§ Sir Peter EmeryTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proposals his Department has to raise the standards of(a) staff training and (b) accommodation in the tourist industry. [67357]
§ Janet Anderson[holding answer 25 January 1999]: National Training Organisations (NTOs) are already working to ensure that training and development products are of high quality with a strong emphasis on transferable skills.
Current accommodation inspection schemes aim to identify and promote establishments to the public so that they can use them with confidence, through a system of facility classification and quality grading. The English Tourist Board, the AA and the RAC are now harmonising their accommodation schemes. The new harmonised accommodation rating scheme, being launched to consumers in September 1999, places far more emphasis on quality and will remove the confusion caused by the plethora of signs, and the lack of clarity about what to expect from each kind of serviced accommodation.
Further, our new tourism strategy, which will be published soon, aims to create a competitive world class tourism industry which provides affordable quality, is open to all and makes wise use of resources. The strategy contains specific recommendations for action to develop a trained and motivated work force in the industry and to improve the quality of tourist accommodation.