It’s time for the UK’s creative industry to live up to its name and push for some changes, writes Patience Wheatcroft, as she proposes a tourist tax to support the sector.
Easter’s place in the calendar may be erratic but it traditionally marks the start of the UK’s tourist season, and this year proved no exception. As heavy industry has exited, tourism, both international and national, has assumed an increasingly important position as an income generator, and a source of employment.
But, just as the sector is recovering from the drastic effects of the pandemic, one of the most important factors in driving tourist spending is under threat: the broad cultural offering for which the UK is justly renowned, is struggling.
A dire combination of escalating overheads, reducing government subsidies and an increasingly cash-strapped local market is taking its toll. Add to that the labour shortage now endemic in the hospitality sector in the post-Brexit environment and the outlook is more Edvard Munch than Claude Monet...Keep reading on The New European.
Easter’s place in the calendar may be erratic but it traditionally marks the start of the UK’s tourist season, and this year proved no exception. As heavy industry has exited, tourism, both international and national, has assumed an increasingly important position as an income generator, and a source of employment.
But, just as the sector is recovering from the drastic effects of the pandemic, one of the most important factors in driving tourist spending is under threat: the broad cultural offering for which the UK is justly renowned, is struggling.
A dire combination of escalating overheads, reducing government subsidies and an increasingly cash-strapped local market is taking its toll. Add to that the labour shortage now endemic in the hospitality sector in the post-Brexit environment and the outlook is more Edvard Munch than Claude Monet...Keep reading on The New European.