§ Mr. MartlewTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make a statement on the response of his Department and its tourism-sponsored bodies to the foot and mouth disease outbreak. [154224]
§ Mr. Chris SmithI refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave the hon. Member for East Surrey (Mr. Ainsworth) on 14 March 2001,Official Report, columns 1021–36. My Department has, together with the British Tourist Authority and the English Tourist Council, issued guidance to the public, to prospective visitors from overseas and the tourism industry on the implications of the disease. The British Tourist Authority is rebutting misleading stories overseas which are confusing this outbreak with BSE. The English Tourism Council is consulting with the industry on how tourism businesses can best cope with and recover from the effects of the outbreak and local tourism information offices are giving out information on destinations that remain open, such as our wealth of museums and galleries and historic towns. My Department is keeping the consequential implications for tourism under close review and I shall be visiting Cumbria this weekend to see those implications for myself, following the visit of the Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting to Devon on 14 March.