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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made as to the effect of leisure aviation on the UK tourism sector; and if he will make a statement.

Leisure aviation is an important part of the general aviation sector. In March 2015 the Coalition Government published a General Aviation Strategy which set out how the Government would work with this sector and this approach continues. Alongside this, the Government published economic research which estimated the sector, which includes tourism related activity such as leisure flying, gliding clubs and ballooning, is worth around £3 billion annually to the UK economy, and is responsible for around 38,000 jobs. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/general-aviation-strategy https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/general-aviation-economic-value