§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of the United Kingdom's tourism earnings has benefited the Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency, or other similar area for which figures are available, in the last two years for which figures are available; and how many new jobs connected to tourism have been created in this area in each year. [131668]
§ Janet Anderson[holding answer 21 July 2000]Official sources do not provide estimates of tourism expenditure in Shrewsbury and Atcham or any other sub-county local authority areas, due to the lack of reliability of the information at that level. Information is made available at the county level, although due to the 817W small sample sizes for some counties these figures should be treated with caution. Figures for tourism expenditure in the county of Shropshire for 1998 and 1999 are as follows:
£million 1998 1999 Expenditure by UK and overseas tourists on trips of one or more night1 Shropshire 93 136 UK 25,748 27,821 Tourist spend in Shropshire as percentage of total tourist spend in UK 0.4 0.5 1 Excludes expenditure by visitors from the Republic of Ireland Source:
UK Tourism Survey (UK tourists)
International Passenger Survey (overseas tourists—1999 data are provisional)
It is likely that the inclusion of the spending during tourism day visits would at least double these amounts.
Information from the Annual Employment Survey shows that the number of employee jobs in the tourism-related industries in Shrewsbury and Atcham stood at 2,500 in 1996, 2,600 in 1997 and 2,900 in 1998, the last three years for which information is available. Information on self-employment in the tourism-related industries is not made available at local authority level on the grounds of reliability.