A day celebrating Dorset was recently organised by Annette Brooke MP to showcase the county’s Tourism and Food and Drink industries at The Houses of Parliament to MPs, Lords and their advisors.

The School of Tourism’s Dr Bruce Grant-Braham, who is also the Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership’s board member and Tourism lead, was invited to Dorset Day (#dorsetday) to represent the County’s £1.5 billion industry. He said: “Thanks to Annette Brooke’s Dorset Day initiative, Dorset was able to showcase its uniqueness both in food and drink and as a quality tourism destination within easy reach of London.”

Some superb Weymouth Shellfish on display at Dorset Day

“I was allowed to take with me three Gold Medal Winners from the recent Dorset Tourism Awards, sponsored by both BU and the LEP.”

The three winners were Graham Richardson from Poole Tourism’s Welcome Centre, Lorraine Knowles from Lyme Regis Tourist Information Centre and the LEP-sponsored “Winner of Winners” Sherborne’s Eastbury Hotel’s Paul Knight.

One interested visitor to Dorset Day was the Minister for Tourism, Helen Grant, MP. Bruce said, “She listened intently to our concerns about the reduction of local authority support for tourism as well as the negative impact of VAT. She did, though, pass some very flattering comments about Dorset and our Gold Award Winners.”

Left to right Helen Grant, MP, Minister for Tourism, Annette Brooke, MP, Bruce Grant-Braham, School of Tourism and Dorset LEP

Helen Grant later said on on Twitter, “Really enjoyed dropping in on Dorset Day to see what’s on offer in the county and sample some lovely produce. A great tourist destination.”

The Minister’s main stated policy “Helping the UK tourism industry to grow” identifies tourism as “one of the UK’s biggest industries. It helps to create wealth and jobs throughout the country… [The Government] wants to help tourism grow even further by funding campaigns and other promotional work that will inspire more people to visit and explore more parts of Britain.”

Left to right Graham Richardson, Poole Tourism, Annette Brooke, MP, Lorraine Knowles, Lyme Regis TIC, Paul Knight, Eastbury Hotel

By Dr Bruce Grant-Braham