Ken Livingstone speaks at Tourism Society dinner

The Tourism Society’s annual dinner was held at the House of Commons on Thursday 23rd October 2008 and included the presentation of the Society’s annual award by Society President Lord Thurso MP to former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. The award was given in recognition for his exceptional contribution to the tourism industry.

During his speech Ken Livingstone reminded guests that London invested £1.5 million on persuading the Tour de France to come to London plus the same amount again for staging the event which delivered a return of around £100 million in tourism spend. John Ross, Ken’s long term economic advisor, stated that ‘If Ken was still mayor I would be advising him to put an extra £5 million a year into London’s tourism budget for the next two years to mitigate the current economical decline, not reduce the budget which is happening now’.

The Tourism Society, a non-political membership organisation for tourism professionals, wholeheartedly supports this notion and hopes that the current mayor realises the value of tourism to London’s economy and provides Visit London with the extra funding it so desperately needs in order to achieve the huge potential legacy of the 2012 games.

Ken went on to say that the British tourism industry needs to review the markets it is targeting for inbound tourism as Russian visitors spend more than Americans; “There might be 10-1 more American visitors than Russian visitors but when the Russians come over they buy a football club!” He continued “The dollar is still overpriced by 30% and we therefore need to target other markets including India and China. We need to agree what to do to over the next decade such as improving international signposting, language issues, VISA issues and correct any negative perceptions of our city.”

Ken stated that climate change is likely to be much worse than anyone previously predicted, with the Mediterranean region becoming unbearably hot and despite warmer temperatures in Britain potentially improving the climate, the violent weather that will come with these changes will cancel out any positives.

As a domestic tourist himself, having holidayed recently in Devon and visited Paignton Zoo, Ken stated that the quality of the tourism product in Britain is really important. Tourists are not just visitors but potential ambassadors and investors to this country and should be treated as such.

For more information, log on to Tourismsociety.org.