§ Mr. Adleyasked the Paymaster General if he will make a statement on recent trends in the tourism industry.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeJobs in the main tourism sectors have grown by 22 per cent. between 1975 and 1985 to just over 1.25 million, with some 43,000 new jobs created last year alone. Following record levels of incoming tourism in 1985, the number of visitors to the United Kingdom in the first seven months of 1986 fell by 7 per cent. compared with the same period last year. However, spending by overseas visitors has fallen by only 3 per cent. We have no firm predictions for the rest of the year, but the British tourist authority and British Airways have reported that forward bookings are back to normal levels. The Government firmly believe that tourism has excellent prospects of long-term growth and the decline earlier this year in visitors from North America was merely a temporary setback.