APPENDIX 9
Memorandum submitted by Mr Gordon Marsden
MP
I was delighted to see that the Culture Media
and Sport Select Committee will be looking at Tourism after September
11 in the new term, and thought I would take the opportunity to
let you have a few thoughts on the subject, both as the Member
of Parliament for a town to which tourism is crucial and also
more broadly as convenor of a backbench group of MPs representing
seaside and costal towns.
Although Blackpool's traditional domestic market
and location have meant that it has been spared the worst effects
of both September 11 and Foot and Mouth Disease, I hope that the
subsequent greater recognition of the importance of tourism to
the economy will also help to focus people's minds on the challenges
faced by traditional tourist destinations in the UK, many of which
have not in the past received support in line with their economic
importance and needs.
As you examine the ways in which tourism can
be supported, I hope you will be able to look closely at the domestic
market, which currently generates £4 out of every £5
in the sector, with visits to the seaside accounting for 27.9
million trips by UK residents in 2001. The implications of this
for sustaining the tourist industry in this country are clear:
it is significantly easier to generate an extra £4 billion,
for example, by expanding domestic tourism by 10 per cent than
to achieve the 40 per cent expansion in overseas visitors that
would have the same effect—an argument that has been made
forcefully by a number of major tourism players and pressure groups.
In this context, the partnership between ABTA and the British
Resorts Association in distributing a version of the BRA guide
to all ABTA travel agent members as part of their "We book
Britain" campaign has been a particularly welcome recent
example of the broader recognition of this potential.
At the same time, while overall spend remains
substantial, domestic breaks have increasingly become shorter,
with 1.1 billion day trips taken in England in 1998 and the average
stay by UK residents in England now only just over three nights.
As well as presenting considerable challenges for traditional
resorts with large accommodation sectors depending on longer stays,
these changing patterns of tourism also present considerable challenges
for the transport infrastructure of resorts. These problems can
be exacerbated by transport and regional planning that often sees
resorts as peripheral to local centres and quite literally at
the "end of the line" in transport terms, neglecting
the regional importance of the tourism economy and employment.
It is particularly important therefore that the Department of
Transport should consider these factors carefully when allocating
funding and support to transport infrastructure projects, especially
light rail and airport expansion, to enable resorts and tourist
areas to attract more visitors on public transport, especially
as the development of sustainable tourism moves up the agenda.
Significant progress has been made in recent
years on the development of clear accommodation grading and standards
schemes, but there is often not enough support for guest houses
and bed and breakfasts in particular to improve quality and meet
standards. In this context national initiatives to drive up standards
by identifying and promoting best practice in the sector, if properly
funded, would make a significant long-term contribution to competitiveness
and quality in the sector. Support should also be given to improve
employment in the leisure and tourism. Tourism accounts for over
seven per cent of employment in England, but much of this has
historically been seasonal, low-skilled and low-paid. Greater
emphasis is needed on developing and promoting recognised HE and
FE qualifications in the sector and developing stronger career
paths within the sector, with government support particularly
to ensure that younger entrants to the sector, who are often recruited
on a casual basis, have access to a qualifications ladder. More
should also be done to promote the potential of the sector as
an employer for older and semi-retired people.
The vast majority of accommodation providers
are small businesses operating on tight margins, and would benefit
significantly from direct targeted support from Government, whether
in the form of tax credits for improvements to meet recognised
standards or through greater flexibility for local authorities
in the administration of non-domestic rates. In this context,
proposals for greater flexibility in planning and the introduction
of Business Improvement Districts in anticipated local government
legislation are welcome developments. Support is also crucial
to manage overcapacity and maintenance backlogs in the accommodation
sector to prevent small guest houses and B&Bs being turned
into bedsits, providing often very poor quality accommodation
and blighting tourist areas.
VAT on visitor accommodation remains a key candidate
for a mechanism for offering greater direct government support
to the industry. The UK has the highest rate of VAT on visitor
accommodation of any country in the EU except Denmark. This position
makes the domestic accommodation market less competitive for UK
residents considering options abroad, as well as making it harder
to attract overseas visitors, whose concerns about the cost of
UK accommodation regularly feature in market research. Other countries
have had considerable success with lowering the rate of VAT on
visitor accommodation: Eire halved VAT on visitor accommodation
and food in the mid-1980s. Visitor numbers subsequently increased
substantially, forex earnings increased by 50 per cent and the
likelihood of Irish citizens taking domestic holidays increased.
