Gordon Brown & New Cities of Culture

Following on from yesterday's blog on the success of Liverpool as one of the 2008Cities of Culture, I thought which city this year.
As is now the custom there are two, Vilnius in Lithuania and Linz in Austria. Linz is twinned with Edinburgh but as far as I can see, Vilnius is not twinned with any UK city. As would be expected, both have a series of special events to celebrate the year.
But it is not only Europe that has cities of culture. Since the nineties the idea has been copied elsewhere and in the Americas, this is the year for Asuncion in Paraguay which is not that easy to get to from the UK. There is also an Arab City of Culture each year and this year it is Jerusalem, the Palestinian part although given what is happening in that area at the moment, I am not sure how many new tourists might be attracted. I can't see that Asia has adopted the idea yet but do correct me if I am wrong.
So when will it be a British or Irish city again? Since the European city idea began there have only been two cities, Glasgow in 1990 and Liverpool. Ireland has had just one, Cork. Decisions have been made for years in the future so the first time it could be a British or Irish city again would be 2020 which is a long way off.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister was in Liverpool. For the first time that I can remember he spoke about tourism (well it might have been a throw-a-way line but the word did pass his lips) He said that tourism was an area to be expanded so maybe, as a first step, he can encourage the tourism minister, Barbara Follett to sit down with Andy Burnham and make having a British city of culture happen.

How Important is Tourism?

With the World Travel Market now over for another year, residents can get back to normal for a while. The buses, the DLR and the restaurants will be returned to them. And they will probably enjoy it. But tourism is an integral way of life for the economies both local and national throughout the world.
If you think of Stratford-upon-Avon, Land's End, Blackpool, the Brecon Beacons and a host of other places, tourism is their lifeblood. they rely on you and I to visit and sepend money. But how important is it to Britain?
According to a new study from Deloittes commissioned by Visit Britain and the Tourism Alliance, the visitor economy is worth £114 billion to the UK. Make life too difficult for tourists and they stay away. It still came as a bit of surprise though when Barbara Follett, the minister responsible for tourism said that half of the shrinkage of the British economy in the third quarter of this year was due entirely to the downturn in the hospitality and tourism sector. That is of huge significance. One industry has had such a significant impact. You might have thought that the banking and financial sevices sector might have had such an effect. But no, tourism and hospitality has been the single most industry to have affected our economy in that period.
When you see a minister put it like that you realise just how important tourism is to us all.