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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