APPENDIX 39
Memorandum submitted by the British Tourist
Authority
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The British Tourist Authority is a statutory
body created by the Development of Toursim Act 1969. Its primary
function is to encourage people living overseas to visit Great
Britain.
1.2 Tourism is one of the UK's largest industries
and, in 1999, preliminary figures show that it contributed around
£64 billion to the economy. Within this sum, an estimated
£12.6 billion—plus another £3 billion on travel
with British carriers—was spent by 25.5 million overseas
visitors.
2. BEYOND THE
DOME
2.1 The amount of development that has been
funded by the Millennium Commission is staggering. When matching
funding is added, over £5 billion has been poured in to an
amazing range of new and truly unique visitor attractions throughout
the UK, and in to revitalising and extending much of our existing,
cultural and sports heritage.
2.2 These range from exciting new attractions,
museums and art galleries, through sports stadia, futuristic science
centres, state of the art theatres and opera houses to new city
waterfronts, a nationwide dedicated cycle network and an indoor
"tropical rainforest".
2.3 BTA has continued to capitalise on all
of this in its Britain—Now is the time campaign which
we described in detail in evidence submitted to the Committee
last October for its inquiry on the Millennium Dome. Now in its
third year, the £3 million global campaign is aimed at first-time
and repeat visitors in all of our 27 markets. The campaign has
built on the massive investment outlined above in the creation
and regeneration of Britain's cultural and environmental assets,
and the excitement created by Britain's Millennium celebrations
and the Millennium Dome, to position Britain as the preferred
world tourism destination for the year 2000 and beyond.
2.4 One of the latest pieces of print to
be published under the Britain—Now is the time umbrella
is a consumer brochure, sponsored by British Midland, The Best
of New Britain which promotes many of these exciting new attractions.
The brochure was published in March with a print run of 500,000
and has been translated into French, German, Spanish and Italian
for distribution in overseas markets.
2.5 Britain—Now is the time is
a multi media campaign. As well as traditional print, direct mail,
merchandise and PR activity, videos have been produced and a dedicated
website has been created at www.visitbritain.com/millennium. The
purpose of the site is to showcase the plethora of new events
and attractions throughout the UK and it includes full details
of the projects funded by the Millennium Commission.
2.6 Over the life of the campaign, we will
also have held more than 100 overseas' launches at which all of
the major Millennium attractions, and the Dome, will have been
showcased.
2.7 The fact that our efforts to achive
both national and regional balance, and to ensure that potential
overseas visitors appreciate that there is more to the UK in the
year 2000 than the Dome, have been successful is evidenced by
positive press coverage that we have generated overseas, with
many articles covering several of Britain's Millennium projects
and utilising images provided by BTA.
2.8 In December 1999, overseas press coverage
generated by BTA during the year was independently evaluated by
external consultants. They found that, in two-thirds of the 20
markets analysed, the coverage had been totally positive. (America
was the only country that produced any significant amount of negative
coverage.) Overall, the consultants concluded that the media interest
generated by BTA had confirmed Britain's status in attracting
visitors and communicated the message that Britain "had refreshed
its shop window"—that is, given new reasons to visit
the UK.
2.9 BTA will be researching satisfaction
among visitors to its central London Britain Visitor Centre between
June and September this year and questions will be included about
visits to Millennium attractions and events. The results will
be available in December.
3. THE DOME
IN 2000
3.1 Whatever criticisms are levied at the
New Millennium Experience Company and the Dome, nothing should
be allowed to detract from the fact that the opening of the Dome
on target, given the extremely short timescale from conception
to completion, was a commendable achievement.
3.2 Much has been made of the Dome's failure
to achieve the visitor numbers needed to meet the original projection
of 12 million visitors during the year 2000. In fact, if the Dome
now achieves its revised forecast of 7 million visitors it will
have been a great success in comparison to other major attractions.
Although Blackpool Pleasure Beach received an estimated 7.2 million
visitors in 1999 it does not charge an entry fee. Of those attractions
that do, the 1999 figures show Alton Towers to have been the top
attraction with just over 2.5 million visitors.
3.3 We would also like to record our view
that NMEC has undoubtedly been hindered in attracting domestic
visitors to the Dome because of the lack of car parking and the
necessity of arriving by public transport. Additionally, the fact
that they were directed to give away one million free tickets
to school children means that many of the ticket-buying adults
who would otherwise have visited in order to take their children,
will not now do so.
