Thanks for all the fish... (and a discussion about tourist taxes)

Today there was a joint meeting of Cornwall Council's Tourism Panel and industry representatives held at Rick Stein's Seafood School in Padstow - regrettably the first such joint meeting in two years of existence.

First up was a cookery demonstration and tasting session kindly provided by the Seafood School (and duly declared by the councillors present in the register of gifts and hospitality). Great food prepared by two chefs with a great commentary and recipe cards for us to take home. The food itself was Spanish and comes from Mr Stein's new book.

Then the main business which was a round table discussion on issues affecting the tourist industry. It is fair to say that there was a lot of unhappiness about the decision by a senior council officer to raise the prospect of a tourist tax to a committee of MPs. No elected members have yet discussed this and it is not council policy, but the mere prospect has become reality in the minds of many with newspapers writing about it and Cornwall even being used to justify a move to impose such a tax in Italy.

I remain of the view that such a tax is a very bad idea and that Cornwall's tourist industry has been damaged by the discussion. That was also the view of the majority of the tourist industry bosses at today's meeting.

Given that the issues has been raised, there were mixed views on what to do next. Nobody thought that the issue should be brushed under the carpet. Some thought that the officer in question should be flogged around the fleet and others that he should find out more about the industry to learn why he was wrong to raise the issue. Another viewpoint was that a debate could lay the matter to rest and that the issue could help to get across the importance of the tourist industry to Cornwall (it is about a quarter of our economy).

I hope that, whatever happens on the tourist tax debate, it can be used as a stimulus to get senior officers in the council more up to speed with tourism.

Tweet