ABTA Responds to Secretary of State Speech on UK Tourism

2012-08-14 — /travelprnews.com/ — ABTA – The Travel Association today responds to a speech by Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport on UK Tourism, outlining a number of initiatives aimed at supporting domestic and inbound tourism in the UK.

ABTA Chief Executive, Mark Tanzer, said:  “We welcome the Secretary of State’s comments, now is an excellent time to build on the success of the Jubilee and Olympics and remind tourists of the wide attractions that the UK offers as a destination.  We see inbound, domestic and outbound as entirely complementary aspects of tourism, which together can generate jobs and economic growth in the UK. For the Government’s vision for tourism to be achieved, the obvious barriers to tourism such as high levels of aviation taxes, visa costs and bureaucracy, inadequate infrastructure and poor service at the borders must be addressed as a matter of urgency. Today is a step in the right direction, and we look forward to the Government putting forward further concrete policies to ensure a more competitive UK product.”

For further information

Sean Tipton, Media Relations Manager, tel: 020 3117 0513
Gillian Edwards, Senior Public Relations Manager, 020 3117 0514
Victoria Bacon Head of Communications, tel: 020 3117 0515
Out of Hours:  Contact the Duty Press Officer via pager: 07659 190 987
E-mail: press@abta.co.uk
Web: www.abta.com
Twitter: @ABTAtravel

Notes to editors

ABTA has been at the heart of travel for more than 60 years. Our purpose is to help our Members to grow their businesses successfully and sustainably, and to help their customers – the travelling public – have confidence in their travel experience.

The ABTA brand stands for expertise, reliability and fairness. These qualities are core to us. They ensure that holidaymakers remain confident in the holiday products that they buy from our Members.

We help our Members and their customers navigate through today’s changing travel landscape by providing schemes of financial protection and a course of redress if something goes wrong; by raising standards in the industry and by giving guidance on issues from sustainability to health and safety; and by presenting a united voice to government to ensure the industry and the public get a fair deal.

ABTA currently has over 1,300 Members and represents over 5,000 retail outlets and offices. For more details about what we do, what being an ABTA Member means and how we’re working at the heart of the industry to ensure that we continue to build confidence in travel visit www.abta.com.

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