| Christine
Oddy Calls For English Tourist Board To Stay Coventry and North Warwickshire Euro MP Christine Oddy is urging the
Government to keep the English Tourist Board, which could be axed as part of the
forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.
Following continued speculation that the
Board will be scrapped she has written to Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture,
Media and Sport, urging him to retain it.
In her letter Ms Oddy says that the Board
is playing a valuable role in promoting tourism in the English regions and points to its
success in developing a 'star rating' classification scheme for hotels and other
accommodation.
The future of the Board will be considered
in a consultation paper expected from Mr Smith' s department later this month which is
likely to list a number of options including devolving its responsibilities to the
regional tourist boards.
But Ms Oddy says that although these
organisations do valuable work they represent only a minority of businesses involved in
tourism and lack the status and power of the English Tourist Board.
She said:
"It would be quite wrong if Scotland
and Wales were to keep their tourist boards whilst the English one was scrapped purely as
part of a cost-cutting exercise. The valuable work it has done on issues such as a
nationally-recognised classification scheme for hotels, guest houses and holiday
accommodation would be at risk of being lost."
MORE INFORMATION: Christine
Oddy MEP 01203 552328 |
