Tourism is vital for the UK. It is growing faster than any other sector in the country.
It employs well over three million people, and earns more than £130 billion a year – 9 per cent of our gross domestic product.
Ten years from now it is possible that tourism will be bringing in 300 billion pounds worth of dollars, euros and yen every single year. I emphasise the word “possible”
British tourism has upped its game in recent times.
But there are still unpredictable risks that can undermine consumer confidence and pull the plug on prosperity overnight.
Which is why the carnage in Paris a few weeks ago is relevant. I spent last weekend there as a delegate to the International Climate Change conference.
This long planned event involving world leaders from 147 different nations was always going to be a security headache.
What happened in the city on the grim night of November 13th dramatically altered the landscape.
France’s tourism suffered badly in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
It has been estimated that the price of cancelled bookings and visitors have already cost the French economy around one and a half billion pounds.
When Brussels was locked down while police searched for the Paris terrorists it cost that city £35million a day in lost trade.
Fear can be a very cruel weapon. It respects no laws. It undermines confidence and it breeds upon itself.
I have some relevant experience about the need to counter fear.
Two years ago large parts my constituency began to sink under the most appalling flood waters for hundreds of years.
The damage was horrendous. The human toll was also high. Many people were forced to abandon their homes as the waters rose.
It was totally shocking and desperately sad.
So I greatly sympathise with those in Cumbria who have been affected in just the same way over the past few days.
Flooding on this scale is a nightmare. It has taken two years for those parts of Somerset that suffered the most to recover.
It also took a very big push from Somerset’s tourist industry to persuade visitors to stay with us or book to return.
The trouble with fear is that it is easy to exaggerate. People saw those aerial pictures of flooded homes and assumed the whole county was under water.
In fact you could have driven down the M5 and hardly noticed a thing. The majority of people were going to work, going to school, getting on with life.
There was food in the shops, and a welcome at the local pub. Somerset didn’t grind to a halt and neither will Cumbria.
However we all had to work extremely hard to get that message across.
We can and should do much more to persuade the wider audience of potential visitors that whatever they hear or read about the risks of terrorism - Britain remains open for business.