HOW MUCH IS TOURISM WORTH

How much is tourism worth? Sounds like a straightforward enough thing to ask doesn't it? Oh, if only
it were.

In order to tackle that one first of all it is necessary to conjure with our 'Starter for 10' which is 'What is
tourism?' and for that matter 'What is not tourism?'
That must be easy enough to figure out surely? Err, no. The family busily building sandcastles on the
beach at Weston-Super-Mare while having a few days in a local B&B definitely count as being on a
tourism trip but there are many other examples that are not quite so black and white. How about
staying overnight in a hotel to attend a family wedding? Going on a day-trip to a nearby castle that's
holding a medieval festival? Buying a rucksack in preparation for a hiking holiday? Spending a
couple of hours in the local pub every Friday night?

Enough questions, onto some answers. Along with each of the UK National Tourist Boards we asked
Deloitte and Oxford Economics to update earlier work that demonstrated the economic contribution of
our visitor economy, taking into account all those types of trips that 'tick the box' of definitely being
'tourism' along with the so-called 'indirect' effects of tourist spending, as well as public and private
sector expenditure that supports tourism, for example investment in a new hotel, airport infrastructure
and alike.

The new study (the headline UK figures are already available) tells us that our visitor economy
represents more than one-twelfth of economic activity in the UK. If you want that written in a form that
starts with a £ sign at the beginning it's a hefty £115.4 billion.

I don't know about you but I'd struggle to imagine what £1 million would actually look like let alone
£115.4billion, so how else might we understand the true scale of tourism's economic importance?
The answer to that is easy; it is a four letter word in fact, namely 'jobs'.

The Deloitte study shows that this year the visitor economy here in the UK will either directly or
indirectly underpin no fewer than 2,645,000 jobs. That's more jobs than there are people living in
Greater Manchester and some 8.7% of all UK jobs.

Tourism jobs come in all shapes and sizes, are found in every corner of the country (does a country
the shape of the UK have corners?) often allow for flexible working patterns and exist at every skill
level.

Casting our eyes to a distant horizon the Deloitte study found that with the right support tourism has
the potential to support an additional 250,000 jobs (enough for every man, woman and child living in
Brighton and Hove) by 2020, being the economy's fourth fastest growth sector.

So, next time you get asked how much tourism is worth at least you know the answer, £115.4bn in
2010. As for what is and what is not tourism that's best mulled over in the pub.