Peter Aldous takes the opportunity of the launch of the National Piers Society’s touring exhibition of seaside pier posters to raise concerns that the international promotion of tourism is too London-centric, and asks what is being done to promote the unique offer of coastal Britain to overseas visitors.
Peter Aldous (Waveney) (Con)
T4. Last Saturday, the National Piers Society launched its national touring exhibition of seaside pier posters at the Claremont pier in Lowestoft. There is a concern that the international promotion of tourism is too London-centric, and I would be grateful if the Minister could outline the work that is being done to promote the unique offer of coastal Britain to overseas visitors, as illustrated in those posters. (904682)
The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Julia Lopez)
My hon. Friend is very fortunate to represent one of our beautiful coastal communities, and he is right about the importance of promoting non-London destinations. There is a tremendous amount of fantastic things to visit out there beyond our capital. To give a couple of examples, we have a GREAT-funded campaign to see things differently, which includes the Pembrokeshire coast national park, Thorpe Bay beach and Brighton pier. Earlier this year, VisitBritain welcomed more than 120 international trade buyers in the travel industry for a series of educational visits across Britain that focused on coastal communities. I hope that they will take the wonderful things that they saw back to the buyers in their own countries.