The political merry-go-round that followed the resignations of foreign secretary Boris Johnson and David Davis, catapulted the secretary of state for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Matt Hancock into the big health ministry job.
The DCMS is the ministry that ultimately is responsible for business tourism and the UKInbound organisation has published (16 July) its letter to Jeremy Wright QC to congratulate him on taking on the new ministerial brief.
UKinbound chief executive officer, Deirdre Wells OBE (pictured) said the appointment of Wright had come “at a decisive time for our industry as we welcome the proposed new relationship with the EU, set out in the BREXIT White Paper. “We look forward to forging a strong working relationship with Jeremy, to ensure the continued development and growth of the inbound tourism sector, in particular the provision of a sector deal for tourism, under the government’s Industrial Strategy.”
In its letter to the new secretary of state, UKinbound highlighted that the inbound tourism industry is currently the UK’s fifth biggest export earner, on par with the pharmaceutical and automotive industries, and that in 2017 an estimated 39m people visited the UK, contributing over £26bn to the UK economy.
UKinbound also pledged, in the coming months, to continue to work closely with the DCMS team to address the need to secure rights for EU workers in the UK post Brexit.
However, since Maria Miller held the brief from September 2012 to April 2014, no minister has been able to retain the DCMA brief for more than 18 months, with Sajid Javid, John Whittingdale, Karen Bradley and Matt Hancock all heading through the revolving DCMS door in rapid succession.
Whether Jeremy Wright will prove to be the politician of conviction needed by our sector to champion and drive it forward, time will tell.
Wright’s experience to date includes a stint as attorney general and he is a Remainer.
Specialist tech publication Wired UK, damned the new minister with faint praise: “Overall, scant evidence of Wright’s stance on various key policy positions for digital, culture, media and sport hints that he was selected out of necessity rather than desire.”
