Tourism

Mr. Whittingdale
13. To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent steps her Department has taken to promote tourism in the UK; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Woodward
DCMS invested over £50 million in VisitBritain’s marketing and support work for the tourism industry in 2006-07. This was part of the £311 million which the wider public sector put into tourism across the UK—more than ever before.

The Department is now working with its partners in the industry, and in regional and local government, to put tourism at the centre of preparations for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, and will shortly publish a comprehensive strategy to shape its work to that end.