Memorandum submitted by Shakespeare Country,
South Warwickshire Tourism Ltd.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. South Warwickshire Tourism believes that
tourism has not previously been given the support and recognition
by government one would expect for an industry that has a positive
economic impact of over £84bn per annum.
2. The level of government investment is reflected
in the modest level of support and appreciation of the benefits
of tourism, particularly throughout this region; from the local
authorities and regional funding organisations. With their limited
funding being directed in the main (understandably) towards statutory
departments and services, subsequently the level of investment,
the support, infrastructure and development required to only maintain
the status quo in tourism is far too low a priority.
3. This has progressively led to a reduction
in the performance of the fifth largest contributor to the United
Kingdom economy. The UK tourism industry suffered a major set-back
in 2001 and, while recent years have seen some recovery, it has
only now returned back to pre-2001 levels. Meanwhile our international
competitors have been and continue to work hard, investing heavily
in their infrastructure, marketing strategies and promotional
media to support their tourism destinations; which is slowly but
clearly eroding away at the market segment of the UK traditional
domestic and overseas tourist numbers.
4. Investment in tourism is not currently considered
or recognised as being at the heart of regeneration proposals
across the country; key areas requiring investment and where regeneration
funds are directed do not factor significantly in many funding
schemes. South Warwickshire Tourism believes that tourism best
practice and principles are applicable for and bring benefit to
residents, workers and commuters as well as providing the welcoming
environment that encourages visitors, tourists and investors.
5. The promotion and marketing of the UK as
a destination requires a considerable boost if the UK tourism
economy is going to maximise the benefits of having the Olympic
Games in London in 2012.
INTRODUCTION
6. Shakespeare Country is the trade mark of
South Warwickshire Tourism Ltd which is a destination management
organisation established in 1997; responsible for promoting and
increasing tourism across South Warwickshire and the North Cotswold
area. Its Board comprises both Private and Public Sector organizations
with a stakeholder representation of over 430 Private Sector members
(attractions, accommodation, venues, events and tourism service
businesses) across the sub region of the West Midlands. Up to
a third of its partnership funding comes from two local authorities
(Stratford-on-Avon District Council & Warwick District Council)
and the remaining two thirds coming from membership charges, retail
opportunities, commission and advertising.
7. As an organization, we are delighted that
the DCMS has invited written evidence to support an inquiry into
the country's tourism infrastructure and the effectiveness of
the department and its sponsored bodies.
8. Shakespeare Country/South Warwickshire Tourism
Ltd. manages the Tourist Information Centers in Stratford-upon-Avon
and Royal Leamington Spa, we have three web sites (UK, Japanese
and Chinese) to support our membership services, as an online
visitor information service and as an on-line accommodation and
event availability and booking facility; SC/SWT are data stewards
for the Warwickshire section of the VisitBritain EnjoyEngland
web site; we manage a business conference service; CSW Convention
Bureau as a joint venture with CVOne (the DMO for Coventry) and
a leisure holiday booking Contact Centre for our members properties
and attractions and events. Subsequently we believe we are well
placed to supply written evidence for this tourism inquiry.
CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES
9. The challenges and opportunities for the
domestic and inbound tourism industries, including cheap flights
abroad, and their impact on traditional tourists.
Competition is good and many of the UKs growth
overseas visitor markets are also taking advantage of cheap flight
schemes when visiting the UK. Approximately 80% of all tourist
visits in the UK are domestic with only 20% arriving from overseas.
The challenge is to raise the level and quality of service, facilities
and value for money across a sector that is fragmented and has
a high proportion of independent operators.
The opportunities are for those levels of service,
facilities and product delivery to be raised to standards that
not only meet but exceed our visitors expectations and match (or
better) those of our international competitors. Currently the
UK is considered a world class destination and it is time DCMS
ensured that the application meets the expectation, to maximise
opportunities and to become world renowned for our destinations,
welcome, levels of service and high quality facilities to match
the world wide UK reputation.
EFFECTIVENESS OF
DCMS
10. The effectiveness of DCMS and its sponsored
bodies (such as VisitBritain) in supporting the industry
10.(a) Visit Britain does not have sufficient
resources, has a large breadth of responsibility and lacks the
financial flexibility to make a significant impact regionally.
The web pages of VisitBritain and EnjoyEngland
are an example where VisitBritain's low funding is having a national
impact on the tourism offer; Destination Management Organisations
such as South Warwickshire Tourism deliver the Data Stewardship
service on behalf of the Regional Development Agencies (who provide
this service on behalf of VisitBritain) with no remuneration to
the DMOs. This is slowly eroding the quality of the EnjoyEngland
web pages, undermines the membership offer and subsequently the
income the DMOs need to survive (which is especially important
as it is a Private Sector contribution to regional tourism); and
diminishes the little funding available to promote the visitor
destination.
