Britons urged to holiday at home

Castlerigg stone circle (Image: Joe Cornish)

By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent

The head of one of the UK's premier cultural guardians, the National Trust, wants more Britons to spend their holidays at home.

Fiona Reynolds, the Trust's director-general, says this would let people appreciate their heritage properly.

It would also boost local economies, she says, and relieve pressure to build more airports in the UK.

Ms Reynolds says policymakers should recognise the great benefits of this "local tourism".

Launching the Trust's plans for 2003, she said she was "disappointed that the new national body promoting tourism in the UK is putting more emphasis on attracting visitors from overseas, not Britons themselves".

The number of visitors to National Trust properties in 2002 was more than 12 million, well up on the 10m recorded the previous year.

Keeping it local

Ms Reynolds told BBC News Online: "In some parts of the country we do get quite a lot of overseas visitors. Many Americans come to Chartwell in Kent, for example, because of its associations with Winston Churchill.

John Lennon's bedroom (Image: Keith Paisley)

"But overall, visitors from abroad make up less than 10% of the total. I want to remind British people themselves of the wonderful things there are to see here, of the opportunities to learn about our heritage.

"And if you take a British holiday you're not adding to the pressure for new airports to be built to cope with the growing numbers of people wanting to go abroad.

"Beyond that, staying in the UK means you are doing something really worthwhile to support the economy of the places you visit."

For every job the Trust created, Ms Reynolds said, it estimated that between five and nine more jobs were created in the local economy.

City of culture

"We see tourism as business based on place," she said. "We'd like to see public policy put more emphasis on our sort of low-tech, low-key tourism."

Fair Head (Image: Joe Cornish)

The Trust, founded in 1895, was set up to preserve places of historic interest or natural beauty. It has more than 3m members.

One highlight in 2003 will be the opening to visitors of the house in Liverpool where the Beatle John Lennon lived as a child and teenager.

It is close to the former home of his fellow Beatle Sir Paul McCartney. Last year the Trust acquired the house, studio equipment and photographic collection of Liverpool's leading photographer, Edward Chambre Hardman, which it hopes to open in 2004.

Ms Reynolds said the Trust was glad to be part of "Liverpool's cultural renaissance and its wonderful contribution to the heritage of the nation".

She said the 40,000 volunteers who helped to keep the Trust's properties welcoming and in good repair contributed £13.5m ($22m) worth of work, and without them the Trust could not keep going.

Images courtesy of the National Trust Photographic Library