Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Minutes of Evidence


Memorandum submitted by VisitBritain and Visit London

THE OLYMPICS AND THE INQUIRY

  VisitBritain and Visit London welcome this timely inquiry. We have been consistent advocates for London to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games since the early stages of the bid's development, as were our predecessor bodies—the British Tourist Authority, English Tourism Council and London Tourist Board. VisitBritain and Visit London have both worked closely with London 2012 throughout the process—Visit London, a 2012 corporate supporter, presented to the lOC Commission on its crucial visit in February, and worked to stage the highly successful Olympic Torch Run and Concert on the Mall.

  Below we set out the possible benefits that can be accrued by hosting the greatest show on earth. These benefits are by no means automatic. They require the appropriate leadership, commitment, resource and strategic planning and these must be in place at the start of the process to ensure a great legacy for Britain and for London.

VISITBRITAIN, VISIT LONDON AND TOURISM

  VisitBritain, the National Tourist Board for Britain, is a non-departmental public body receiving grant-in-aid from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Created in 2003 as a result of the merger of the British Tourist Authority and English Tourism Council, it is responsible for building the value of tourism by promoting Britain to the rest of the world and England to the British through world-class destination brands and marketing campaigns. A network of overseas offices supports our international work. All activity is undertaken in close consultation with national, regional and destination partners. Since April 2005, VisitBritain only promotes England in the markets of Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands while our strategic partners VisitScotland, Wales Tourist Board and Visit London—have stepped up their activty. London itself plays a crucial role in driving the nation's visitor economy and is a major gateway to draw visitors to Britain. 50% of overseas visitors to Britain include London as part of their visit.

  Visit London, the official tourist organisation for London, is a private company limited by guarantee. Funded by partnership subscriptions and commercial activity, it receives public funding from DCMS via the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency and the Association of London Government. Visit London promotes London overseas and domestically. Since 2003 a Mayoral strategy for developing London tourism, led by the London Development Agency and Visit London has greatly improved the focus and effectiveness of the branding and promotion of the city.

  2004 was a record year for tourism. 28 million international visitors spent £l3 billion in Britain, while UK residents took 121 million overnight trips in England, and spent £20.6 billion. The visitor economy is worth £74 billion to the UK, representing 3.4% of GVA (the Government's approved measure of GDP). The DCMS tourism prospectus sets a target of growing this to at least £l00 billion by 2010. Tourism supports 1.4 million jobs—more than in construction or transport The last two years has seen London's share of worldwide tourism increase for the second year in a row, after 10 years of decline. Most recently, the attacks on London in July 2005 have had a significant impact on both international and domestic visitor numbers. For 2005 we forecast that tourism revenues will be down on original forecasts by a total £750 million—£500 million of which comes from London—although there will still be growth over the previous year.

TOURISM BENEFITS FOR LONDON AND BRITAIN

  We have communicated the potential tourism and economic benefits of hosting the Games to Government during the run-up to their decision on whether to back a 2012 bid and also to this Committee in its well-received Olympic inquiry in 2002. The event is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to showcase Britain and London around the world. If managed well, the potential exposure that can be obtained from the 20,000 accredited and 40,000 non-accredited media presents the best imagined opportunity to encourage potential visitors. Between 50-75% of the net benefit of staging the Games, measured over a 7-10 year period, is likely to accrue through tourism. It will strengthen London's position as one of the world's top cities, provide a massive increase in the number of international business events, boost the number of inbound visitors (500,000 additional visitors forecast for 2012 alone) and could add £2 billion to the visitor economy.

LESSONS FROM MANCHESTER, BARCELONA, SYDNEY AND ATHENS

  The 2002 Commonwealth Games boosted tourism to Manchester and the North-West, and enhanced the image of both the region and Britain as a whole—generating 300,000 additional visitors and 6,100 full-time equivalent jobs. The long-term effects of holding the Olympic Games in both Barcelona and Sydney are proven examples of the much larger positive benefits for a city of holding the world's premier sporting event. Barcelona was rejuvenated by the Games and transformed into a world-class visitor destination with overnight stays rising by 70% from 4.1 million in 1991 to 7 million in 1997. Sydney earned over £2 billion in additional visitor revenue.

