— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) April 25, 2017
May flubbed. The two words – “tourism” and “terrorism” – are just so similar. The embarrassment was May’s first major hiccup during the general election campaign, Business Insider UK reported.
May took a page from US President Donald "The Dealmaker" Trump’s successful campaign playbook, and pledged to “strike deals across the world for exporting British goods and services," before declaring, "we want to lead the world in preventing tourism."
Or perhaps the prime minister was trolling Trump’s extensive hotel businesses, which serve as a major source of ethical concern among government observers who worry Trump isn’t sufficiently detached from business interests while he holds the highest office in the land.
Let’s hope tourism isn’t prevented in Wales. Tourists spend £14million each day in the country, according to the Welsh government, or about £5.1 billion each year. Heritage tourism keeps 24,000 people employed and adds £1 billion in gross value each year to the UK economy, according to a 2016 report published by the Heritage Lottery Fund. What makes the slip an even bigger offense is that tourism is “more important as an economic driver in Wales than the UK as a whole,” HLF found.
“We may be a small country but when it comes to tourism, Wales punches above its weight,” says Richard Bellamy, head of HLF Wales.
With Brexit looking likely to make travel more complicated and expensive for British visitors to the continent, May, unfortunately, might be able to keep that promise.
