UKinbound warmly welcomes today’s announcement that Government has awarded the UK tourism industry a Sector Deal as part of its Industrial Strategy.
Regarding the positive news, UKinbound chair James Aitken said: “We are really pleased that a Sector Deal has been secured with the Government and congratulate all those involved who have helped to drive this work forward.
Tourism is a major contributor to the UK economy but is made up primarily of small businesses and cuts across many different policy areas. For the first time, we will have a national strategy that will help bring the sector together and collaborate on activities and initiatives.
This will ultimately help visitors get to destinations quickly and easily, have a better experience in those destinations, improve productivity and efficiency and raise awareness about the fantastic employment opportunities the industry provides.”
Key commitments of the deal include:
- Creating a new Tourism Data Hub which will collate regularly updated data showing the latest trends and spends, allowing businesses to better target overseas visitors
- Creating 30,000 apprenticeships each year by 2025 to help people build and develop careers in the tourism and hospitality sectors
- Implementing an industry mentoring programme to support 10,000 employees each year
- Building over 130,000 new hotel rooms across the UK by 2025, with 75% to be built outside London
- Improving broadband connectivity in conference centres across the UK for business visitors
- Piloting up to five new Tourism Zones to drive visitor numbers across the country
- A new strategy to grow the number of business events and conferenes in the UK to help drive off-seasons visits
Full details of the Sector Deal can be downloaded at the link below.
