Hands off our bank holidays!

How would you feel about the government scrapping May Day bank holiday?

Yesterday's new UK tourism strategy revealed that might be a possibility.

The idea is to replace May Day with a St George's Day bank holiday in April, or Trafalgar Day in October.

It is claimed that this would help extend the tourist season in the UK in a bid to generate an extra four million overseas visitors to the UK over the next four years.

At Thursday's launch of the new initiative, Sandie Dawe, Visit Britain chief executive, said:
'This is good news from our perspective.'

But it wasn't without its critics. The Federation of Small Businesses says the Government is merely 'tinkering' when what the tourist industry really needs is more investment. And there was disappointment from some that the strategy did not address tax issues like VAT.

Tom Jenkins, executive director of ETOA, said: 'The Prime Minister has previously talked about making the UK tax competitive. That idea must embrace tourism.

Meanwhile, the plans to move the clocks forward in Britain all year round were not mentioned in the strategy.

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What do you think of the plans to ditch May Day bank holiday for a new one in October? Have your say below.