Memorandum submitted by the Tourism Management
Institute
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Tourism Management Institute is the professional
body for destination managers. This memorandum has been specifically
prepared for the Select Committee Inquiry following e-mail consultation
of TMI's 350 members, and concentrates on issues relating to how
the nations and regions of the UK might derive lasting benefit
through increasing tourism, ie point three of the Inquiry.
The key messages from TMI members are:
— There is a variety of capital investment
projects currently under consideration which would both achieve
short term benefit for the Olympics and longer term benefits for
residents and visitors.
— It is vital to promote the diversity
of the nations and regions of Britain, whether in developing overseas
marketing campaigns, encouraging Olympic visitors to return, or
non Olympic visitors to come in 2012. The benefits will only be
spread through the nations and regions if potential visitors are
made aware of what is available and encouraged to book at an early
stage.
— Providing a world class experience
is key to encouraging repeat visitors. Failing the introduction
of mandatory registration and inspection of accommodation establishments,
there must be significant efforts to ensure consistency in the
application of quality standards and incentives to encourage greater
participation in quality assurance scheme. Work must start straightaway
to improve customer care, engage more of the industry in quality
assurance and train up frontline, support and volunteer staff
to deliver the best possible visitor experience. This should be
supported by moves to counteract the image of the tourism industry
as a low paid, low prospect career option.
— Non Olympic visitors must be made
aware that the rest of Britain is open for business as usual during
2012, and potential Olympic visitors reassured that Britain still
offers value for money. This can be built on by publicising many
other big ticket events in Britain.
— Although this phase of the Inquiry
id not addressing transportation issues, a fast, efficient and
most importantly joined-up public transport infrastructure is
vital to achieving short and long term benefits from the Olympics
throughout the nations and regions of Britain.
— It is clear from members' responses
that information and communication flows are vital to ensuring
that opportunities are taken up and consistent messages conveyed,
both to the tourism industry within Britain and to potential visitors
at home and abroad. TMI is working in co-operation with the Tourism
Society, Destination Performance UK, the Institute of Leisure
and Amenity Management and the British Resorts and Destinations
Association to liaise with the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport and contribute to the flow of information from the centre
to destination managers at local, sub regional and regional level.
1. The Tourism Management Institute (TMI)
1.1 The Tourism Management Institute (TMI)
is the professional body for destination managers. Its 350 members
are in the main practising tourism destination managers in national,
regional, sub regional and local tourism and destination management
organisations, from VisitBritain to local authority tourism teams.
Affiliate members include a number of higher education tourism
and destination departments, and suppliers of services to destination
management. Further details about TMI can be found on the Institute's
web site, www.tmi.org.uk
1.2 This memorandum has been specifically
prepared for the Select Committee Inquiry following e-mail consultation
of our members. Responses were received from members in Regional
Development Agency tourism teams, local authority tourism officers,
academics and consultants from a range of destinations across
England, Wales and Scotland. It specifically addresses issues
in relation to point three of the inquiry, ie how the nations
and regions of the UK might derive lasting benefit from the staging
of the Games, in particular through encouraging participation
in sport and increasing tourism. Members were asked to consider
six questions, and their responses are summarised below.
2. In your destination or region, what types
of capital projects should be invested in to achieve a short term
benefit for the Olympic Games and a long term benefit for the
region and tourism
2.1 Responses from our members indicate
that London 2012 Games are seen as an opportunity for capital
investment both for the short term benefit of the Olympic Games
and for the longer term benefit for their region's residents and
visitors. Investment is being sought or planned for a variety
of sporting facilities which will support the Olympic Games as
potential training facilities for the Olympic athletes and then
provide a lasting benefit for residents and tourists: water sports
facilities (Weymouth), athletics track and community stadium (Gloucester),
Olympic size and standard swimming pool (Sunderland). Others referred
to seeking investment to bring existing facilities to world class
standard to provide training facilities in the run up to 2012
and then attract future events and tourists thereafter.
2.2 In one region, the West Midlands, the
higher education establishments are in the very early phases of
working to co-ordinate capital investment in new sports facilities
to avoid duplication.
2.3 Destinations such as Blackpool, Brighton
and Manchester emphasized the opportunities for investing in further
facilities to support business tourism, such as redevelopment
of the Brighton Conference Centre, reference to a Blackpool casino,
and a North West regional conference centre. Although we recognise
that the Select Committee is not considering transport related
issues at this stage, it is worth noting that improvements in
transport infrastructure in support of developing business tourism
have been cited in response to this question.
3. What steps should be taken to encourage
greater levels of participation in quality assurance schemes,
customer care and training initiatives to ensure that visitors
who come for the Olympic Games go away with and disseminate an
image of Britain as a world class destination?
3.1 TMI members have two key concerns: firstly,
the need for a consistent approach to the enforcement of existing
quality assurance schemes, preferably with mandatory registration
of accommodation; and secondly, the importance of customer care
skills across all sectors of the industry and all frontline and
support staff is such that these skills should be taught very
early.
3.2 TMI is represented on the national Quality
Steering Group and recognises that there have been improvements
to the voluntary schemes in recent years. However, many TMI members
consider that the only way to achieve significant improvements
in accommodation standards is through mandatory registration with
minimum standards for accommodation establishments, and over the
years, the Institute has raised this with successive Tourism Ministers.
3.3 If the opportunity to introduce mandatory
registration or minimum standards is not to be taken up, TMI members
consider that much more could and should be done to incentivise
tourism operators to participate in the quality assurance schemes.
For example, more destinations should be encouraged to operate
inspected only policies, and give priority promotion to quality
assured accommodation and attractions. More should also be done
to raise awareness of the quality assurance schemes among the
visiting public and encourage them to ask for, or insist upon,
quality assured accommodation and attractions, in turn creating
more awareness of the need for minimum standards among the tourism
industry.
