Disasters wipe £14bn off UK's 2001 tourism income

Shocking figures released this week show that Britain lost £14bn of tourism income last year because of foot-and-mouth and September 11.

The figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) are the first to show the true effect that the epidemic and terrorist atrocity had on the British economy during 2001.

Among the disappointing results was news that visitors to Britain fell by nine per cent with resulting expenditure from foreigners dropping 12 per cent - the biggest fall in 20 years.

Licensees in hard-hit areas such as London and parts of Cumbria and Devon felt the repercussions, with pubs that rely on the tourist trade witnessing a significant drop in customers for a number of months.

Rural businesses, including country pubs, have been campaigning to the government for compensation after the effects of foot-and-mouth disease put many of them in debt and forced others to declare bankruptcy.

But the government has fought back at criticism following the news and has said that it is radically reforming the tourism industry.

Culture secretary Tessa Jowell said the Department for Media, Culture and Sport was already well on track towards boosting Britain's tourism economy and was aiming to develop a competitive market and encourage both foreigners and British residents to take their holidays here.

She added that the English regions were now ready to implement new arrangements to support tourism, which had been formally agreed in May.

These new reforms will see:

• a relaunched national organisation combining the resources and strengths of the English Tourism Council and the British Tourist Authority. This will help to develop a marketing team for England
• a marketing force for England - enabling the development of better partnerships between the public sector and the tourism industry, taking a stronger leadership in setting the marketing agenda and building on the success of the "Only in Britain. Only in 2002" campaign
• a more coherent marketing agenda across Britain - by ensuring that England, Scotland and Wales retain and develop strong separate brand identities to attract domestic holidaymakers as well as those from overseas.

There was some good news for the industry in the figures. The ONS said that already this year it had reported a three per cent increase from January until the end of August. Despite this the figures were still lower than for the first eight months of 2000 - prior to September 11 and foot-and-mouth.

In September, the government announced that a total of £7m extra public funding would be spent on promoting the industry until 2004 though the London Development Agency.

It is hoped this extra cash will boost the UK's image as a number one holiday destination.