![\"Tourists](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/a6c4acabdc76f3381b7d90a4cf14a299.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nThe Government has been accused of \u201csabotaging\u201d the UK\u2019s tourism industry as analysis found spending by international visitors was more than \u00a32.2 billion below pre-pandemic levels last year.<\/p>\n
A report by the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), which represents the sector, found people visiting the UK spent \u00a340.3 billion in 2024, down 5.3% from 2019.<\/p>\n
Julia Simpson, who is president of the WTTC and was an adviser to Sir Tony Blair during his time as prime minister, attributed the decline to measures she described as \u201cdeliberate policy choices\u201d which have created \u201cbarriers to travel\u201d.<\/p>\n
These include introducing electronic travel authorisations \u2013 digital permits \u2013 the lack of tax-free shopping and increasing air passenger duty.<\/p>\n
Ms Simpson told the PA news agency: \u201cWe\u2019ve not got back to where we need to be (on spending by international visitors), whereas the rest of the world has.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UK is losing value share compared to other European partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Government is all about growth. They\u2019re looking at how to make money. They\u2019re trying to save steel plants. They\u2019re looking to see what can we do about our water companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet here we have a private sector enterprise \u2013 travel and tourism \u2013 contributing 10% of UK GDP, creating jobs, but we are not prioritising it in any way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are sabotaging ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report, produced in collaboration with consultancy Oxford Economics, also found that travel and tourism contributed \u00a3286 billion to the UK\u2019s economy in 2024, up 3.9% from 2019.<\/p>\n
Jobs in the sector supported 4.2 million UK livelihoods last year, according to the study.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tourists and visitors to London have their photo taken beside a red phone box at Parliament Square (PA)<\/p>\n
Ms Simpson criticised the decision to cut tourism authority VisitBritain\u2019s budget by \u201cmore than 40%\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said the Government is \u201cvery keen to promote the regions\u201d but \u201cto do that you need a marketing wing\u201d.<\/p>\n
She continued: \u201cYou need to sell the UK. You need to sell Harry Potter. You need to sell Jane Austen. You need to sell Richard III.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important that you create stories about the UK so that international visitors come to all our regions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Simpson said boosting UK tourism \u201cneeds to be led\u201d by the Prime Minister rather than the Treasury.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cAll the Treasury is going to do is keep taking more and more taxes, and undermining this very, very important sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cSir Keir Starmer should take a leaf out of (French president) Emmanuel Macron\u2019s book.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe should take a leaf out of (prime minister) Pedro Sanchez\u2019s book in Spain, and really bring together this sector.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Government spokesperson said: \u201cThe UK is one of the most visited countries in the world and international tourism drives billions into our economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are supporting the continued growth of this industry and will be launching a national visitor economy strategy this autumn to help meet our ambition to welcome 50 million international visitors a year to the UK by 2030.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland campaign remains an effective tool in driving economic growth and we will continue to work closely with partners to optimise the campaign\u2019s resources to deliver growth across the UK as part of our plan for change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shadow culture secretary Stuart Andrew claimed Labour was \u201cpunishing Britain\u2019s tourism industry with its job tax, by slashing business rates relief and hiking air duties\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cNow, to top it off, the Government is standing by while Welsh Labour rolls out a damaging tourism tax, hitting small accommodation providers, threatening attraction closures, putting more jobs in jeopardy and damaging local economies.<\/p>\n
\u201cBritain\u2019s heritage, hospitality and cultural appeal are unmatched. Labour must get serious and deliver a real plan that promotes Britain to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government has been accused of \u201csabotaging\u201d the UK\u2019s tourism industry as analysis found spending by international visitors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,22579,22582,22583,1144,712,22580,22581,20662,16,15,1764,22584],"class_list":{"0":"post-39769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-international-visitors","14":"tag-julia-simpson","15":"tag-ms-simpson","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-the-government","19":"tag-tourism-industry","20":"tag-travel-and-tourism","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-wales","24":"tag-wttc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114378977109180355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}