A Deloitte and Touche report for the BTA found that reducing the
rate of VAT on visitor accommodation from 17.5 per cent to 8 per
cent would initially cost £440 million, but would raise an
extra £700 million after 10 years and create 50,000 jobs.
Significant and welcome support and regeneration
funding has been made available to develop attractions and cultural
resources to boost tourism and drive regeneration. It is equally
important, however, that existing attractions and infrastructure
are supported and maintained. This is particularly true in coastal
and resort towns, which often struggle adequately to maintain
Victorian pier and seafront infrastructure, which need support
both as a heritage and a tourism asset. Resorts would also benefit
from additional support to attractions to smooth the seasonality
of the market, which currently has very strong effects on local
employment with attendant social consequences. On this issue,
I have previously made a submission to your Committee on the proposals
for resort casino developments in Blackpool in the context of
your report on The Government's Proposals for Gambling.
While the recognition of the need for a marketing
role for England as well as the importance of tourism to regional
economies and its potential as an economic driver are very welcome,
any new arrangements should be careful not to lose the benefit
of national co-ordination of aspects of the industry other than
marketing which has been one of the ETC's strengths. The recently
launched National Accessibility Standards, for example, are a
good case of the way in which central attention to a social agenda
outside the marketing remit is likely to lead to a substantial
boost for the tourism industry, with a significant proportion
of the 40 per cent of the UK population who do not take regular
holidays constrained by access difficulties and recent research
identifying 2.7 million holiday opportunities among the disabled,
up to 70 per cent of them within the UK. National co-ordination
to deal with other bodies crucially engaged with the sector, such
as the Countryside Agency and English Heritage for example, will
also be an important element in any new structure, as will the
capacity for a central body to co-ordinate approaches and disseminate
best practice and guidance that cut across regions in thematic
areas reflecting the very great diversity of the UK tourism market,
from resorts to sports, heritage and culture tourism, city and
countryside breaks and so on.
Seaside and resort tourism should be specifically
represented as a distinct strand within any new marketing approach,
both nationally and by the new regional arrangements. Such activity
should not only focus on the traditional attractions of the seaside
but also develop a "hub and spoke" strategy to promote
resorts as touring bases and make use of their bed space capacity
for visitors wishing to take varied domestic holidays incorporating
a variety of experiences. An integrated marketing strategy delivered
both nationally and through the regional tourist boards and local
authorities, which promoted Blackpool as a base for holidays incorporating
not only seaside attractions but also the urban attractions of
Manchester and Liverpool, and rural destinations in the Lake District,
for example, would utilise bed space, extend stays and boost other
attractions and destinations in areas that do not have the same
volume of accessibly priced accommodation.
Finally, there is an urgent need to improve
the quality, sophistication and currency of tourism research and
statistics at all levels if central marketing and government support
for tourism are to be as effective as they might be. Clear national
guidelines and standards on the structure, scope and methodology
of research is required to ensure the compatibility and comparability
of data at all levels. Extra resources and central co-ordination
will be required to ensure that data is properly collected and
promptly processed and disseminated. Such approaches should also
work hard to establish effective baselines that will last to measure
the longer term effects of regeneration, support and marketing
initiatives within the sector.
Such steps need to go hand in hand with an integrated
approach to the tourism and leisure sectors across government
departments. The links between tourism, regeneration, transport
and the wider economy make joint working between DCMS, the Treasury,
the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Department of Trade
and Industry, DEFRA and the Department of Transport crucial to
effectively supporting the sector. More specifically, serious
consideration should be given to the proposal from a number of
Members of Parliament from resort and coastal constituencies for
the establishment of a Seaside Regeneration Trust on the coalfields
model charged with championing the infrastructure and regeneration
needs of seaside and coastal towns and monitoring progress. If
tourism is to realise its potential, it is vital that support
for the industry should be matched by concerted efforts to address
infrastructure and social issues in tourist areas for the benefit
of residents and visitors alike.
I wish you luck in what will doubtless be another
significant contribution from the Committee to the growing debate
on the importance and future of the tourism industry, and I hope
that these thoughts will help to provide a useful perspective
on some of the issues and challenges for a key sector of the domestic
tourism market.
4 October 2002
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