Advocacy For Cumbria
As the official voice of Cumbria’s visitor economy, Cumbria Tourism stands up for the issues that matter to our industry – lobbying high-level decision-makers and ensuring your collective needs are heard loud and clear both regionally and nationally.
As well as working with partners like VisitEngland/VisitBritain, UK Hospitality and the Tourism Alliance, we use our rich pool of research and up-to-date market intelligence to help inform and shape strategic direction for a wide range of politicians and influential figures.
Direct feedback from our member businesses has enabled Cumbria Tourism to provide robust, ‘real time’ information for a series of public consultations. As well as regularly engaging with all Cumbrian MPs, we have held face-to-face meetings with Government Ministers, lobbied in the House of Lords and even given evidence about our industry to Parliament and the Bank of England.
We are also proud to be working alongside industry-leading Strategic Partners, who offer invaluable insight, expertise and funding to support our work on behalf of the tourism industry.
We have created a handy two-sided document summarising the critical importance of Cumbria’s visitor economy which businesses and partners can use to help talk to key decision makers and influencers.
£4.6BN
Total spend in 2024
43,500
FTE Jobs supported by tourism
28%
of Cumbria’s total employment
10%
Growth in staying visitors since 2019
19%
Growth in revenue in the past 10 years
1.1BN
Spent within food and drink sector
1.2BN
Spent within indirect supply chain
15
Michelin stars (more than anywhere outside London)
£600M
Spent on transport sector
Some of our key priorities include:
Overnight visitor levy
The Government has announced that Mayors in England will be given the power to impose a new uncapped levy on visitors’ overnight stays, as a percentage of the cost of accommodation.
Cumbria Tourism believes this is the wrong tax at the wrong time for our county and we will continue to use business evidence to help inform decision makers about the potential unintended consequences, including ‘roundtable’ discussions with Cumbrian Mayoral candidates.
Our businesses are concerned about job losses, reduced stays, reduced spend and thereby reduced tax revenue, as well as the impact on less visited areas of the county. With the hospitality VAT rate here already double that of many European countries, this will make holidays here even less competitive. So before considering any taxes we are repeating our call for an independent economic and social impact assessment, exploring unintended consequences.
If an overnight visitor levy were ultimately to be implemented, Cumbria Tourism will work tirelessly alongside decision-makers to ensure it is ringfenced to support sustainable tourism growth in our county, in line with Cumbria’s Destination Management Plan.
You can find our full overview of the challenges around a potential overnight visitor levy here.
Lowering VAT for hospitality
Cumbria Tourism has long called for a reduced rate of VAT for hospitality, recognising the pressure high operating costs place on businesses across the visitor economy.
The national #VATsTheProblem campaign, launched by UKHospitality, is calling on Government to reduce hospitality VAT from 20% to 10%, bringing the UK closer to many European competitors and helping businesses already facing rising costs.
Supporters say a lower rate would help protect jobs, keep venues open, support investment, strengthen high streets and make prices more affordable for customers. It would also provide practical support for the businesses at the heart of our towns, villages and communities.
Please sign the petition and help show the level of support for fairer VAT across the hospitality sector.
Recruitment and retention
Cumbria Tourism’s twice-yearly business tracker research consistently underlines recruitment, retention and skills as key concerns for Cumbria’s tourism businesses.
Alongside our wide-ranging day-to-day activity around workforce development, we are continuing to apply consistent political pressure around these ongoing challenges – not least
the recent changes to income tax and National Insurance (NICs) obligations which are further squeezing operators’ margins.
Cumbria Tourism is amplifying your voice through our role on the Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) Skills and Workforce Forum, as well as regular engagement with the Department for Education (DfE) and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
Delivering Cumbria’s Destination Management Plan
Cumbria Tourism was tasked by the Government with leading the development of a five-year, county-wide Destination Management Plan (DMP), which went live in Spring 2024.
The DMP includes a range of collective objectives, priorities and comprehensive actions that set the shared blueprint to help manage Cumbria’s visitor economy and support the county’s future growth as a great place to live, work, visit and study.
Cumbria Tourism continues to lead a steering group that brings together both local authorities and National Parks. The DMP helps keep everyone focused on getting things done, while also giving us a strong platform to push for the funding, resources and policies needed to make it happen.
Highways
Roadworks and utility work on our road network can cause major knock-on effects for businesses and visitors, so Cumbria Tourism works closely with local authorities, utility companies and organisations like National Highways to reinforce the importance of our visitor economy.
We actively encourage them to carry our work outside busy visitor periods where possible. Or, if that can’t be avoided, we help facilitate conversations to reduce the impact on people getting around.
This approach has led to some real successes, so if roadworks are affecting your business, please get in touch with the team.
Visitor and worker transport
One of our key priorities is pushing for a better, more joined-up transport system. That includes helping to develop smarter, sustainable transport solutions for visitors (like our free Smart Travel Planner) and helping to address the barriers faced by people travelling to work.
Cumbria Tourism is part of key transport groups, we keep in close contact with train and bus operators, and we are members of influential partnerships like the Lake District National Park Partnership and the Zero Carbon Partnership.
We also make sure that any transport issues that could affect our visitor economy are drawn to the attention of the relevant MPs.
Housing
Cumbria Tourism has been at the forefront of the response to the Government’s consultations on a registration scheme for short-term lets and the introduction of a short term planning use scheme.
As part of Cumbria ‘s housing supply group, we are also working more widely with partners to strike the right balance of housing in the county.
This also includes addressing challenges around affordable housing for staff, to help retain local talent and minimise barriers to people living and working in the county.
Giving tourism businesses a voice
Cumbria Tourism regularly asks businesses for up-to-date data and first-hand feedback.
Whether that’s through our anonymous business tracker surveys or specific case studies on emerging issues, your evidence is fundamental to shaping our strategic direction and enables us to make Cumbria’s case with national decision-makers and industry bodies.
Thank you for continuing to make your voice heard in such high numbers. Together we are stronger.