Tourism And Commons Don't Mix

By Rob Last edited 220 months ago
Tourism And Commons Don't Mix
Commons_Chamber.jpg

A little article in today's Telegraph informs us that the House of Commons made a bit of a loss on its tourism side racket over the summer

Well when we say 'a bit of a loss' we actually mean a £320,000 deficit.

Turns out that the 'guided tours' business wasn't so hot for the capital's seat of power this year, and "visitor numbers slumped from an expected 103,000 to 77,873."

Now if you were going to take a stab at why that happened you'd probably want to factor in those terrorist bomb attacks that took place around July time. We're not industry experts or anything but we'd hazard a guess that the mixture of 'large landmark' and 'political epicentre' might have put off quite a few potential vistors after July 7.

But, according to Kevan Jones (Labour MP for Durham North, as if you didn't know) you'd be wrong. Kevin reckons that official claims that the terrorism attacks in the capital on July 7 were to blame for the shortfall being nearly 10 times what was originally planned for" just don't cut it and that the rather swish booth they set up to sell tickets for the tours might have added to the deficit.

Ok, so it cost them $73,000 for the booth...but it does look quite nice doesn't it, with its curvy roof and everything?

Maybe people just aren't that bothered about going to see the Commons anymore. It's not like you get a tour of Tony's office like you do with the Oval Office at the White House, and at least in the States they have the West Wing for P.R. Here we just have repeats of Yes Minister and BBC4's The Thick Of It, neither of which make the place look all that inviting.

Maybe they need a fab new ad campaign with a catchy jingle to drum up some business.

Last Updated 23 November 2005