Employment: Tourism and Hospitality
Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Lord Berkeley of Knighton
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, the noble Baroness absolutely strikes the right note. Tourism is at the heart of much of the UK economy. If you look at the countryside, there are constituencies where a very significant proportion of jobs are involved in tourism. It needs to be taken extremely seriously indeed. The other point is that whether the apprenticeships are in large organisations or smaller ones, there are great opportunities for young people coming into this industry. I take the point about SMEs. BIS is working extremely hard on apprenticeships. We very much hope that tourism will be part of the next tranche of Trailblazers’ apprenticeship activity.
Lord Berkeley of Knighton (CB)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the arts in the widest sense play a terribly important role in tourism, whether it is the West End theatre, the National Gallery or the Royal Opera House? These things are very important and a lot of organisations are quite stretched with declining subsidies. Given what he has just said, does he agree that subsidies should be seen as an investment?
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
To pick up the noble Lord’s first point, it was very interesting to see in the list of those who went with the Prime Minister to China the number from the creative industries and tourism and heritage sectors. It is a very important part of why lots of people want to come to this country. It is why Britain is fourth in terms of culture and tourism on the Anholt brands index. I very much take that point. On the question of subsidy, it is a balance of the great opportunities our culture has to generate its own funds and government grant in aid.
Tourism
Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Lord Berkeley of Knighton
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, I would, of course, be delighted to speak to colleagues. We all suffer from the inconveniences of roadworks. Obviously, they are intended to improve the passage of us all once they have been achieved, but I understand entirely the point that my noble friend has made.
Lord Berkeley of Knighton (CB)
My Lords, I am sure that the Minister will agree with me that the arts play an incredibly important role in tourism, and the arts are very much under threat at the moment, as he knows. However, given that the BBC, in the form of the promenade concerts, is a boilerplate for tourism in this country, perhaps this is a good moment to welcome the return to Reithian ethics—education, entertainment and information—as stated by the new director-general this morning, with more emphasis on the arts in future. Will he welcome that?
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My Lords, I certainly welcome what the noble Lord has said about the importance of the arts, not only to the domestic market but to many visitors from abroad. Museums and galleries are already doing a lot of work, as part of their China Ready programme, preparing for speakers of Mandarin and making sure that guides are in Chinese. So there is a lot going on in the arts sector.