MP speaks up for UK ELT in Parliamentary tourism debate
Bath MP Wera Hobhouse highlighted the plight of English language teaching centres during a debate on tourism on 10 September, and followed up her intervention with a letter to Nigel Huddleston, the minister for sport, tourism and heritage.
Speaking during the debate, she pointed out that UK ELT is part of the tourism industry and that it was experiencing the same Covid-19 related problems as other areas.
"I urge the Government to listen to the industry's call for short-term support"
"For students at those schools, visiting the UK is about far more than learning English; it is a cultural experience. They stay with local families and they visit our attractions. More than 500,000 ELT students bring £1.4 billion to the UK economy annually, and that important industry anticipates it will lose more than 80% of this year's business. I urge the Government to listen to the industry's call for short-term support by including ELT in the business rates holiday and supporting the Study UK campaign," she said.
In her letter to Mr Huddleston, she made the same points, adding: "Whilst other parts of the tourism sector have benefited from internal tourism over the summer, this unfortunately has not been the case for ELT. A number of my constituents have recently contacted me to share their concern about the future of ELT centres, particularly as the furlough scheme comes to an end in October."
English UK is the national association of accredited English language centres in the UK. Campaigning and lobbying on behalf of the English language teaching industry is a key focus of our work.
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