Bob Cotton, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association (BHA), has again called on the government to place more emphasis on assisting the UK tourism industry.

Speaking at the association's Annual Luncheon, held on Wednesday, 25 June, Cotton cited the granting of agency workers the same employment rights as full-time workers as the latest example of unnecessary regulation.

“Looking to the future, our biggest challenge is to encourage government to recognise that tourism is one of the country’s key growth industries - one of the biggest in the country, one that has huge potential and one that yields significant tax revenue to the Treasury," he said.

"And it’s one that is certainly capable of earning much more in the future if we nurture it, invest in it - and if the government leaves it alone.

“If the government was serious about taking tourism seriously, it would not have cut back VisitBritain’s funding, nor abolished the Hotel Buildings Allowance and would not have made it ever more difficult for ethnic restaurants to recruit their own skilled chefs.

“Loading the industry with ever more burdensome taxes, introducing more and more regulations, and changing the tax regime so that essential government support for investment is withdrawn - some of it retrospectively - will merely weaken it, not strengthen it.”

More than 900 members and guests, including Tourism Minister Margaret Hodge, attended the event at the Great Room, Grosvenor House.