The Hospitality & Tourism Summit 2012
1 June 2012 · London
InterContinental Park Lane

The size and importance of tourism in the UK’s overall economy is often underestimated. it’s our third highest export earner behind Chemicals and Financial Services.

Hospitality and Tourism are among the biggest employers in the UK. Hospitality is the fifth biggest industry, employing 2.44m people directly and generating a further 1.2m indirect jobs across Britain. Tourism accounts for 200,000 businesses providing 1.36m jobs or 4.4% of total employment. Tourism also generates £90bn of direct business for the economy each year, contributing £115bn to gdp when you include the supply chain and £52bn directly.

Whilst there is no doubting the importance of the UK’s visitor economy there are still opportunities to grow the sector, making it more productive, competitive and profitable than it is today. Our domestic tourism industry in particular offers good growth potential because we currently take significantly fewer ‘staycation’ holidays than other european countries. The next few years also offer an unprecedented series of opportunities which our tourism industry must grasp. In 2012, the UK will stage some of the biggest events including the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The government will work to ensure that we harness the full potential of this industry, building on the strengths we have while also addressing the weaknesses in the sector. Our aims are to:

• Fund the most ambitious marketing campaign ever to attract visitors to the UK in the years following 2012. The £100m campaign, co-funded by the government and the private sector, aims to attract 4 million extra visitors to Britain over the next 4 years. that equates to £2bn more spend in our economy, and 50,000 new jobs.
• Increase the proportion of UK residents who holiday in the UK to match those who holiday abroad each year. For longer stays (4 nights or more) this would mean 29% of travellers holidaying in Britain rather than just 20% today (creating 4.5m extra domestic trips each year, £1.3bn more spend and 26,000 new jobs). And if we can replicate this scale of improvement for shorter stays as well, we will create a further £750m of spend and 11,000 new jobs.
• Improve the sector’s productivity to become one of the top five most efficient and competitive visitor economies in the world.*

*taken from the government’s tourism policy

For more information regarding the The Hospitality & Tourism Summit 2012 simply fill in this short form to post a general enquiry. Alternatively please call the BHA offices on 020 7404 7744.