Shout loud for farming tourism…
Shout loud for farming tourism…
There is money available to regenerate and publicise tourism, but unless farmers produce statistics and make their voices heard, funding for farm-based tourism could miss out.
Farmers with tourism
industries suffering from the effects of foot-and-mouth should contact the new
minister for tourism now
to tell her how they have been affected.
At the recent CBI tourism
conference – Restoration or Regeneration – Tessa Jowell, newly-appointed secretary of state for culture, media and sport, with responsibility for tourism, said: "I want to
listen to the industry."
She wants statistics: How rural tourism has been
affected, loss of earnings, loss of bookings, etc. Governments work on
statistics, and until her department has these there was little that could, or would, be done to help rural tourism. In her speech the minister paid tribute to attractions such as the Eden project, Lowry Museum, National Botanical Gardens of Wales – but her only comment about farm tourism was to ask farmers to re-open paths.
Her final request was "tell us how regulations can be removed or improved".
Anyone who wants to comment should e-mail tessa.jowell@culture.gsi.gov.uk or write to Rt Hon Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State, 2-4 Cockspur Street London SW1Y 5DH