The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee launches an inquiry into the role of tourism in supporting rural growth in England. Rural Tourism provides around £17 billion a year to the English economy. But rural communities face some particular challenges to tourism growth such as transport connections, restrictions to broadband access and seasonal employment.
Due to the General Election the inquiry was not completed or published, however, a letter was sent to the Defra Minister highlighting the key issues that emerged during the inquiry: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/environment-food-rural-affairs/correspondence/Chair-Lord-Gardiner-re-Rural-tourism-england.pdf
British Destinations wrote to Neil Parish the reappointed chairman in August 2017 urging the new committee to revisit the inquiry: Letter Chair EFRA Select Committee 8 Aug 17 . We wrote again reaffirming our views when the committee itself, including some of its former members, were selected in September 2017: Letter Chair EFRA Select Committee 14 Sep 17
Terms of reference of the inquiry can be found at:
Terms of reference: Rural tourism in England
Our written response can be accessed here:
british-destinations-rural-select-committee-response
The Tourism Alliance written response can be accessed here:
2016-tourism-alliance-submission-rural-final
The our oral evidence session transcript can be accessed here:
efra-select-committee-transcript-oral-evidence-14-12-16
and the session viewed at:
http://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/da21d242-0f70-44ec-ba29-91fbc95471af
Both the Tourism Alliance and British Destinations were asked to submit supplementary written evidence on three questions note posed during the oral evidences session:
EFRA-Select-Committee-additional-evidence
and
Tourism-alliance-rural-tourism-inquiry-further-evidence
Due to the General Election the inquiry was not completed or published, however, a letter was sent to the Defra Minister highlighting the key issues that emerged during the inquiry: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/environment-food-rural-affairs/correspondence/Chair-Lord-Gardiner-re-Rural-tourism-england.pdf
British Destinations