To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail any measures her Department will take to promote and sustain tourism-related businesses in Northern Ireland’s coastal towns in light of recent cost pressures.

I’m aware that the local Tourism and Hospitality business community has expressed serious concerns about the impact of the British Government’s Autumn Statement. These concerns are being examined as part of Cost of Doing Business research which I commissioned as Finance Minister and which is due to be completed later this month. It will help build the evidence base for making the case for the Treasury to act on the cost of doing business here. My colleague, the Minister of Finance, highlighted the adverse impacts of the taxation system with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury at the Finance Interministerial Standing Committee on 27 February. I will work to support him and advocate alongside him where possible. We will continue to engage with the sector to help us in making persuasive representations to Treasury. Recent calls have been made for the Executive to use our rating system to compensate for some of the budget challenges. This is not practical, nor is it the right solution. The Executive does not have the financial capacity to compensate for decisions made on reserved taxation matters. My Department and its delivery partners provide a wide range of support to local companies to generate growth. These include dedicated financial offers of support from Invest NI, upskilling the workforce through FE and HE provision and Tourism NI and Tourism Ireland encouraging visitors to visit and spend here, whilst supporting industry development. Making businesses more sustainable also makes economic sense. My Department leads on the delivery of the Energy Strategy and last year saw the launch of an Energy & Resource Efficiency Programme through Invest NI which provides essential support for businesses to reduce operating costs whilst also creating economic opportunities in the green economy. In addition, my Department’s Regional Economic Plan is focussed on identifying key economic opportunities and priority actions for each part of the North, supported by a £45m Regional Development Fund. Tourism NI provides a suite of advisory supports to help tourism & hospitality businesses reduce costs, improve productivity and be more sustainable. These include programmes such as Leaner and Greener focusing on reducing resource costs, Innovate Tourism, focusing on harnessing innovation in businesses, and the Destination Sustainability Programme, providing a more in-depth approach to embedding sustainability. The recently launched Tourism Vision and Action Plan: 10 Year Plan provides a roadmap for the growth of tourism over the next ten years, to increase tourism expenditure from overnight visitors to £2 billion per annum.