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Cornwall-bound David Cameron calls on Britons to holiday at home
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor12 Aug 2010
David Cameron today urged Britons to follow his lead and holiday at home to boost the economic recovery.
The Prime Minister, due to take a break in Cornwall next week, said tourism was the nation's third largest export industry, but it needed more help.
Mr Cameron wants Britons to use half their annual holiday budget on domestic breaks, up from the 36 per cent they now spend here.
He outlined measures to help the tourist industry, from business rate rebates to less red tape, and declared Britain's ambition should be to break into the top five tourist destinations.
Mr Cameron, his pregnant wife Samantha, and their children Nancy and Elwen, will spend their summer holiday in Cornwall — their second in the county in three years. Mrs Cameron is expecting her fourth child next month and cannot fly abroad.
Today the Prime Minister listed his domestic breaks as he said Britons should be “proud” of their country and what it has to offer. “I love going on holiday in Britain. I've holidayed in Snowdonia, South Devon and North Cornwall, the Lake District,
Norfolk, the Inner Hebrides, the Highlands of Scotland, the canals of Staffordshire to name just a few,” he said.
Speaking at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park, he praised the Olympic Park Orbit sculpture, comparing it to Nelson's Column, and said Britain's great attraction was its combination of the old and the new. He fended off criticism that the VAT rise in January would hit tourism and that quangos promoting the UK were being cut.
The Prime Minister said tourism was the third highest export earner behind chemicals and financial services, employing nearly 10 per cent of the workforce. UK home tourists made 126 million overnight trips last year, spending £22 billion. Tourism added £115 billion a year to the economy.
Looking ahead, he wanted the UK to attract more Chinese tourists. Britain is China's 22nd most popular destination, but Germany is forecast to break into its top 10. An increase to 2.5 per cent of the market share “could mean 10,000 new jobs”, he said.
He added that sport could “take our tourism industry to a whole new level”, with the 2012 Olympics, the Wembley Champions' League final next year, the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and the 2018 football World Cup bid.
He accused Labour of underplaying tourism, saying: “They just didn't get our heritage.”
Reader views (23)
Thats a good example is'nt it,tells everybody to holiday at home and then slides off to Cornwall.
- Davey_buoy, Chertsey, 14/08/2010 16:59
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You'd think that blokes versed in PR like our Dave would know better than to insult peoples intelligence by coming out with this drivel,its the sort of comment that could have been expected from that Bag-o-Lard Prescott in his day.
Arn't politicians full of crap.
- stuart, chesterfield,derbyshire, 14/08/2010 16:09
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Go down any 'A' road in England at about 9am and if you fancy a cup of coffee try finding somewhere to have one. Also by time you book a self catering place to stay in, with the same cost I could have had a holiday abroad full board AND have guaranteed sunshine (and a cup of coffee anytime of the day or night wherever I was driving to).
- Sue, Kent, 13/08/2010 14:08
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I have been holidaying abroad since 1955. In the recession of the early 90's we decided to rent a cottage for one week in Devon and one week in Cornwall. It was the worst holiday of our lives, winds and rain virtually all the time. We have never holidayed in the UK since.
People's holidays are too precious to be wasted in the UK which as others have said is more expensive and crowded anyway.
Dave stop playing politics just because you are staying here because of your pregnant wife.
- Stephen C, London, 13/08/2010 13:31
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To Rick - are you saying that our economic problem is our fault if we don't holiday in the UK?
If our economy depends on us holidaying at home in the uk, then we may as well wave goodbye to our economy now.
Unless we're all going to holiday in the uk for the rest of our lives...
All that us holidaying in the uk would achieve, would be to show some small surge in 'tourism'. Although that would be tourism from ourselves and not actual tourists.
If Dave wants more tourists, then he needs to make this an attractive country to come to - and just getting us to sacrifice our hard earned time and money to holiday in our own miserable backyard, and being ripped off in the process, isn't going to do a thing, apart from maybe sprout a fake financial green shoot of 'recovery'.
People, don't blame yourself for the economy failing if you want to quite rightly holiday somewhere that isn't overrated, overpriced, and is actually nice. ie: not here in the uk.
Our lives are miserable enough as it is, without being told that our one week of escape should be in this overpriced prison.
- Mr Mark, Worthing, 13/08/2010 11:50
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@ Ricky - that all sounds very worthy, but we live in a global society where if you offer overpriced tat people will go elsewhere. I've just had two weeks in a beautiful villa in Spain with its own pool and 150 metres from the beach for less than my last holiday rental in the UK which was average at best (they didn't even provide toilet rolls because 'it's self catering!'). In Spain we got a fridge full of the basics, a couple of bottles of wine, and beach and pool towels provided - bog rolls too!
- Paul, London, 13/08/2010 11:49
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Holiday???? I think I can afford a zones 1-6 travel card if I don't eat this week. I might visit Amersham....
- Celery, London, 13/08/2010 10:56
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Helen, you said "Does any other European country have accommodation which states "No children" or "No children under 12"? "
Hopefully.
- Don, Sheen, 13/08/2010 10:03
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Ricky, thanks for the sermon, but we had all ready worked all that out for ourselves.
That's why we took our break in the UK.
What did you do?
- Anglo, Sussex England, 13/08/2010 09:10
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@Anglo, Sussex England
Maybe it was more expensive, but isn't that the point Cameron's making.
He's not saying holiday at home because it's cheaper.
