Leisure and sport industry can create 100,000 jobs
He has called for the government to ensure its tourism and heritage brief has “strategic joined up thinking”and includes provisions for the night time economy.
“Our simple message is sport and leisure is a powerful industry which provides over 4m jobs, 27 percent of all jobs for young people and contributes some £200bn — over 3 percent of GDP — to the UK economy,” he said.
“It is also an industry that has the capacity to compensate for the job losses taking place in the public sector, providing it is given the freedom to operate without punitive tax regimes and the ever-greater levels of regulation and red tape.
“The nation needs more jobs; sport & leisure remains one of the UK’s key growth areas, and with the right level of Government support, we calculate a further 100,000 jobs will be created by 2014.”
“The tourism and heritage brief should be about strategic joined-up thinking; for example the night-time economy is incredibly important to tourism and has a massive knock-on effect to retailers, hotels, attractions and transport providers. Similarly, ‘gambling tourism’ is a powerful economic driver, which delivers local, regional and national benefits.”
The organisation has also unveiled two new appointments — Chris Bell, the former chief executive of Ladbrokes and Simon Johnson, who most recently served as the chief operating officer for England’s bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, are to take on the roles of BISL’s new chairman and chief executive respectively.
The annual conference for BISL is being held today with senior figures including Enterprise Inns Ted Tuppen and John Penrose MP, minister for tourism and heritage speaking.
