Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to help increase domestic tourism.

Our Tourism Recovery Plan (TRP) sets out an ambition to recover domestic tourism to pre pandemic levels of 99m overnight trips and spend of £19 billion by the end of 2022. We have been committed to supporting the sector to remain resilient through the pandemic and have provided over £37 billion to the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors in the form of grants, loans and tax breaks.

The Tourism Recovery Plan also announced plans for a new rail pass which, which we hope to launch this year, to help make it easier and more sustainable for domestic tourists to get around Scotland, England, and Wales.

VisitEngland launched the next phase of its domestic marketing campaign, Escape the Everyday, in February. The campaign will focus on cities as they are impacted by lower numbers of international visitors and it will target a ‘pre-nester’ audience (18-34 year olds), encouraging them to book a short city-break.

2022 also promises a host of unmissable events, including Her Majesty’s Jubilee, with a programme of events over the extended Jubilee Bank holiday; Unboxed, which aims to engage millions of people through in person and digital events; as well as the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, which will drive domestic and international visitors to the region.

English Tourism Week from 18th-27th March 2022 is a great opportunity to showcase the best of what the English tourism industry has to offer. I have been visiting some of England’s fantastic tourist destinations and attractions during the week. The government is committed to the sector’s recovery post-pandemic and English Tourism Week is an opportunity to celebrate the resilience of the sector and demonstrating our world-class offer.