More daylight hours plan to lift tourism

Reporter: Ask Bury
Date online: 11 March 2008

Changing the clocks to have more daylight hours could boost tourism profits across Greater Manchester by more than £8 million.

Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the Conservatives will revisit the idea of changing the clocks to GMT +2 and in the winter it would be GMT +1 — giving lighter evenings and darker mornings as part of its tourism review.

Supporters argued that changing the clocks would cut road deaths and serious injuries by 450 a year and bring an annual increase of two per cent in tourist-related revenues.

But traditionally, Scotland and farmers have been against the idea.

But Mr Hunt said they would look at the idea as a way of boosting tourism in Britain but only pursue it if it was supported throughout the whole of the UK.

Launching their policy review on tourism at the start of tourism week today, Mr Hunt said: "I am completely open-minded. My sense is attitudes have changed. We are adamant that we want the same time zone for the whole of the UK. There is potential to make progress on this.

"Longer days for tourism attractions, longer tourist seasons, and could mean a huge boost in the number of visitors."

Tourism is worth £85 billion to the UK and oversees residents alone visiting Greater Manchester each year bring £420 million. Extra cash from changing the clocks would top £8.4 million for the region from overseas tourist on top of monies raised from domestic visits.

A similar trial took place in the late Sixties, when the UK remained on British Summer Time all year round, but was shelved after opposition from Scottish farmers and road safety campaigners, who were concerned about the darker mornings.

VisitBritain, the national tourism agency, said the changes could provide a potential boost to the economy.

A spokesman said: "Lighter evenings would extend the time for visitors to be active outdoors and support other businesses that rely on these visitors for their trade. The extra hour of daylight in the evenings would encourage more people to take advantage of tourist attractions across Britain all year round."

The Tories also proposed to cut red tape for small hotels and B&Bs. And the Conservatives would "seriously consider" the benefit of having a Tourism Minister who could "properly represent the industry within and outside of government."

But instead of more bureaucracy from Whitehall the task force is exploring ways local authorities could take on more responsibility for attracting tourists to the area and what incentives should be offered.

Mr Hunt said: "It is about empowering local authorities so they can be more entrepreneurial and incentives so people think it is a good thing to attract people to the area."