A group consisting of both sides of the political aisle has called on the British government to develop a new strategy to support music-based tourism that could help the British economy grow, according to BreakingTravelNews.com.
The call for an increase in music-based tourism was made during a debate in the House of Lords on the impact of music on tourism.
Lord Storey, a Liberal Democrat, who said that music festivals have been attracting unprecedented numbers of overseas visitors and have been bringing a lot of money into those local economies, sponsored the debate.
His argument was that the world has an "evident love" of the UK's musical heritage, which he believes should be used to support music tourism and encourage visitors to the UK for that purpose.
"I have seen first-hand the positive impact music can make on local tourist economies," Lord Storey said. "But we must also consider the impact music can have as a whole."
A report in 2011 estimated that music tourists spend approximately $2.1 billion, money that sustains over 20,000 jobs.
"Great Britain simply has too much potential for musical tourism for the Government to stand idly by," Lord Storey continued. "I strongly urge the Government to consider how best to implement a well defined music strategy."
He went on to suggest that the government should emphasize and engage with existing tourist bodies and authorities across Britain and assist them in marketing themselves as music tourist destinations in order to attract more overseas music tourists.
Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke, who is a non-executive director of the national tourism agency VisitBritain, supported this view.
"We are not doing as well as we could for music tourism," she said. "We need to have more resource behind promoting our music tourism."
She went on to add that music is important to British culture and to the overseas music tourist, because, although they only make up a minority of music tourists, they account for nearly 20 percent of music tourism dollars spent.
"We have the talent, the determination and the worldwide focus," Liddell said. "Let us make this a key pillar of our tourism strategy into the future."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
