Local leaders have incurred backlash at plans to increase tourism throughout the North East.
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00:00Plans to increase tourism levels in the North East have been announced after a meeting of the region's cultural leaders.
00:04The plans include a focus on travellers aware of sustainability and decreasing their carbon footprint,
00:09but they have met controversy over the idea of influxes of tourists visiting cultural hotspots.
00:13Complaints about increases in visitors to coastal towns such as crassar and sea houses,
00:17detail traffic chaos in the areas as well as locals being priced out of the housing market by people buying properties to let to holiday makers.
00:23Residents are very concerned that the situation is already at breaking point and any plans to increase tourism will only worsen the problem.
00:28The region sits rock bottom of both domestic and international tourism spend in the UK,
00:33with 459,000 international visits and a spend of £360 million in 2023.
00:38Amanda Hopgood, the Liberal Democrat leader of the North East Combined Authority,
00:41said that they do want to increase tourism but in an environmentally sustainable way
00:46and they want the plans to be made with residents instead of to them.
00:49Increasing tourism in the area would mean increasing public transport capacity as well as hotel availability,
00:53but the cultural leaders at the meeting were confident this is achievable in a sustainable way
00:57that is beneficial to residents and businesses alike.