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David Cameron has pledged to make the UK one of the top five tourist destinations in the world.
Setting out government plans to boost the tourism industry, the prime minister outlined how the government will cut red tape and take decisive and coherent action to support the tourism industry.
In a speech at the Serpentine Gallery in London, Cameron said the tourism industry generated £115bn a year and the sector was "fundamental" to the country's economic recovery.
Cameron identified tourism as a major factor in rebalancing the economy so it is less dependent on the City.
Currently 36 per cent of Britons' holiday spending goes towards the domestic market, the government would seek to increase this up to 50 per cent, Cameron said.
The prime minister has asked tourism minister John Penrose to compile a report on whether it is possible to encourage Britons to spend more of their money at home, instead of abroad.
A new tourism strategy will be put in place by the end of the year, bringing together the "best of the ideas that ensures London 2012 provides the best economic and tourism legacy that any Olympic host city has ever done and that sets us on a path to break into the top five tourist destinations in the world".
He said the former Labour administration had neglected the industry, with eight different tourism ministers in 13 years.
"For too long tourism has been looked down on as a second class service sector. That's just wrong," he said.
"Tourism is a fiercely competitive market, requiring skills, talent, enterprise and a government that backs Britain. It's fundamental to the rebuilding and rebalancing of our economy.
"It's one of the best and fastest ways of generating the jobs we need so badly in this country. And it's absolutely crucial to us making the most of the Olympics and indeed a whole decade of great international sport across Britain."
The prime minister said the government is determined to remove obstacles that have deterred tourism from coming to Britain.
Headded that ministers were looking at a wide range of areas "from the speed of our broadband to the speed of our railways to the time it takes to clear customs at Heathrow".
The prime minister's office says he and his family will spend their own summer vacation in Cornwall, their second in the county in three years.
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