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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with tourist boards in the UK on marketing the whole of the UK to American visitors as part of the Mayflower 400 year celebrations.

Government fully supports the Mayflower 400 programme, and we acknowledge Plymouth as the centre for the anniversary commemorations. Initiatives such as these help to encourage tourists to travel outside of London and see what the whole UK has to offer.

The Mayflower 400 received standalone grant (not Discover England Fund) of £500,000 over a two-year term ending 31 March 2018 to undertake a range of consumer marketing media ,PR Travel trade and product development activities.

The Mayflower is also a feature of the £500,000 Discover England fund project “US connections” which uses cultural connections to grow inbound tourism from the US. The project will also be attending Destination Britain North America later this year.