Backlash over North East tourism plans

Local leaders have incurred backlash at plans to increase tourism throughout the North East.

Transcript

00:00Plans to increase tourism levels in the North East have been announced after a meeting of the region's cultural leaders.

00:04The plans include a focus on travellers aware of sustainability and decreasing their carbon footprint,

00:09but they have met controversy over the idea of influxes of tourists visiting cultural hotspots.

00:13Complaints about increases in visitors to coastal towns such as crassar and sea houses,

00:17detail traffic chaos in the areas as well as locals being priced out of the housing market by people buying properties to let to holiday makers.

00:23Residents are very concerned that the situation is already at breaking point and any plans to increase tourism will only worsen the problem.

00:28The region sits rock bottom of both domestic and international tourism spend in the UK,

00:33with 459,000 international visits and a spend of £360 million in 2023.

00:38Amanda Hopgood, the Liberal Democrat leader of the North East Combined Authority,

00:41said that they do want to increase tourism but in an environmentally sustainable way

00:46and they want the plans to be made with residents instead of to them.

00:49Increasing tourism in the area would mean increasing public transport capacity as well as hotel availability,

00:53but the cultural leaders at the meeting were confident this is achievable in a sustainable way

00:57that is beneficial to residents and businesses alike.