“I’ve been cleaning toilets and changing beds, pulling pints, making a very bad cup of cappuccino, and cutting up onions badly.”
Should Chris Bryant ever wish to switch career and move into the hospitality industry, he might want to work on his CV. Yet the tourism minister gets an A for effort. On Wednesday afternoon, I caught up with him at Mylor Sailing School in Cornwall. He had just completed a stint of work experience that had included a hotel in Falmouth and a watersports enterprise just north on Mylor Creek.
“First of all, I’m trying to champion British tourism,” Bryant told me. “As you know, the number of domestic visitors to UK tourism venues has fallen, and has not reached pre-Covid levels yet. Secondly, I want to listen to the industry about the challenges they face.”
That is a brave invitation to businesses who feel bruised by employers’ national insurance rises, are angry at what they see as unfair competition from short-term lets on platforms such as Airbnb, and are unimpressed by the level of support the tourism industry gets from the government.
More than one business leader has complained to me about Bryant’s job title. He is the minister for creative industries, arts and tourism, and therefore has plenty on his professional plate besides the crucial business of persuading more British holidaymakers to stay at home – and luring more foreign visitors to the UK. Oh, and he also serves as MP for Rhondda and Ogmore. But today, the focus of the multitasking minister was strictly tourism.
Read more: The best boutique hotels in Cornwall for a chic stay by the sea
“I was in a hotel room here today in Falmouth,” he told me. “It could have been a room in an Airbnb – exactly the same. But the Airbnb wouldn’t have paid any tax. They wouldn’t have to abide by any of the legislation that a hotel would have to abide by. And that’s simply unfair. So we need to level that up. And I want to make sure that in areas that have a lot of short-term lets, the local authority has an idea of exactly what’s going on locally. So that should be in place by next April.
“We’ve got to get much…
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