Holiday at Home is What David Cameron Tells Britons as Plans Unfold to Make UK One of the Top Five World Destinations

The Prime Minister, David Cameron has a plan to make Britain Great again by boosting the tourist industry, and he hopes to make the UK one of the top five destinations in the world for people on vacation.

Currently, it seems that the British public only spend 36 percent of their annual holiday budget at home, preferring to holiday abroad for their main breaks every year.

Mr Cameron would like to see this rise to 50 percent, and with the chaos caused by the volcano in Iceland earlier this year, as well as the British Airways strikes, and now threatened airport workers strikes later this month, he may find that his wish comes true.

The Prime Minister and his wife Samantha are planning to take the family to Cornwall in the far southwest of England next week, since Mrs Cameron is pregnant with their fourth child and unable to travel by air.

In his speech at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park in London, David Cameron stressed the need to preserve and restore Britain's historic monuments and countryside, and to work on attracting more foreign tourists, especially from China, where the UK is only ranked as the 22nd most popular destination.

Tourism in the UK is the third largest export business, employing nearly 10 percent of the workforce and adding £115 billion a year to the economy.

He stressed that with the Olympics in 2012 and the Commonwealth Games in 2014, then a bid to host the football World Cup in 2018, Britain has a great opportunity to use tourism to boost the flagging economy.

Popular UK Tourist Spots For Overseas Visitors

The majority of the visitors that come to the UK for the first time, have in their itinerary such places as London, where they want to see Buckingham Palace, the Tower Of London and Big Ben. They also want to see Edinburgh, Stonehenge, and a popular day out by bus to Stonehenge takes them to see Salisbury Cathedral (with the tallest spire in England) and Bath (with it's hot springs and Roman baths).

They also visit Stratford On Avon, which is Shakespeare's birthplace, and nearby Warwick Castle, one of my personal favourites, but beyond this, so many visitors to the UK never get to see the REAL England, Scotland or Wales.

Little Known Tourist Spots For Overseas Visitors

So many visitors to the UK never get to the Southwest of the country, where there is the most wonderful scenery in the counties of Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.

Few make it to the Norfolk Broads, or to the Lake District either.

As well as the big cities, the UK has so many small quaint villages, with old churches dating back in some cases to the 13th century.

One difference between the UK and the USA in particular is the distance between places, and it is a bit of a culture shock when people realise just how close together places are in the UK.

I know that when I was living in Indiana, it took maybe a couple of hours to drive to the next major city, with only a few small towns (what we would call villages in the UK) in between, and yet in the UK you barely have to go ten miles outside of a town, and you are in the next, or if not you are in one of a handful of delightful small villages.

For those who have the time to venture further up north, I highly recommend Northumbria, with the historic isle of Lindisfarne and the Farne islands, and the spectacular castles at Bamburgh and Alnwick.

So "Good for you David Cameron", it's time that the UK was put back on the tourist map, it's good for the economy, it's good for getting people back to work, and it's good for the image of the country as a whole.

Sources:

This Is London

Reuters

And a little personal opinion thrown in for good measure...