  The evidence from Sydney and Athens demonstrates that the potential tourism benefits of the Olympics can only be achieved in the context of thorough pre-planning, and definitive, agreed strategies—and the establishment of appropriate mechanisms, with realistic timescales and adequate resources. Olympic Organising Committees find themselves entirely dominated by meeting the IOC, as well as sporting, sponsorship, media, commercial, development, transport, financial and political matters. Tourism is often not appreciated as a mainstream requirement as "it can be left to look after itself". Yet, it is fundamentally clear that tourism benefit to the host country is the main, enduring and long-term prize. Without the economic benefit of tourism, the financial evaluation of the nation's commitment to the Olympic Games is thin indeed. There must be full alignment between the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) and the tourism "infrastructure" (VisitBritain, Visit London, DCMS, industry associations, tourism businesses, tourism suppliers etc).

AN OLYMPIC TOURISM STRATEGY

  As a priority at this stage, there should be moves to develop an Olympic Tourism Strategy setting out the roles of key players and mechanisms with potential timelines and an indication of any required resources to achieve the following:

    —  Maximise tourism revenue.

    —  Ensure a world-class welcome and exemplary standards of workforce service and skills.

    —  Project the right Olympic image, branding and motivation before and after the Games.

    —  Set and monitor targets with realistic goals and specific key performance indicators.

    —  Ensure effective industry networks.

    —  Secure appropriate investment from private and public sectors.

    —  Guarantee Britain-wide benefits—tangible, measured promotional activities.

    —  Minimise the disbenefits.

PRE-2008 RESTRICTIONS AND NON-OLYMPIC MARKETS

  Before the Beijing Olympics have taken place, restrictions mean that we cannot exploit London's status as host city to its full potential. The reality is that in the years leading up to 2008 at least, international promotion of the city is likely to be focused around London and Britain, rather than an overt promotion of London as a host city. In order to maximise benefits to tourism from day one, therefore, it is vital that both organisations are sufficiently funded for international marketing and PR purposes.

NON-OLYMPIC MARKETS

  Not all markets will be affected by the fact that London and Britain are hosting the 2012 Games. Sensitivity to each market and a high level of targeting will be required. For example, whilst many French sports fans could be persuaded to come to watch the Olympics, a host city message may not be appropriate for the wider population. A large proportion of visitors from the United States come for reasons such as culture and heritage rather than sport. Even after 2008, a "brush stroke" approach about our status as a host city/country would not work. The industry should therefore agree a core set of tourism target markets and/or sectors, for example:

    —  Youth—aiming at the youth market would be an approach entirely consistent with the 2012 bid. This is an audience whose perceptions about countries/cities as destinations to study, visit and do business have not yet been formed, and thus are pre-disposed to influence. They are the students, visitors, events planners (and Olympic medallists) of the future and we must ensure they want to visit and be educated here.

    —  Business Tourism—London winning the Games is absolute proof that we are capable of handling major events, conferences and conventions. Both VisitBritain and Visit London are already winning major events, which we believe were swayed as a result of the bid win. This should be built on and exploited as much as possible.

    —  Sport—an obvious link in with the Games, and our status as host country/city should be used to the maximum. Work will need to be done to develop new and innovative sport tourism and events campaigns.

INTERNATIONAL POSITIONING

  The true benefits to the Olympics will come from a strategy that manages to avoid clichéd exploitation. A key to winning the Bid was Britain and London's focus on the international nature of our capital city and nation. Maximising the global appeal of this characteristic (for example, through youth) is a far more powerful and effective positioning.

MEDIA CENTRE

  It is a key aspect to consider that facilities for the media are optimised. The Sydney media centre provided an exemplary service to 20,000 accredited and 40,000 non-accredited media by providing tours, workstations, broadcast and production assistance and key information—anything to facilitate great coverage and images on every possible media.

SKILLS FOR WORKERS AND VOLUNTEERS

  Research from People1st, the sector skills council for the tourism, travel, hospitality and leisure industries demonstrated that industry believes it needs more and better-skilled workers in order to host a successful games. All stakeholders will need to implement skills development programmes that will be required, both for workers and the 70,000 volunteers being recruited for the Games—these schemes could be modelled on the "Welcome Host" series of training sessions that are the industry's standard. Outwith the Olympic Games themselves, the Government's broader strategies on areas such as skills and sports should have delivered results some time before the Games themselves.

October 2005





 
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Prepared 2 December 2005