Politicians
take note!
A “Think Tank” (where did that name come from?) headed
by Ken Robinson for the Tourism Society has asked all the major
political parties to make sure ten key points are included in the
next Government’s Tourism Policy. Here they are:
Funding
for Tourism is an investment for Britain. Even the Treasury accepts
that VisitBritain (VB) earns about a 26:1 return on public
funds invested in Marketing Britain abroad, and 14:1 on funds invested
by the England Marketing activities under VB’s England Marketing
Advisory Board (EMAB). The UK tourism balance of payments is abysmal.
The strong pound encourages UK residents to holiday abroad and
makes the UK a very expensive destination for visitors from overseas.
VB has received
reduced grant in aid, in real terms, for over 5 years and is
now having to take money from “established” markets
(like the US) in order to fund activities in new markets. The Tax
take derived by attracting more overseas visitors to the UK and
persuading our citizens to holiday at home, is massive. More investment
is justified and essential, primarily to underpin and improve England’s
tourism; great more benefit to UK plc will result.
Tourism:
effective co-ordination and cohesion. Since Labour abolished the national
Tourist Board for England, and limited VB to a “marketing
only” remit, the industry in England is both weakened and
unsupported. Most tourism businesses are small businesses in competition
with each other at the local and sub regional level.
The Regional
Development Agencies (RDA)s are by design introverted and do
not liaise effectively enough to ensure cohesion. Beyond
leadership in Marketing, which VB and it’s EMAB are authorised
to do, there are many other functional aspects required to inform,
assist and help energise the industry to be effective, efficient
and competitive, and to share best practise. At the regional and
sub regional levels, strong and clear national policy guidance,
and minimal but adequate funding for supporting services, are essential.
At the UK level,
VB has a very difficult task trying to best facilitate and co-ordinate
the independent spending budgets of Scotland, Wales,
London and the richer England RDA’s. Fragmented and competing
images are more likely to be overlooked by potential tourists.
Statistics. The production of adequate, accurate statistics is
a national commitment, to the EU, and as defined under the UN/World
Tourism Organisation specifications, by the ONS - and is the absolutely
essential basis for measuring and monitoring this diffuse industry.
Over the last few years the statistics staff and competence previously
evolved within BTA and ETB has been all but disbanded and funding
for essential research has been cut.
The Department
of Culture, Media and Sport constantly restate their commitment
to better research and have initiated the Tourism
Statistics Improvement Initiative (TSII) that reported at the end
of 2004. An inspection of DCMS by the Government Chief Scientist
(under DTI) concluded that only if TSII’s findings were fully
enacted would DCMS be fulfilling its commitments. Funding has been
refused. Adequate funding is a top priority.
Sub-Regional
Tourism. New Destination-focussed arrangements are untested and
not yet showing signs of working well enough, or providing
overall coverage. Destination “Brand”-based” marketing
may exacerbate mutual competition for the same business. Local
networks must be re-invigorated and supported.
One key effect
of regional devolution in England has been that the RDA’s have all but destroyed the settled but not fully
efficient, Regional Tourist Board’s partnership structure.
New arrangements vary across the Regions, and within regions. The
funding disparity to RDA’s has exacerbated the problems – big
budgets where there are few tourists, and little money where there
is the greatest need to bring the industry and local authorities
together.
Local Authorities – Tourism Policy. The fact that Local
Authorities do not have a statutory responsibility for Tourism
has made it a prime activity for cutbacks or discontinuing services.
Information Centres and public toilets, and other essential services
are closing in visitor areas. Local Authority leadership in expertise
and Destination marketing is under threat.
Yet Tourism is vital to the social and economic well being of
most communities. Even though Local Authorities may have neither
a statutory duty nor committed budget for Tourism, there should
be a requirement on every Local Authority to produce and maintain
a current Tourism Policy, to ensure the community knows what is
planned, the needs of the industry are understood and there is
guidance for development planning and local priority issues.
Effecting
Quality standards. Improving the Quality of our tourism
products requires that the industry is informed and inspired, and
supported to achieve required quality goals. With most of the industry
comprising medium and small businesses many of which are lifestyle
businesses, financial incentives are required to stimulate reinvestment
in asset improvements.
