Tourism (Hansard, 22 April 1986)

§ 8. Mr. Proctor
asked the Paymaster General what contribution tourism makes to the United Kingdom's balance of payments position.

§ Mr. Trippier
The surplus of the travel account on the balance of payments was £600 million in 1985 compared with a deficit of £50 million in 1984.

§ Mr. Proctor
Will my hon. Friend take this opportunity to repudiate the Opposition attacks on those who work in tourism and who contribute substantially to the country's economic prosperity? Will my hon. Friend give a breakdown of the figures that he has just given?

§ Mr. Trippier
I am glad of the opportunity to repudiate what the Opposition have said about tourist industry employees. I wish that some of them had the nerve to address conferences on tourism and tell people who work in tourism that they do not regard their jobs as serious jobs.

§ Mr. Prescott
I worked for 10 years in that industry.

§ Mr. Trippier
In that case, the hon. Gentleman should be the last person to make the kind of remark that he has made in the past.
United Kingdom residents spend about £4.9 billion abroad, but overseas visitors spend about £5.5 billion in Britain. We are obviously anxious to increase the latter figure.

§ Mr. Warren
While awaiting anxiously the reply to a later question on the Order Paper on the subject of the Select Committee's report on tourism, may I ask my hon. Friend to acknowledge immediately that if tourism is as successful as he says it is, that which is given to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should also be given to England, where the investment would realise far more?

§ Mr. Lang
I must applaud my hon. Friend's initiative. He knows that that part of the Select Committee's report 161 was dealt with some weeks ago by my right hon. and noble Friend the Secretary of State for Employment. We intend to give a full and considered reply in the near future to the Select Committee's recommendations.

§ 9. Mr. Knowles
asked the Paymaster General when he proposes to reply to the recommendations of the Trade and Industry Committee on tourism.

§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke
I have already announced the Government's response to the Select Committee's recommendations for an alternative tourist board structure in the written reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Kent (Mr. Rowe) on 27 February 1986. We are still studying the remaining recommendations in the Select Committee's report. As my hon. Friend the Member for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale (Mr. Lang), the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State has just said, we hope to provide a considered response during the summer.

§ Mr. Knowles
I thank my right hon. and learned Friend for his reply. The response in the summer is awaited with interest by everyone in the tourist industry. Does my right hon. and learned Friend have the tourist figures for last year, and is he able to say which foreign country contributed the largest single increase?

§ Mr. Clarke
Last year the number of tourists to this country from North America rose by 15 per cent. That is why it is important that Europeans generally, including ourselves, should reassure the American public that we are taking serious steps to cut down the risk of terrorism.

§ Mr. Leighton
If, as the Paymaster General has explained, grants to the tourist industry are to be made to those areas with the highest unemployment, what is their purpose? Is it so that foreigners can be taken on guided tours of our large pools of unemployed people?

§ Mr. Clarke
My hon. Friends and I despair of seeking to explain to the Opposition that there are good and substantial jobs to be won in this country by boosting our tourist trade. There is a whole range of jobs, from management right down to the equivalent of the factory floor, in every branch of hotel and catering and in all the associated trades that depend upon tourism. Some of the areas of high unemployment, including the north-east, are to be found in very attractive parts of the country that contain great buildings and historic cities that attract tourists. We are succeeding in making better use of those natural advantages and we are creating new jobs in those areas.

§ Mr. Hicks
In view of the contribution that tourism makes to regional economies, does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that there is an urgent need both to widen the extent and to improve the quality of tourist attractions in areas such as the south-west in order to get away from the London, Stratford, Cambridge triangle?

§ Mr. Clarke
I agree with my hon. Friend that that should be one of our most important objectives. We are to open shortly a new British travel centre in London. Its main purpose will be to help visitors to disperse from London by telling them of the attractions of other parts of the country. We are asking the tourist boards to concentrate particularly on building up the tourist industry in areas of high unemployment which have a tourist potential and on seeking to extend the English tourist season.

§ Mr. Prescott
As I spent 10 years in an industry that deals with tourism, may I make it clear to the Paymaster General that I have no objection whatsoever to the development of employment in tourism? However, is he aware that most of the jobs in the tourist industry are normally low paid and part-time and that the conditions are bad? It seems that a great many Tory Members are tabling questions about tourism, when the House should be concerned about the loss of 1.8 million jobs in manufacturing industry that has occurred under this Government.

§ Mr. Clarke
It is no good the hon. Gentleman delivering his lecture to me about the virtue of tourist jobs. He should address it to the Labour chairman of the Select Committee and the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman), who have spent their time today denigrating the boosting of this industry. It is simply not the case that they can be dismissed in the way that he describes. Given a continuing decline in manufacturing employment—as there has been for the last 20 years as a result mainly of technological change, and that even now the economy is expanding in a healthy fashion—it is important that we look to the new jobs in this area. He will discover, if he finds out more about industry, that there is a whole range of jobs available—[Interruption.] in tourist-related industry.

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. Let us conduct our proceedings in some sort of order. All these shouted comments from both sides of the House are not helpful.

§ Mr. McCrindle
For what reason did my right hon. and learned Friend take the unprecedented decision to reject perhaps the principal recommendation on tourism of the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, concerning the structure of the British Tourist Authority and the various national boards, at a time when he could not conceivably have given adequate consideration to the well-researched recommendations of that Committee?

§ Mr. Clarke
We made a quick decision on that because we believed that continuing uncertainty about the structure of the boards would merely undermine their work during the forthcoming season. The issue gets raised repeatedly, particularly by the English members, who feel that at the moment somehow excessive aid is given to Scotland and Wales compared with England. A decision had to be taken about the structure so that those within the boards could get on with their work. We have increased our expenditure in all these areas. The figures which my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, West (Mr. Butterfill) asked for a moment ago are that we raised our grant to the British Tourist Authority by about £20 million, that to the English Tourist Board by about £10 million, and section 4 grants by about £9 million. So all the boards in their present structure have more resources to devote to the industry.