Making Britain a more welcoming destination for international visitors and giving hospitality operators a greater voice in planning future tourism initiatives, are among more than 80 proposals in a Tourism Regulation Taskforce report lobbying the UK Government against unnecessary regulation.

Alan Parker CBE

The Taskforce, under the chairmanship of Alan Parker CBE - president of the British Hospitality Association - recently submitted its report to John Penrose MP, Tourism Minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Smart Regulation and Economic Growth: Seizing the Tourism Opportunity focuses on ways to remove red tape constricting many hospitality businesses. Parker told RCIVentures.com: "Too often regulations introduced by one government department conflict with those of another department that also has an interest in the industry.

"Feedback to the Taskforce indicated that regulators rarely understood the difficulties that small independent businesses faced when implementing complex new regulations. Nor is the cost of implementation appreciated."

The report revealed the overwhelming majority of businesses in tourism and hospitality are SMEs and micro businesses – "the lifeblood of the economy" – and one of the greatest problems among them was the cumulative effect of regulation.

Ufi Ibrahim

Parker added: "Bold policy actions would free larger companies to allocate resources more efficiently while they could represent a make or break solution for many smaller businesses."

Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association (BHA), added: "This report shows the way to sweep away so much of the red tape that is a major challenge to every hospitality business.

"The BHA will continue to challenge the on-going implementation of unnecessary rules and regulations which take up too much time and add cost to all businesses.

"The Taskforce’s report is a major step forward in this process."

Further resources

• Download the Smart Regulation and Economic Growth: Seizing the Tourism Opportunity report
• Listen to Ufi Ibrahim on Episode 19 of Today's Timeshare.