Cameron accuses Labour of neglecting tourism
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Your support makes all the difference.David Cameron today pledged to make Britain one of the top five tourist destinations in the world.
The Prime Minister said the income generated from the £115 billion-a-year tourism sector was "fundamental" to rebuilding the UK's shattered economy.
In a speech at the Serpentine Gallery in London, he accused the former Labour government of neglecting the industry.
He said it was now essential to take the opportunity offered by a decade of major sporting events in the UK - starting with the 2012 London Olympics - to restore its fortunes.
"For too long tourism has been looked down on as a second class service sector. That's just wrong," he said.
"Tourism is a fiercely competitive market, requiring skills, talent, enterprise and a government that backs Britain. It's fundamental to the rebuilding and rebalancing of our economy.
"It's one of the best and fastest ways of generating the jobs we need so badly in this country. And it's absolutely crucial to us making the most of the Olympics and indeed a whole decade of great international sport across Britain."
Mr Cameron said that between 2008 and and 2009, UK had fallen from sixth to 11th place in the World Economic Forum's travel and tourism competitiveness ratings.
If it was now to take advantage of the "huge economic opportunity" that was opening up and break into the top five, it needed to improve its international competitiveness.
"We must not let these opportunities slip through our grasp. But quite frankly, right now, we're just not doing enough to make the most of our tourism," he said.
"The last government underplayed our tourist industry. There were eight different Ministers with responsibility for tourism in just 13 years.
"They just didn't get our heritage. They raided the National Lottery taking money from heritage because it didn't go with their image of 'cool Britannia'."
He said that the new coalition Government was now committed to building the "strongest possible tourism strategy".
"We're going to bring a whole new approach - and a new attitude - to tourism. Because we think tourism is one of the missing pieces in the UK's economic strategy," he said.
"We're going to be a Government that understands the huge potential of our tourism industry, that gets tourism and that gives the industry the backing it needs."
Mr Cameron said that the Government was determined to remove some of the obstacles which deterred tourism from coming to Britain - including improving the service for issuing visas in key markets such as China and India.
He said that ministers were looking at a wide range of issues "from the speed of our broadband to the speed of our railways to the time it takes to clear customs at Heathrow".
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