With British Tourism Week almost upon us, how important is tourism to the British economy? The answer is clear.

Britain attracts 32 million overseas visitors every year, earning over £16bn in foreign currency; the hotel, restaurant, leisure and tourism industry is worth well over £100bn annually. By providing two million jobs in over 300,000 separate establishments, not only is the industry the main – sometimes the only – economic generator in regions of the country, it is also a key support element in hospitals and nursing homes, schools and colleges, offices and factories, and in the armed services.

What’s more, the industry continues to grow.

In 2007, over 150 new hotels opened. A similar number has opened every year since 2001 and as many are planned for the immediate future. This will be given greater impetus by the 2012 Olympics, which will showcase the industry to the world. There are more Michelin-starred restaurants in Britain than ever before and London is widely regarded as one of the eating-out capitals of the world.

So, if tourism is so important, why doesn’t the government think so?

You have only to look at recent legislation to see how poorly the industry is regarded. The abolition of Hotel Buildings Allowance will deter new hotel construction; it will certainly make it more expensive. The reduction in capital allowances on the cost of other investments will discourage small hotel owners from modernising and refurbishing premises – just when the government’s own 2012 Strategy is urging hotels to upgrade and modernise.

Increases in the top rate of corporation tax for small businesses will raise millions from the hospitality industry while hoteliers and restaurateurs who sell their business on retirement will be paying 80 per cent more Capital Gains Tax than they would have done before the Spending Review: 18 per cent, not 10 per cent. That might not seem a lot but most hotels represent the owner’s pension pot. To cap it all, 20 per cent reduced funding for VisitBritain is a curious way of showing support for an industry that earns over £13bn in foreign exchange.

This is a far cry of the early years of this decade, when the government helped the industry through the crisis of the foot-and-mouth epidemic with some imaginative and considered measures. Ever since, however, tourism has been studiously ignored, except for ill thought-out and damaging changes in the tax regime which have done nothing to encourage investment and improve standards.

Will British Tourism Week help to raise the industry’s profile? Hopefully, yes.

The event aims to bring together business and government (at all levels) and so encourage greater understanding of the role that tourism plays in the economy of the country.

Clearly, this role is insufficiently recognised, even in government. As a successful wealth-creating industry, and as a job creator, tourism has few rivals, yet government support is marginal – and is reducing. The 20 per cent cut in VisitBritain’s grant is symptomatic of the government’s approach.

If British Tourism Week can raise tourism’s profile in Whitehall, and generally in the country, then it will have achieved something worthwhile. We must work hard to make sure that it succeeds in this. But it will be hard work.