He's saying holiday at home to fuel the local tourist industry, shops, employees and subsequently Britain's economy.
Go and stay in those beach-front hotels and local B&Bs that are struggling for bookings.
Go and dine at those pubs and restaurants that are struggling with the current economic conditions.
The first thing people think in these times of economic difficulty is to shoot off to Spain, France and the Med for their holidays, and all their money goes with them, straight into the coffers of the rest of the EU and funds other countries' recoveries.
Our local tourist industry suffers because of a culture of cheap flights and sun-worshipping!
Well, if those who complain about the recession were really intent on helping our economy recover they would spend their money in Britain, as you did Anglo!
People have complained for decades about the death of British industry and the government lending money to struggling EU countries. Yet their holidays abroad undermine the British tourist industry and hand money directly to other countries.
I'm not saying people can't holiday abroad, I'm just saying don't complain about our economic situation if you won't endeavour to spend your money in a perfectly viable British industry and keep the economy moving!
- Ricky, London, 12/08/2010 23:10
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Up Yours Flash!!
- Steve, Brentford, 12/08/2010 22:28
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We took our holiday in the UK this year.
We had a good time, but, it was more expensive than going on short-haul overseas - even to the Euro region.
- Anglo, Sussex England, 12/08/2010 18:01
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His day job involves jetting off round the world and sucking up/insulting people (delete as required).
The only reason he is in Cornwall is because his wife cannot fly.
I'm surprised he is not off on Rothschild yacht getting his new script.
- bobby, berks, 12/08/2010 16:15
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Easy for you to say Dave - you might be officially taking one of your holidays in cornwall, but then you're probably sick of jetting round the world all the time - it'd be understandable that YOU want to just stay at home.
The rest of us, as has been written here, are just laughing at the idea that people would want to spend their precious free time in a miserable country, where they will get ripped off for EVERYTHING.
The petrol to get there, parking charges during the week or two they're there, extortionate hotel rates, takeaways and resturants that are too expensive.
For the average british person to holiday in the uk, it's just going to drive them crazy.
Everything they hate about Britain will just be amplified on a holiday here.
ps: Everywhere looks copied and pasted in England. The countryside is nice, but he copy and paste towns make me want to hang myself.
- Mr Mark, Worthing, 12/08/2010 15:47
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I holidayed in country this year - a weekend in the Brighton Grand and a weekend at the Eastbourne Grand. There's a reason why they're called The Grand, and it's because that's about how much it costs to stay there. And the weather in Eastboune was rubbish too.
- Squiz, Islington, 12/08/2010 15:30
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Does any other European country have accommodation which states "No children" or "No children under 12"?
How about trains which have about ten different fares for the same journey?
- Helen, West London, 12/08/2010 15:18
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Where ie red ken's mate mickinlondon, is he on staycation?
- terry, london, 12/08/2010 15:17
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No thanks!
- Tojo, Hythe Kent, 12/08/2010 15:13
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In my experience holidaying in the Uk is more expensive, esepcially if you go anywhere by train. I also like to eat when I want to, not be tied by the usual 12.00 till 14.00, 19.00 until 21.00 that seems to be the case for anything other than a curry. This year in Spain we used to turn up after 23.00 at times for dinner, getting a warm welcome from our host and never managing to spend as much as £20 a head, that including drinks (no driving and it was downhill back to the villa).
- Paul, London, 12/08/2010 14:55
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This has been trialled before. The UK isnt really a holiday destination for its own people. Most of Britain's tourism comes from non-Europeans who want to visit Buckingham Palace, and see the sites of history around London, and some stately homes across the rest of the country.
I would imagine the last thing British people want to do is go to somewhere absolutely horrible like Brighton, then get soaking wet with rain, stay in a disgusting victorian guest house with floral wallpaper and receive rude service and eat horrid fried food.
It is just as cheap to go to Spain or Italy on holiday with your family, have a bit of sunshine and something a bit nicer. Cornwall is a beautiful place, in my opinion THE nicest part of the UK by a long way, but it still doesnt compete with Cyprus, Sardinia or Rhodes for the same price, and without having to be stuck in the pouring rain in a traffic jam on the M4/M5.
Dave would be better off trying to find ways for the former British seaside resorts to generate other types of revenue and smarten themselves up by being nice places to live rather than just for holidays. I have been to Brighton, (seaside resort easily reachable from London) and thought it was one of the worst places Ive ever seen.
- Andrew, Tel Aviv, Israel, 12/08/2010 14:23
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Yes Dave, you can't beat spending your well earned holiday sitting in a grid lock on the Motorway, watching your petrol dial go down in the pouring rain
- DC, Ealing, 12/08/2010 14:15
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Oh! To holiday in the UK.
With rip-off petrol prices.
Rip-off train fares.
Rip-off hotels and holiday homes.
Rip-off restaurants and shops.
Gale force winds.
No sunshine.
Why take any notice of Camoron.
A two-week holiday in a civilised foreign country oozing with friendliness and wall-to-wall sunshine costs at least £500 less than staying in the bankrupt cesspit UK for the next fortnight.
- Reuben Camara, Plot 1, Morecambe Compound, UKSSR, 12/08/2010 13:55
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Lets see how many UK holidays Dave and his, by-then, non-pregnant wife take over the next few years. Not so long I recall his choice was a de-luxe holidays on board a yacht around Turkey with friends...
- Daniel, London, 12/08/2010 13:28
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