Nigel Huddleston: Lack of named tourism department is 'unfathomable'
Agnes Chambre
| PoliticsHome
Chair of the APPG on Visitor Economy and Tory MP Nigel Huddleston spoke to PoliticsHome about tourism post Brexit ahead of his Westminster Hall debate.
The tourism industry is responsible for 2.8 million jobs in the UK, or 9% of the total workforce. Somewhere between a quarter and a third of all new jobs in the UK since 2010 have been created in the hospitality and leisure sector. However, the topic gets very little airtime in Parliament, and when it is mentioned, MPs tend to focus on local constituency issues.
Tory MP Nigel Huddleston is one of the politicians who is attempting to bang the drum for the sector and draw attention to the fact that travel and tourism could be in trouble following Brexit. Before he won his seat in Mid Worcestershire, he worked in the tourism industry for 15 years, including as the head of travel at Google. He therefore feels it is his role to push the government on the issues that have sprung up since the referendum because if he, and others, do not, it will “fall off the agenda”.
As such, he has scheduled a Westminster Hall debate on the “potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on tourism”.
“We've heard a lot already about how to protect farming, the science budget and manufacturing in the whole Brexit debate, but it's going to be very easy for tourism to be ignored and this cannot happen,” he warns.
Mr Huddleston is keen to point out that, despite his concerns, it is not all doom and gloom in the sector. The depreciation of the pound makes Britain more attractive to potential foreign tourists, while Britons who can no longer afford to holiday abroad may travel the UK.
“The UK has suddenly become a cheaper place to come on holiday. So there's a real window of opportunity to take advantage of the lower pound.”
However, there is another element to this: although financially there might never be a better time for EU nationals to visit Britain, the Brexit vote left some feeling like they are no longer welcome.
“If there’s an undertone of ‘actually we don't like foreigners, thank you very much’, which some people interpreted or misinterpreted as the conclusion of the Brexit decision, we need to work doubly hard to make that welcome to Britain, welcome to the UK message out there.
“In some ways it's a golden opportunity for us to show we are a welcome place. As we are losing market share globally in terms of our share of global travel, here is an opportunity for us to reverse that trend.”
Mr Huddleston adds that he is “really, really worried” about outbound travel.
“Outbound employs 215,000 people in the UK, people working for Thomson, Thomas Cook, EasyJet et cetera. They are really, really struggling and whether domestic, inbound or outbound, there's all sorts of government policy and levers that can be pulled to help.”
As people tend to book holidays months in advance, Mr Huddleston argues the future of the sector needs to become clearer.
“If we're going to Brexit within 2 years, we kind of need all the tourism stuff sorted out in about a year and a half's time.”
If it were up to him, the Government would give a “running commentary on tourism and travel” as the Brexit negotiations are conducted.
“My personal preference would be to be quite transparent about what we're asking for and looking for.
“It's not like we're going to do a secret deal so as long as we are confident that we are going to reasonable, then a running commentary can only put the pressure on the other side to be reasonable in their give as well.
“If you're being unreasonable, then no wonder you want to keep it quiet. Otherwise there’s no harm in letting everybody know that.”
The Government’s refusal to guarantee EU nationals’ right to stay in Britain is another contributor to uncertainty.
“70% of employees in the London hospitality market are EU citizens. They need confidence to be able to secure their future labour force.
“Also 29% of visitors who come here and visiting friends and relatives. Our international labour force really helps our domestic tourism industry.”
Mr Huddleston also expresses concern about the future arrangements for landing slots at airports after the UK leaves the EU.
“There's no WTO minimum [tariff] for the open skies. It's either we have these landing slots overseas or we don't. Our landing slots into the States are done through the EU. We've got 18 months to sort that out. It's not a matter of 'oh well if we don't sort it out and if we don't get a deal it defaults'. There is no default.”
He urges ministers not to kick the “vital” decision about expanding Heathrow into the “long grass”.
Mr Huddleston points to air passenger duty, currently one of the highest of comparable taxes in the world, as another option to ease pressure on tourists.
“Our European colleagues flex VAT on air passenger duty all the time. The Scottish government are taking control of air passenger duty and they're basically going to scrap it. So why can’t we?”
Something that was touted as a possibility during the EU referendum campaign was Britons having to pay for visas to get to Europe, but Mr Huddleston says this is “highly unlikely.”
“European countries would be shooting themselves in the foot if they did that. I don't think they'd be stupid enough to do that. The only reason they'd do that is if their political gains logic overruns the business logic. It could happen but I'd be amazed if it does. But if they start playing silly beggars with that, it can only be good for the domestic industry.”
He thinks the influence of tourist ministers in European countries will also play a role in making sure this does not happen.
“In France, Italy, Portugal, they have a tourism minister in the cabinet. They carry more weight than ours do.”
He explains that he would like this to happen to the UK. “I've been pretty critical of DCMS, as tourism is not in any title of any department. It’s almost unfathomable. We're about the only country in Europe that doesn't have a full time dedicated tourism minister and yet it's 9% of our economy. It's not in the title of any department, it's almost unfathomable that we don't have this.”
The Mid Worcestershire MP also argues the Government should liberalise visas for countries outside Europe: “Indian travellers always say how difficult it is to get here.
“We really screw them over in terms of the visa charges. There is a security dimension to this which we wouldn't question but once somebody has passed through that, why do we bang them again and again and again for the same fee? It’s ridiculous. We have done a multiple entry for China so let's just extend that to India. I would have thought that would have blatantly obvious.”