Quality Assurance
schemes can play an important role, provided they reflect customer
needs and are widely promoted to ensure they
are understood. “Fitness for Purpose” does not deliver
quality threshold requirements. Government has opted not to introduce
statutory registration of accommodation with minimum quality thresholds,
instead favouring a voluntary scheme.
The long-awaited,
hopefully imminent, harmonisation of the motoring organisation
and VB Accommodation Classification Schemes must be
underpinned by a public information campaign. VB is to implement
an “inspected only” rule for accommodation. Even so,
this will not force poor quality, bottom-end operators in busy
locations to participate or improve; only a statutory scheme will
achieve this.
Skills. Better
skills are a pre-requisite of being internationally competitive
and equipping the industry for the future. The creation
of the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for the Hospitality, Travel
and Tourism industries, People 1st, is a good move, but other SSC’s
are also involved in elements of the sector, such as transport,
leisure and cultural attractions. These SSC’s will be competing
to sell their services, to an industry in which commitment to training
is fairly weak.
Further, there
is no mechanism to co-ordinate provision and share best practice
between the educational sector, the skills and training
agencies, and private sector training suppliers. The transfer of
responsibility for Business Links to the RDA’s (who lack
any co-ordinating network) will exacerbate this. Businesses should
be incentivised to invest in training with a system of tax credits.
VAT. The high
cost of tourism products in Britain is partly as a consequence
of high taxation. Tourism is internationally competitive
and the UK is at a disadvantage. The average rate of tax for tourist
accommodation in Europe, our main destination competitor for overseas
tourists and UK residents choosing to holiday at home or abroad,
is 8%, compared to 17.5% in UK. Economic analysis has shown that
if VAT on accommodation in UK was reduced to this level, the resultant
tax take overall would not reduce, allowing for increased business
that would result from such a 10% “discount”.
Currently,
some “cultural” attractions are eligible
to be exempt from VAT, but such status not only causes great disparity
between those that qualify and those that do not, it also means
that any that choose exemption can no longer reclaim input tax,
so it becomes uneconomic to be exempt. A low rate would overcome
this and remove the disparity.
Make
technology work effectively. The use of internet-based information
and booking systems for tourism products has grown very rapidly
worldwide, both for major travel companies and individual tourism
businesses, to deal directly with their customers. Over the last
few years the Government has supported the evolution of the EnglandNet
project (to enable interoperability between separate Destination
Management Systems and to provide a platform for individual tourist
products).
Recently, EnglandNet
has been taken over fully by Visit Britain and is to be an adjunct
to its marketing functions. This is a critical
project, which requires heavy funding to establish the system and
achieve efficient working, after which it will be relatively much
less costly annually to maintain and update. Currently, the funding
to VB is just adequate for the project’s needs; it is important
that Government keeps this under review and does not require VB
to support this discrete function from other marketing grant-in-aid.
Government must take Tourism seriously.
Government does not take Tourism seriously enough; this is not
a party political point. Tourism, the world’s biggest growth
industry, is not even included in the title of the Department
of Culture, Media and Sport. DCMS sponsors a diverse portfolio
of industry sectors, within which Tourism receives inadequate
attention.
Whilst more bureaucracy is undesirable, Tourism has an under-resourced
team of civil servants, poor continuity and very inadequate budgets.
The Development of Tourism Act 1969 is defunct following devolution
and other Government changes; it should be replaced by a suitable
instrument to address the current challenges and the opportunities
of the next 20 years.
Tourism needs the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer
to acknowledge the real opportunities that tourism presents for
social diversity, the economy, the sustainability of our cultural
heritage, and for employment. The success of the UK tourism industry
is crucial to our cultural and economic well-being. It is time
the Government gave tourism the priority it deserves.
We believe that there should be a major rearrangement of Government
departments in order to accommodate the needs of the tourism sector
so that they do not get lost in the at present oversized DTI but
also should not be stranded as the Cinderella of Government within
DCMS. Tourism needs a proper commitment from the Government commensurate
with its economic importance to the country.
Tourism needs more understanding, and adequate committed support,
to realise the potential of this diffuse and internationally competitive
activity for Britain.
More info: The Tourism Society www.tourismsociety.org
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