David Cameron urges the tourism industry to work harder

He began by highlighting how crucial tourism is the British economy: "For too long tourism has been looked down on as a second class service sector. That's just wrong. Tourism is a fiercely competitive market, requiring skills, talent, enterprise and a government that backs Britain. It's fundamental to the rebuilding and rebalancing of our economy." Cameron said he "loves" holidaying in the UK and could understand why domestic tourists made 126 million overnight trips last year. But he said the industry has work to do and challenged those employed to make the UK a top five global destination, as opposed to its current position at number six. Cameron added that tourism businesses must become "competitive internationally". He accused the previous Labour government of ignoring the tourism industry: "Quite frankly, right now, we're just not doing enough to make the most of our tourism. The last government underplayed our tourist industry. There were eight different Ministers with responsibility for tourism in just thirteen years. They just didn't get our heritage. They raided the national lottery taking money from heritage because it didn't go with their image of "cool Britannia." Cameron said that important changes were being made with employment taxes, corporations taxes, visas and our infrastructure. The PM ended his speech by asking if tourism can "seize the opportunity…to deliver a lasting tourism legacy for the whole country and not just here in London? I really believe we can." VisitBritain has welcomed the speech saying the organisation "shares his determination to use the coming decade to boost Britain's international competitiveness in tourism and to take our industry to a whole new level". Sandie Dawe, CEO of VisitBritain, added: "We are delighted that the Prime Minister has declared so clearly that tourism is fundamental to the rebuilding and rebalancing of our economy. "Our local staff around the world enable the diverse tourism industry - from the airlines to large hotel chains, national and regional tourism bodies and 200,000 small and medium-sized businesses – to market to the international travel trade and inspire international travellers to come to Britain."