Culture secretary Tessa Jowell has today (19 July) launched Welcome – Legacy: The Tourism 2012 Strategy Consultation, which aims to get the views of people within the industry on how to best utilise the potential benefits to tourism of 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Its particular aims are to ensure that tourism’s interests are fully represented in all decision-making regarding the Games, that the UK can effectively market itself internationally and that the quality of UK tourism, and the skills of people who work in it, are of the highest standard.

Jowell, speaking at the 2012 UK Wide Business Conference in Leeds, said: “Tourism is one of our biggest industries and the Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world. Put them together and you’ve got a unique opportunity to take our tourism industry to the next level.”

The consultation poses 21 questions to the tourism industry, to which responses are welcomed until 17 November, and offers statistics and figures to serve as both inspirations and warnings.

In order to establish a tourism legacy, the consultation suggests that the industry must do the following: align and develop the Britain brand to appeal to new and younger markets; build on media coverage; win more international events, conferences and conventions; attract more partners to the tourism sector and improve the tourism infrastructure.

However, other work must also be done, including altering other countries’ perceptions of the UK. According to the document, international opinion states that we are “polite but unwelcoming, relatively expensive, poor at providing service” and that we “provide poor value for money in accommodation, food and drink”.

In addition, London’s provision for disabled visitors is well below other countries, especially the US. The consultation quotes Tourism for All figures which state that only 2 per cent of UK accommodation has been assessed as fully accessible to wheelchair users, compared with 8 per cent in Spain.

It also quotes the British Hospitality Association as saying that less than 1 per cent of 10,000 hotel rooms built from September 2004 to December 2005 are suitable for the mobility impaired.

Earlier this month, in a letter to Jowell, Prime Minister Tony Blair laid out the seven priorities for her department, but the tourism industry did not get a mention, an omission which was widely slammed by the sector. Details: www.culture.gov.uk