Business: A Plan For An Industry After Brexit

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. 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. “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. 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. “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. 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. 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. 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. 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”. “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. 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.