The Government has been accused of “sabotaging” the UK’s tourism industry as analysis found spending by international visitors was more than £2.2 billion below pre-pandemic levels last year.
A report by the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), which represents the sector, found people visiting the UK spent £40.3 billion in 2024, down 5.3% from 2019.
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 “deliberate policy choices” which have created “barriers to travel”.
These include introducing electronic travel authorisations – digital permits – the lack of tax-free shopping and increasing air passenger duty.
Ms Simpson told the PA news agency: “We’ve not got back to where we need to be (on spending by international visitors), whereas the rest of the world has.
“The UK is losing value share compared to other European partners.
“This Government is all about growth. They’re looking at how to make money. They’re trying to save steel plants. They’re looking to see what can we do about our water companies.
“Yet here we have a private sector enterprise – travel and tourism – contributing 10% of UK GDP, creating jobs, but we are not prioritising it in any way.
“We are sabotaging ourselves.”
The report, produced in collaboration with consultancy Oxford Economics, also found that travel and tourism contributed £286 billion to the UK’s economy in 2024, up 3.9% from 2019.
Jobs in the sector supported 4.2 million UK livelihoods last year, according to the study.
Ms Simpson criticised the decision to cut tourism authority VisitBritain’s budget by “more than 40%”.
She said the Government is “very keen to promote the regions” but “to do that you need a marketing wing”.
She continued: “You need to sell the UK. You need to sell Harry Potter. You need to sell Jane Austen. You need to sell Richard III.
“It’s really important that you create stories about the UK so that international visitors come to all our regions.”
Ms Simpson said boosting UK tourism “needs to be led” by the Prime Minister rather than the Treasury.
She added: “All the Treasury is going to do is keep taking more and more taxes, and undermining this very, very important sector.
“Sir Keir Starmer should take a leaf out of (French president) Emmanuel Macron’s book.
“He should take a leaf out of (prime minister) Pedro Sanchez’s book in Spain, and really bring together this sector.”
A Government spokesperson said: “The UK is one of the most visited countries in the world and international tourism drives billions into our economy.
“We 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.
“The 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’s resources to deliver growth across the UK as part of our plan for change.”
Shadow culture secretary Stuart Andrew claimed Labour was “punishing Britain’s tourism industry with its job tax, by slashing business rates relief and hiking air duties”.
He said: “Now, 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.
“Britain’s heritage, hospitality and cultural appeal are unmatched. Labour must get serious and deliver a real plan that promotes Britain to the world.”
