional drivers licences to be issued by the first half of this year. According to Vaizey, the five tourist destinations a government supported will be available for offer alongside alternative short trips. “We have been on this road for two years and to date we have taken thousands of people on shorter, affordable holidays to Britain as a result,” he added. Vaizey also gave an indication of the mini-budget elements he would look at, but added that he does not want to see VAT increases in the summer.

“We will put together a better tourism package in the next Budget, but we do not want to see VAT go up in August,” he said. “We will also be looking at the possibility of additional tourism finance, which could include greater support for smaller tour operators. ”

He added that the tourism sub-committee would run its meetings annually. “Next week’s meeting is divided into three parts, with a team focused on business and tourism in the first quarter , a team focused on tourism in the second quarter and a team focusing on visitor attractions in the third quarter. “

Earlier in the day, Vaizey met industry players in London. The meeting was part of the Deputy Prime Minister’s tour of England.

The plan by Vaizey to introduce a £75 tax on children’s carbon dioxide levels saw Premier Inn staff yesterday pass a message to hoteliers at a meeting to increase the number of people taking two-family holidays to the UK. One hotelier told The Independent she did not know how to do it. “I see it more as a punitive tax than anything else,” she said. A lack of flights, the economic downturn and competition from both visitors from mainland Europe and from Turkey, she said, meant that the UK was still recovering from the recession. “Because of the downturn, it is a close market and companies like us cannot afford to miss out. We have to try to make it work for us.

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The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) yesterday welcomed the news but said more travellers were still returning to the continent from the UK for holidays and, given the Eurozone economic situation, the recent rise in VAT and student visas, it was time to further restructure and expand the UK tourism industry. “Delays at immigration are deeply worrying for both travellers and the industry but, with a £5 billion spend on leisure tourism by students during 2010, it has been said that the right response is not to raise prices and scrap our visa system to take maximum advantage of the student market,” said ABTA’s chief executive Amanda Fox. “We already have easy availability of overseas students across Europe, with international students choosing Europe over the UK. This is driven in particular by where they prefer to go for their undergraduate degree. “Whilst the onus remains on the UK Government to improve the systems it uses to manage student visas, industry experts are considering changes in visa policy. However, the absence of a strengthened permanent visa system means that the UK is still lagging far behind the rest of Europe when it comes to granting visas.

” The increased willingness of the industry to seek additional “finance” to be available for those providing excellent service continues with ABTA yesterday advocating a further hike in the minimum wage. “A £5 per hour increase is not going to change the enormous amount of underpaid staff working as front line caterers for major chains,” said Fox. “It is a small response to just one minute on the minimum wage and the industry has said no more and that’s where the opposition comes in and they are saying jobs are being lost because of this wage increase. “

She said the row began with the Living Wage which set a National Minimum Wage of £7. 20 per hour but she argued that this needed to be met by not only “higher pay” but also “work standards” which would extend “more comfort and more dignity to people being on low pay”. She said a living wage of £8. 50 an hour should be a standard to be observed and it should be used for other minimum wage categories.

“The debate on minimum wages and pay skills isn’t going to be resolved overnight, but we need a vision and model for employment which reflects how modern society works,” she said. “We cannot just think that workers are just producing food and getting a wage; instead there must be work-hours model and more flexibility and it needs to be on a scale of millions. There’s a theme emerging in government and the advertising world about what people need in return for having high wages they can’t afford, she added. “You can’t put food on the table and then raise wages, we need to help workers fulfil their potential. “And there has to be a way of ensuring that no-one who works really low wages is automatically classified as someone living on low income. ” She said it was too simplistic to say that everyone on a low wage wanted to be working in this way – “but we need to balance, ultimately, the wellbeing of both the employees and the employer.

“What is clear is that we are not meeting the challenges in the same way we did in the last recession,” she added. “This isn’t just about the current world economy; the steps we can take in a sustainable way are incredibly critical for the success of the UK’s continued economic recovery.

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