Minister wants to get more tourists to Cornwall

Tourism Minister Sir Chris Bryant wants to get more people visiting places like Cornwall

The tourism minister says he wants to get more British people going on holiday in places like Cornwall rather than abroad.

Sir Chris Bryant visited Falmouth and Mylor to meet people who work in tourism locally and discuss the state of the industry.

Hospitality leaders said the 2024 budget had been a "hammer blow" for the industry with changes to employer national insurance rates and many businesses were struggling even if their sites were full.

The minister said he knew things were still "really tough" for people working in the sector and more needed to be done to highlight what areas like Cornwall could offer domestic tourists.

The Labour MP said Covid had impacted the industry greatly but he remained confident visitor numbers could return to pre-pandemic levels.

"I want many more British people to say 'what's the point of Spain - we've got this'," he said.

Allen Simpson, chief executive of UK Hospitality, said the reality for businesses in the sector was "really stark" and had not been helped by the Budget.

He said: "A third of businesses in the sector are losing money even if it looks like they're doing very well on the door."

Bryant said the total number of jobs in the industry was rising and the government wanted to help traders "build resilience".

Speaking in Mylor on Wednesday, he added: "We need to get more British people coming to resorts like this and experiencing the variety of tourism that we have in the UK.

"I [also] want to get more international visitors coming into the UK and we've set a target of getting 50 million by 2030."