3.4 We believe that it is the visitors themselves
who are the best judges of the content of the Dome and the way
in which it is operated. Recent surveys already show that the
vast majority of visitors enjoy their day out at the Dome. To
add weight to these domestic surveys, BTA has joined with NMEC
to commission a MORI survey of international visitors to the Dome
during June and August. The results will be available in September.
3.5 At the time of writing, BTA is also
launching its first ever online international visitor survey via
the www.visitbritain.com/millennium website mentioned above.
4. LESSONS OF
THE PROJECT
FOR THE
MANAGEMENT OF
MAJOR EVENTS
AND SIMILAR
PROJECTS WITHIN
THE PUBLIC
SECTOR
4.1 If there is a single lesson to be learnt
from the Dome, we think it is that the project was hindered because—perhaps
inevitably—the politics surrounding it overshadowed the
fact that the Dome is a tourist attraction and needed to be marketed
as such. Unlike other attractions, it only has a year in which
to make its mark and to build a completely new brand from stratch.
Hence, in order to build awareness it was essential to promote
the Dome in the overseas market place for at least a year before
it opened, and before the Dome's contents were finalised. This
was a key determining factor in our decision to launch Britain—Now
is the time as early as September 1998.
4.2 Throughout the Britain—Now
is the time campaign, we have positioned the Dome as "the
jewel in the crown" of Britain's Millennium attractions.
Such promotion in the international market place—and with
a long lead time—was essential if the Dome was to maximise
its potential to contribute to tourism to Britain. Indeed, NMEC
recognised this in its decision to contribute around £70k
to Britain—Now is the time towards the element of
the campaign directed at promoting the Dome overseas.
4.3 During the time that we have worked
with NMEC it seems to us that their marketing and PR effort suffered
because of a lack of the experience and skills necessary to market
and promote a tourist attraction internationally. A secondary
factor seemed to be that insufficient resource was devoted to
the international marketing side of the operation.
4.4 This year, against a backdrop of hostile
stories in the UK media, BTA has continued to market the Dome
as "the jewel in the crown" and, especially during January
and February, we devoted a considerable amount of time to fighting
negative press stories that were trickling in to the press overseas
from the British media.
4.5 In January and February, following the
opening of the Dome and the negative media reaction, we met with
NMEC staff to offer advice on how best to develop further and
maintain international press relations. In mid April, we accepted
NMEC's invitation to comment on a draft international communications
strategy. This consultation process is on-going and BTA will be
continuing to host international press and travel trade trips
to the Dome for the rest of the year.
4.6 Also in April, we devised the Dome
Showcase which can be accessed via www.visitbritain.com/millennium.
This gives a succinct and clear preview of the contents of the
Dome together with tips on how to get the best out of a day at
the attraction. A gateway enables web visitors to purchase tickets
directly from the NMEC site, a facility that has been in place
since the site was launched in August 1999. The Dome Showcase
has been so successful that NMEC has now asked to link it to its
own site.
4.7 In summary then, if the public sector
should ever attempt a similar project, our advice would be to
have dedicated PR and marketing departments staffed by tourism
professionals whose only function is to market and promote the
attraction.
5. PROGRESS OF
THE COMPETITION
TO DETERMINE
THE FUTURE
USE OF
THE DOME
5.1 As we should like to see the Dome continue
as a visitor attraction, of the two final short-listed bids, we
support Dome Europe.
5.2 The Dome is now firmly established as
a tourist attraction—and the building itself is recongnised
around the world as a London "icon"—and we can
build on this awareness to promote its future use. Its location
also helps us to draw visitors to a part of London that has been
under-visited in the past.
6. CONCLUSION
6.1 The marketing opportunities offered
by the Millennium Dome and other Millennium Commission projects
have been of immeasurable assitance in enabling BTA to position
Britain as a world class tourism destination for the 21st Century.
6.2 "Millennium Britain" has
enabled us to showcase our contemporary culture and to present
an innovative and imaginative new face of Britain in support of
our mission to present Britain as a unique and distinctive tourism
destination "reflecting the traditional and projecting the
contemporary". This has been of great help to us in maintaining
tourism to Britain in the face of the weak euro.
June 2000
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