Annex 2
Letter dated 5 July 2002 from the Council
for Travel and Tourism to the Secretary of State for Culture,
Media and Sport
The Members of the Council for Travel &
Tourism have requested that I write to you regarding the marketing
of England and the future role of the English Tourism Council.
At their meeting last week, Members were very concerned by media
reports (in particular The Times on 27 June) that the Government
is considering the abolition of the ETC and its replacement by
a new partnership body. Whilst recognising that media reports
are frequently inaccurate or exaggerated, it does appear that
the Minister for Tourism, Dr Kim Howells MP, did actually express
comments along these lines at a recent meeting with the Southern
Tourist Board.
In common with the vast majority of the industry,
the Council believes that a national marketing role for English
tourism is essential and we were reassured to learn from your
announcement in the House on 13 May that the Government now accepts
the validity of this argument. Moreover, we fully accept that
private sector funding must be made available to support this
activity. However, we firmly believe that the ETC must be the
central body charged with this new responsibility for marketing,
in addition to its existing strategic role and that they should
also be provided with the additional resources necessary for this
task. Only the ETC can provide the national coherence essential
for such activity. To abolish the ETC after just three years and
to replace it with a new organisation would simply create further
unnecessary upheaval and disruption to the essential tasks of
developing and promoting English tourism.
In conclusion, I would make two further points:
(i) Although the ETC does participate in
our deliberations, it is the eleven commercial Members of the
Council who unanimously requested that I should write to you.
(ii) From informal discussions with many
other colleagues in the industry, I can assure you that there
is widespread, if not universal, support for our view that the
ETC should be the body charged with the responsibility for the
marketing of England, in addition to its current remit on strategic
issues.
We trust that having recognised the omission
that was made in the initial establishment of the ETC in 1999,
the Government will not now compound the error by abolishing the
very body that should rightfully be undertaking this essential
task.
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