3.4 In terms of customer care, TMI considers
that the Welcome suite of training courses represent a sound basis
on which to build. Welcome International should be developed to
incorporate a specific Olympic focus, and Welcome training should
be rolled out to support services as well as to frontline services.
There are numerous examples of good practice, where destinations
have delivered this type of training to taxi drivers, street cleaners
and other support staff, taking the core training and adapting
delivery to suit local circumstances and requirements, such as
Hull, Birmingham, Liverpool and Windsor.
3.5 TMI members are concerned that the tourism
industry is still seen as low paid and therefore unattractive.
If quality standards are to be raised, it is important that work
begins now to emphasise training for quality and customer care.
The customer care training programmes for the Sydney Olympics
for volunteers and professional staff totalled over one million
hours. If we are to achieve this, we must start now rather than
relying on a just-in-time approach. Starting now will deliver
not only for the Games, but will develop the quality of welcome
for all Britain's visitors. This will also require a variety of
different means of delivery, to suit the variety of different
circumstances. Projects such as the Vocational Management Training
for Tourism in Europe project (VocMat), in which TMI is participating,
are addressing some of these delivery issues, as well as providing
training at management level.
4. How should VisitBritain's overseas marketing
of the Games be designed to help build an attractive long-term
visitor brand for Britain?
4.1 The key for most TMI members is to focus
on the regions of Britain, to encourage visitors to discover more
than London. Overseas marketing should concentrate on the cultural,
heritage and landscape diversity to be found throughout Britain,
supported by easily bookable regional product.
4.2 There should be a focus on linking the
spiritual and physical benefits of sport and the aspirations of
the Olympic movement. Britain should be promoted as clean, efficient,
modern and a place of physical and spiritual well being. Intangibles
such as warmth of welcome and the spirit of place must be key
elements of these messages, particularly in view of Britain's
recent rating in a survey of 35 nations carried out by VisitBritain
(Sunday Telegraph, 10 September 2006, p 11). This must
be supported by the measures to improve customer care noted above.
4.3 Whilst there is some doubt as to how
many visitors who come for the Games themselves will extend their
stay, it is vital that they have the knowledge and opportunity
to book extended packages from an early stage. This means that
regional and national tourism bodies need to work with accommodation,
attraction and transport operators to put bookable packages into
the market place. One respondent makes the point that transport
operators are only interested in selling the return fare so are
unlikely to promote extended stay unless it involves travel to
another European country; it is therefore vital that British accommodation
and attraction operators are encouraged to work with the transport
carriers to develop packages to encourage longer stay and retention
of spend in Britain.
5. What steps should be taken to encourage
visitors who come for the Games to make return visits to Britain
in future years?
5.1 The key messages here are providing
an excellent experience, promoting the variety and diversity of
experiences on offer elsewhere in Britain, and capturing contact
data for effective follow up after the Games.
5.2 Providing an excellent experience is
very much allied to the issues of customer care, quality assurance
and training discussed at section 3 above.
5.3 It will be hugely important to ensure
visitors to the Games leave feeling that there is so much more
to Britain that they can see and do on a return visit. This is
obviously closely allied to the general overseas marketing messages
referred to at section 4 above. In practical terms, this should
include ensuring good promotion of the regions at the various
Games venues both to visitors and the media, providing information
packs to Games visitors promoting the diversity and breadth of
things to see and do across Britain, and building on the Games
to attract people to return for other big ticket events such as
the Commonwealth Games.
5.4 It is vital that contact details for
as many Games visitors as possible are captured on a database
so that a full follow up campaign of thank you e-mails, latest
offers and so on can be conducted to entice visitors to make repeat
visits and discover the rest of Britain.
6. What steps should be taken to encourage
non Olympics, ie regular visitors, to continue to come to Britain
in 2012?
6.1 The answer to this lies very largely
in reassuring non Olympic visitors that Britain is open for business
as usual, that it still provides value for money, to counteract
fears that accommodation will be scarce and over priced, and that
away from London and the Olympic venues, there is a wealth of
attractions to be found. Again, the overall message is that there
is so much more to be discovered in the regions, and this needs
to be promoted effectively.
6.2 There is a good opportunity to promote
packages using regional points of entry, such as regional airports
and ferry ports, selling the benefits of easier access to the
regional product. This will need balancing with messages to reassure
visitors to London that outside the immediate Olympic period,
the London airports will be no more crowded than usual.
6.3 It will also be important to stress
that other things are happening in 2012 and the Olympics are but
one part of a year long calendar of activity. Much more emphasis
will need to be given to promoting events in the regions.
7. How should London's gateway role be developed
in the run up to 2012 to help spread the benefits of the Games
throughout the nations and regions of Britain?
7.1 Use the opportunity to take press visitors
on trips to other parts of the country to underline the messages
about the diversity of Britain and ensure that there is plenty
of opportunity for raising the profile of the regions throughout
the Games themselves, perhaps through an Expo. There should be
emphasis on iconic images of attractions throughout Britain, such
as the Eden Project, the Angel of the North, Ironbridge, and so
on.
7.2 Whilst the current phase of the Inquiry
is not considering transportation issues, it is vital that fast,
efficient, convenient transportation is available to allow visitors
to reach other parts of Britain from London. Ease of access must
underpin marketing messages and product packages to spread the
benefits beyond London.
7.3 There are opportunities for developing
themed packages, either two city packages based around themes
such as culture, food and drink, party cities, or off peak city
and country packages (weekday stays in the countryside and weekend
stays in the capital).
7.4 If there is insufficient money to support
joint marketing campaigns between London and partners elsewhere,
then it will be important to concentrate on providing pre-booking
information to enable potential visitors to create their own packages.
3 October 2006
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