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TOURISM boss John Houston is to lobby the Bank of England on behalf of Dorset businesses.

Abbotsbury Tourism general manager Mr Houston is responsible for top tourist attractions such as the swannery and sub-tropical gardens and the Bank has asked for a brief from him on current economic conditions and policy relating to county tourism.

He will seize the opportunity to highlight tourism concerns in Dorset when he meets Andrew Sentence, a member of the monetary policy committee which advises the Bank on interest rate decisions, at the end of July at Southwell Business Park, Portland. Mr Sentence will also meet other leading businesspeople before reporting back to the Bank.

Mr Houston intends to put county tourism views across and said: "I am flattered and delighted to be given the chance to lobby the Bank of England on behalf of Dorset tourism. I will take the opportunity to raise our concerns over the reduction in funding proposed for Visit Britain, an organisation which encourages visitors to Britain. Government proposals mean that by 2011 funding for it will be cut by 18 per cent, which we feel is damaging.

"This is a successful organisation and we feel that the Government should think again because it returns more than £30 for every £1 spent on it, which was the Govern-ment's own target for Visit Britain. Cutting its funds is bad policy in the run-up to the Olympic Games when we need to be punching harder."

He was also critical of the high level of VAT rates imposed on British tourist attractions when compared to many European counterparts.

Finally Mr Houston plans to raise local concerns about the difficulty of obtaining brown tourism signs for attractions in Dorset. He said: "Neighbouring counties such as Somerset, Cornwall and Devon have more brown signs which help visitors to find attractions, which in turn boosts the local economy.

"Dorset seems to be stricter in its interpretation of guidelines to put up such signs and we feel this attitude should be relaxed a bit with more support for tourism."

9:19am Saturday 19th July 2008

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