Lobbying For Cumbria
As the official voice of Cumbria’s visitor economy, Cumbria Tourism stands up for the issues that matter to tourism and hospitality businesses – 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. In the last 12 months we have held face-to-face meetings with Government Ministers, lobbied in the House of Lords, given evidence to Parliament and the Bank of England, and held regular updates with MPs.
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.
Some of our key priorities include:
Rising costs and energy support
Amid the energy crisis and rising inflation, we have consistently lobbied for action to tackle skyrocketing costs for tourism businesses and continue to argue the case for further government clarity on longer-term support. Our research underlines rising costs as your number one concern.
Recruitment and skills
Alongside our wide-ranging day-to-day activity to drive forward retention, recruitment and skills, Cumbria Tourism continues to apply consistent political pressure around these ongoing challenges. This has included meeting the Immigration Minister alongside our member businesses and being selected by ABTA as the only Destination Management Organisation nationally to be represented on a working group to develop the Youth Mobility Scheme.
Housing
Cumbria Tourism has been at the forefront of the response to the Government’s recent consultations on a registration scheme for short-term lets and the introduction of a short term planning use scheme. As part of Cumbria LEP’s housing supply group, we are also working more widely with partners to strike the right balance of housing in the county.
Transport
Cumbria Tourism continues to lobby for a better integrated transport system, also pushing for better connectivity between jobs and homes for staff through a range of influential partnerships. We sit on key transport groups, as well as the Lake District National Park Partnership and the Zero Carbon Partnership.
Digital Connectivity
We are committed to highlighting Cumbria’s specific digital connectivity challenges, raising political awareness and action on behalf of our industry.
Giving tourism businesses a voice
We regularly ask our member 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.