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General
Tourist Boards & Regional Development Agencies
Statistics & Research
Skills & Business Support
What does it mean?
General
Q. How
do you define “tourism”?
A. There have been many attempts to define tourism. One
of the most enduring definitions is that used by the Tourism Society:‘
the temporary short term movement of people to destinations
outside places where they normally live & work, &
their activities during their stay at these destinations’.
Q.
What sub sectors are included in the general “tourism” industry?
A. Tourism includes many different sub sectors: accommodation providers
from five star hotels to bed and breakfasts and camping sites;
restaurants, pubs, bars and catering; museums, arts and heritage
attractions, museums & zoos; theme parks, cinemas and sporting
facilities; tour operators & ground handlers; coach, bus and
taxi companies as well as business tourism such as conferences,
meetings and exhibitions.
Tourist
Boards & Regional Development Agencies
Q. Who’s responsible for tourism in the UK?
A. The main government department responsible for tourism
is the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). DCMS recently
published “Tomorrow’s Tourism Today”, outlining
its plans for action and key partners. Find out more on www.culture.gov.uk
Q.
Where’s the BTA and ETC gone?
VisitBritain is the new organisation, created on 1 April
2003 formed by the merger of the British Tourist Authority and
the English Tourism Council. Its mission is to build the value
of tourism by creating world class destination brands and marketing
campaigns. It is now responsible for promoting to both overseas
and domestic visitors. This is an important change, as it means
that for the first time in many years a national tourist board
now has direct responsibility and funds to promote England to UK
residents.
VisitBritain
operates a network of over 20 overseas offices, some of which
are in emerging and new markets like Poland, Russia, China & Korea.
Approximately 60% of VisitBritain’s staff is based overseas
with the remainder at its head office in Hammersmith, London.
VisitBritain aims to grow UK tourism from £76bn in 2002 to over £100
bn in 2010, with better seasonal and regional spread. It is doing this in several
ways:
• making
domestic holidays more attractive and easier to book;
• developing e-tourism platforms to meet customer and industry needs;
• investing in new overseas markets such as China and Russia; using coherent
national branding in all markets.
The
England Marketing Advisory Board (EMAB) has been created to oversee
the creation, development, promotion and implementation of a
marketing strategy for England. The English Tourism Council no
longer exists. Find out more about new structure of the
UK tourism industry by downloading our free
Tourism Network Introductory Guide to UK Tourism
Q.
Some of the Regional Tourist Boards seem to have disappeared
or changed their names. What's happening?
A. One of the biggest changes in domestic tourism is that
Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) have been given the strategic
lead for tourism in the regions. The funding which previously went
to the Regional Tourist Boards (RTB’s) via the English Tourism
Council is now being channelled via the RDAs. This also means that
the RDAs are responsible for ensuring that appropriate tourism
delivery structures are in place in each area. Find out more by
looking at our overview of what's
happening in the English regions.
Q. What is Visit London's remit?
A. Visit London is the new organisation to replace London
Tourist Board & Convention Bureau. It's primary role is to
promote and market London to leisure and business visitors. Other
organisations have been charged with some of the LTB's previous
activities such as quality development and tourism support. Visit
London is nolonger responsible for tourism marketing workshops
so Susan Briggs has taken on this
role - she previously ran most of LTB's courses. See the Tourism
Network training programme for
more details.
Q.
What does the London Development Agency do?
A. The Mayor has delegated responsibility to deliver the
Mayor’s Plan for Tourism through the Tourism Action Plan
to the London Development Agency (LDA). The LDA have delegated
the responsibility for the marketing and promotion of London to
VisitLondon.
Statistics
& Research
Q.
How big is the tourism industry? What is it worth?
A. Tourism is key to the world's economy. The tourism
industry in
the
UK is
worth
around £76
billion, more than 4 % of the UK’s Gross Domestic Product.
It employs 2.1 million people, or almost 7.5% of the working
population. Approximately 1 in 5 of all new jobs created will
be in tourism. The
latest year for which statistics are available is 2002, when
23.9 million
overseas visitors came to the UK, spending £11.9
billion. A staggering amount, considering that 2002 was a “bad
year” for tourism!
Q.
What contribution to overseas' visitors make to the UK?
A. The top
five overseas markets for the UK in terms of visitor numbers
in 2002 were: USA (3,653,000); France (2,959,000); Germany (2,508,000);
the Irish Republic (2,315,000) and the Netherlands (1,348,000).
In terms of visitor spend, the top five overseas markets were:
USA, Germany, France, Irish Republic and Australia.
Q.
Is domestic tourism equally valuable?
A. Domestic tourism is even
more valuable and important. It is believed that
expenditure
in the UK by domestic tourists (people from the
UK visiting other areas of the UK) was around £61 billion
in 2002. In
2002 UK residents took: 101.7 million holidays of one night or
more.
They made 23.3 million overnight business trips; and 39.6
million overnight trips to friends and relatives. Visits to friends & relatives
(VFR) account for 24% of all domestic trips.
Q.
How is the impact of tourism measured?
Measuring the local impact of tourism is notoriously complex. Find out more about
measuring the local impact of tourism from the LGA website and their report written
in 2002 http://www.lga.gov.uk/Publication.asp?lsection=0&ccat=28&id=SXCB9C-A780F9E0.
There
has recently been a Review of National Tourism Statistics – download
it from
http://www.culture.gov.uk/global/publications/archive_2004/Review_Tourism_Statistics.htm
Tourism
Satellite Accounts take into account consumption of all goods
and services by visitors to an area so recognise the broader
contribution of tourism outside hotels etc. The UK Tourism Satellite
Accounting First Steps Project Report has just been published
and looks at this concept in more detail. You can find it on
http://www.culture.gov.uk/global/research/statistics_outputs/uk_tsa_fsp.htm
Sources:
UK Tourism Survey; Survey of Visits to Visitor Attractions; British
Conference Venues Survey; International Passenger Survey.
There are more sources of free research statistics and information
listed in our research section.
Skills
and business support
Q. Who’s
responsible for things like skills and training in tourism?
A.
There
is now a new body with responsibility for the skills agenda.
People
1st are the new Sector Skills Council for the hospitality,
leisure, travel
and tourism
industry. www.People1st.co.uk
The
Learning and Skills Council is responsible for funding and promoting
education and training for the over 16s and also sees
tourism as a key industry and is increasingly working with the
industry to ensure it gets the training it needs. www.Lsc.gov.uk
Q.
What does Business Link do exactly?
A. Business Link is funded by the department of Trade
and Industry and they offer business support and advice, in particular
a guide to regulations, training opportunties,
professinal associations and key government departments. After April 2005, the
responsibility for Business Links will fall within the remit
of the Regional Development Agencies.
What
does it all mean?
Feeling bamboozled by the jargon and strange
industry terminology that's bandied about? We've trying to de-mystify
some of it for you with our industry jargonbuster
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