Taking a holiday is the best way to get our economy back to work, by VisitEngland Chairman Viscountess Cobham, CBE

With the New Year now underway and packed with a cornucopia of stunning anniversaries and opportunities to look forward to, 2015 looks set to kick start a decade of jobs and growth.

The 8^th International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations comes to Manchester.

This conference series began as a side event at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 when 280 delegates from 20 countries met to discuss the experience South Africa had had in implementing a Responsible Tourism strategy post-apartheid. South Africa was the first country to adopt Responsible Tourism as it national strategy, it has now been followed by The Gambia, Myanmar, Kerala in India and Oman. In the UK the Association of Independent Tour Operators and a number of companies had adopted Responsible Tourism by 2002 – and many having followed including ABTA.

The visitor economy needs to continue to be at the forefront of innovation as the market becomes increasingly competitive. But how, where and what do we innovate? Guest blogger Paul Laver, Chief Knowledge Cultivator at Olive Insight, explains why innovation is the life-blood of progress; how we should innovate more; and in his view, why travel and tourism is a leader in innovation.

Our previous post introduced a proposed framework of activities and actions to stimulate and facilitate innovation. We are keen to come out of the debate with some tangible ideas of how to drive innovation in the sector. In this guest blog, Martyn Collins Managing Director UK/EMEA for Kiosk.tm gives us his view on implementing and exploiting innovation in the visitor economy and questions whether the public sector has a role to play.