Published on : Monday, May 24, 2021
English Tourism Week this year is dedicated to showing support for tourism businesses and destinations across the sector as they reopen and start to rebuild.
Coordinated by VisitEngland and taking place from 22 to 31 May, English Tourism Week is an annual celebration of the tourism industry, highlighting its economic importance to local economies and promoting the innovation, quality and range of products and services on offer to encourage more domestic breaks.
It comes as the tourism agency’s latest forecasts show that domestic tourism spending is estimated this year of £51.4 billion, just over half of the £91.6 billion in 2019.
Last year alone saw about two-thirds of the value wiped off the domestic tourism industry, a £58 billion loss to the economy.
Experience Oxfordshire, the Destination Management Organisation for the County are asking people to get involved to raise the profile of Oxfordshire with a weeklong ‘Why I Love Oxfordshire’ campaign; encouraging locals and visitors to Oxford to share their images and join the conversation #WhyILoveOx.
Throughout the week Experience Oxfordshire are also offering 15% off all their award-winning Oxfordshire Official Walking Tours, which are a great way to explore the city of Oxford.
During the week, the DMO will be hosting an exclusive cross party round table with MPs and businesses to discuss the visitor economy, how it has been impacted by the pandemic and support needed for recovery. In addition, there will be a range of hosted MP visits taking place on constituency day across the county to raise the profile of the importance of the industry to the local economy.
Hayley Beer-Gamage, Chief Executive of Experience Oxfordshire said:
“It has been a challenging time for the travel and tourism sector and we encourage everyone to get in involved and support local businesses during English Tourism Week. Prior to the pandemic Oxfordshire’s visitor economy accounted for £2.5 billion spend annually across the county and supported over 42,000 jobs locally which is 12% of all employment in the county. It is a vitally important sector. Oxfordshire has a fantastic wealth of products and services and we are delighted to see them opening up again and to be able to support them in their recovery.”
Tourism Minister Nigel Huddleston said:
“The tourism sector has undoubtedly faced enormous challenges over the past year. This is why we have provided over £25 billion in support to date, including the unprecedented VAT cut.
“Tourism and hospitality businesses across the country have continually impressed me with their ability to adapt over the past year and I know they’re all ready to welcome us back.
|
||||
   
|
||||
  |
||||
