Fury as Tories claim North East gets too much tourism cash

Jun 26 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

“There isn’t the money available to us that is to other areas, if you look at say the Lake District they get a lot of help and really very little in comparison for Northumberland.

“And across Northumberland there will be many many organisations that cannot afford to buy up national or overseas market spaces, we just don’t have a budget for that.”

Last night Mr Anderson warned the region would have to get used to such cuts if the Tories took office at the next General Election.

He said: “Tourism has huge potential to be a real growth industry for our region, it could be one of the biggest employment opportunities we have.

“And while we’re looking at new industries and renewable energy it is right that we are putting money into tourism because while we all know what we have to be proud of in the North East there are a lot of people who don’t. There’s a lot to be worried about from Conservative spending cuts, and it’s not just going to impact on the public sector. We would see real cuts that damage our tourism industry at a time when we need to be investing money in supporting it.”

Ruth McNeely, chairwoman of the North Northumberland Tourism Association, said if anything there was insufficient funds to promote the region’s lesser known beauty spots. She said: “One North East is really the main funding body as regards promotion here and sometimes it can be quite difficult for us to get access to money for smaller projects.

“But that should definitely not mean we have less money for tourism.

“And the idea that we have seven times more cash than others is plainly wrong, things are difficult enough and we simply couldn’t afford to live with any more cuts.”

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