Memorandum submitted by Tourism Tyne and
Wear Area
THE CHALLENGES
AND OPPORTUNITIES
FOR THE
DOMESTIC AND
INBOUND TOURISM
INDUSTRIES, INCLUDING
CHEAP FLIGHTS
ABROAD, AND
THEIR IMPACT
ON TRADITIONAL
TOURIST RESORTS
Tourism has become an important part of the
regional economy of Tyne & Wear representing £1.6 billion
in annual economic benefit. Whilst there has been a year on year
growth in the urban tourism market particularly of NewcastleGateshead
there has been some decline in traditional tourist resorts. Investment
is urgently required to reverse this trend and with environmental
issues affecting tourism trends we should be refreshing our tourism
offer and building on the natural assets in the UK.
The onset of low cost airlines has greatly benefited
the North East of England providing greater choice for local population
and opening up the region to new and existing overseas markets.
In terms of domestic tourism it is worth noting
that Scotland and Ireland have had as much as five times the investment
in tourism marketing than England. The RDAs or other tourism agencies
need to have sufficient resources to compete in overseas markets.
THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF DCMS AND
ITS SPONSORED
BODIES (SUCH
AS VISITBRITAIN)
IN SUPPORTING
THE INDUSTRY
The DCMS has not been seen as a natural champion
for tourism with the notable exception of the Olympics. Visit
Britain has however been highly valued for its service and in
maintaining awareness and promotion of UK markets in key international
locations. Visit Britain has been critically important to promoting
the UK overseas and the governments investment in the agency has
declined year on year. We are competing in a global market place
and need to do so with adequate resources. The role of "Enjoy
England" and in the North—"England's North Country"
is also important in encouraging domestic tourism.
THE STRUCTURE
AND FUNDING
OF SPONSORED
BODIES IN
THE TOURISM
SECTOR, AND
THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF THAT
STRUCTURE IN
PROMOTING THE
UK BOTH AS
A WHOLE
AND IN
ITS COMPONENT
PARTS
The government has given a key role to Regional
Development agencies (RDAs) to take a strategic overview of tourism.
This is to be welcomed though the differential levels of investment
in tourism and wide range of structures adopted leads to a complex
picture of tourism promotion and destination management. The role
of Enjoy England may need to adapt to the growing networks of
RDAs and destination tourism agencies. In some cases the RDAs
have in effect become the Tourism boards, whilst in others they
play a strategic role with a small staff team and resources invested
in sub regional delivery agencies. It is too early to see which
of the many models works most effectively. In the North East we
are fortunate that One North East has made a strong commitment
and adopted a leadership role in promoting tourism. It has set
up the Area Tourism Partnership network of which we form a part.
The RDA's are, in some cases, taking a very hands on role to tourism
and marketing and in time this may be better delivered by more
local agencies. The amount of resources to sustain regional and
sub regional tourism networks will be critical to engaging the
private sector and business. In NewcastleGateshead, the NewcastleGateshead
initiative has attracted over 160 Private sector members and a
healthy income from commercial activity to supplement the public
investment from local authorities and the RDA.
The importance of Local authorities needs to
be recognising in the DCMS review. Local Authorities are critical
to planning, the quality of tourism product, visitor information
and local transport. Investment in the North East has been largely
maintained with significant capital investment into visitor attractions
and cultural facilities. The reduction in Lottery money for the
arts and heritage, in part due to the Olympics levy, is having
a significant impact on the ability of those distributors to support
major projects. European regional development funding has also
been an important ingredient in making projects happen in the
North East and this funding is in its final phases.
THE EFFECT
OF THE
CURRENT TAX
REGIME (INCLUDING
VAT AND AIR
PASSENGER DUTY)
AND PROPOSALS
FOR LOCAL
GOVERNMENT FUNDING
(INCLUDING THE
"BED TAX")
UPON THE
INDUSTRY'S
COMPETITIVENESS
Tourism Tyne and Wear does not yet have a definitive
view on the "Bed tax". However if such a tax is introduced
it is important that it doesn't affect our competitiveness in
international markets. Where bed tax and taxi tax is applied creatively
with income ringfenced from investment back into the tourism sector
there have been real benefits for tourism. eg Boston USA.
There is concern in the region that the recent
increase in air passenger duty may have damaged in bound and domestic
flight tourism making us less competitive in the European market.
The Government needs to show that it is investing such taxes back
into environmental projects which benefit the tourism industry
in other ways. The combined tax burden for overseas visitors and
in particular the cost and difficulty of obtaining VISAs needs
to be addressed if we are to remain competitive.
WHAT DATA
ON TOURISM
WOULD USEFULLY
INFORM GOVERNMENT
POLICY ON
TOURISM?
The government needs to set a common set of
data collection for local authorities and RDAs. The STEAM model
has proved valuable for trend analysis but further investment
is required into national and international visitor patterns.
The current system for the collection of national data on overseas
visitors is inadequate and needs to be more thoroughly researched
along with forecasting into future growth markets such as China.
The poor level of sensitivity of the IPS incoming
passenger data continues to undermine national, regional and sub-regional
efforts to understand our markets and customers. The lack of review
of the geographical position of ports and airports surveyed, and
frequency of survey at those ports of entry, used to track international
visitors, is causing major inaccuracies in size of markets. There
is subsequently a failure to track both new and existing market
growth and decline, and, equally importantly, increased or decreased
interest in destinations within Britian.
Multi-million pound investments by both the
public and private sector on tourism developments, transport and
travel companies and major marketing spend for the future are
being made on very "soft" data which, with greater Government
investment, could provide the key to successfully positioning
Britain and its products as the international destination in the
future, thus dramatically increasing tourism revenues.
It is vital that international visitor figures
and information is more reflective of what is actually happening
and includes information from new airports and other points of
entry.
THE PRACTICALITY
OF PROMOTING
MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY
FRIENDLY FORMS
OF TOURISM
There are many ways in which the UK can promote
more environmentally friendly forms of tourism. Carbon neural
conferencing is one initiative already under way in Tyne &
Wear. Our agency has only been in existence for a few months but
will be looking at measures which we can take to promote environmental
improvements in tourism. Offering customer options for carbon
offset should be further explored nationally.
HOW TO
DERIVE MAXIMUM
BENEFIT FOR
THE INDUSTRY
FROM THE
LONDON 2012 GAMES
The region has been working actively to make
the most of the 2012 opportunity. The Olympics themselves don't
add significantly to the tourism economy but there is real opportunity
to feature the full range of tourism destinations in the UK to
a global market. There will be opportunities for regions to host
training camps and specialists Olympic events and there is also
potential for the promotion of cultural events and festivals across
the UK during 2012. The youth games and other events prior to
2012 can bring tangible benefits to the regions. Our Culture 10
programme is building a theme towards 2012 and using it to forge
stronger international links. The DCMS needs to ensure these cultural
celebrations are adequately resourced and may usefully look back
to the European Arts festival and Millennium celebrations as models
of how this could be done.
March 2007
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