The recent national Media campaign promoting
tourism is very positive but is nowhere near as much as there
could or should have been. Guernsey, Australia, Canada and New
Zealand have bigger, better and higher profile campaigns that
are not only encouraging the population of the UK to visit but
it is also a campaign that is winning the hearts and minds of
our biggest overseas markets.
10.(b) Sport England does not appear to
support the tourism impact of sporting events through this regional
Destination Management Organisation but I am sure it is fully
aware of the impact sporting events have on the tourism economy
specifically in this region the Cheltenham Festival and horse
racing at Warwick racecourse.
10.(c) Arts Council is a critical part of
the regeneration tourism approach and should promote the investment
of money into public art as a tool to improve visitor destinations.
Although public art is on their current agenda and in this region
there is support for the Royal Shakespeare Company generally the
Arts Council is not tourism focussed but there are tourism benefits
associated with what they do, but they are not maximised.
10.(d) Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
do what they can to promote international, national and local
tourism but only the nationals and a few independent organizations
attract overseas visitors. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust as
an independent Museum, Library and Archive is a key driver in
this region for international, national and local tourist visits
to Stratford-upon-Avon and works hard and tirelessly with South
Warwickshire Tourism and Shakespeare Country to enhance and maximise
the benefits of the world wide attraction that is William Shakespeare.
10.(e) The British Museum is not relevant
to the Destination Management Organizations of this sub region
(except the loans and touring exhibitions scheme which attract
local audiences to regional museums).
10.(f) English Heritage have invested £2.5m
in their flagship Warwickshire site (Kenilworth Castle) which
was much needed after more than a decade since their last investment,
but realistically they have very few resources to engage in tourism
above and beyond visitors to their site.
FUNDING STRUCTURE
11. 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
11.(a) Visit Britain does not have sufficient
resources, has a large breadth of responsibility and lacks the
financial flexibility to make a significant impact regionally.
11.(b) The Regional Development Agency (Advantage
West Midlands) and their tourism department (Tourism West Midlands)
and the developing Destination Management Partnerships across
the region also have insufficient resources, have a large breadth
of responsibility with many partners having many other statutory
services to deliver and lack the financial flexibility to make
significant impact locally.
11.(c) Regionally there are too many layers
of tourism organizations fighting over few funding streams and
similar areas of responsibility; this leads to a competitive and
parochial approach and a subsequent justification for organizations
that have other pressures on their budgetary responsibilities
to continue to concentrate their financial efforts on their statutory
services or their own business needs.
11.(d) There is a case for removing the
levels of bureaucracy involved in releasing funds for tourism.
Current systems involve enormous delays in application systems,
deadlines, agreements and are weighted towards delivering statistical
results rather than physical improvements in the sector; the quality
of the tourism offer of the UK is at stake.
TAXATION
12. 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
12.(a) VAT, Air Passenger Duty and Bed Tax
all have the same overall impact on tourism, they increase the
expense required to visit the UK as a destination compared to
many other destinations around the World.
12.(b) Current overseas visitors from our
biggest markets and from our fastest growing smaller markets are
spending billions of pounds each year at rates that are far higher
for them due to the strength of the Pound Sterling against other
currencies. Taxation of these markets do nothing more than pass
those fees whether directly or indirectly to the tourist consumer
ensuring that the cost to visit the UK rises and the gap between
here and there grows ever greater. There are examples of international
conferences (Business Tourism is worth £6.9bn to the West
Midlands (not including Birmingham)) being lost overseas solely
because the attraction and the destination is cheaper abroad.
Bed Tax will have a huge impact on Business Tourism and the emerging
foreign markets visiting the UK and will further encourage domestic
markets to seek their holiday destinations abroad in an already
highly competitive market. It will also further discourage international
investment in the development of five star accommodation which
is very much needed in the UK as well as having a disproportionate
impact on the independent operators who service a vast majority
of the overnight accommodation provision in this region.
DATA
13. What data on tourism would usefully inform
Government policy on tourism?
The type and quality of data collected is the
issue. It is essential that a clear steer from the DCMS and Visit
Britain is provided. Currently a lot of useful but un-coordinated
data is collected from varied sources across the UK, there is
also a lot of data collection that is useful only in that it is
measurable but does not actually directly relate to the performance
of the industry. The co-ordination and collaboration of this disparate
data takes up considerable resource and results in delivery of
meaningful data and robust statistics being released many months,
usually years after they were collected, rendering them near useless
and extremely confusing when it comes to reporting publicly on
the tourism economy. Clear Key Performance Indicators for the
industry would ensure that all tourism related businesses were
collecting and collating similar data, which should assist in
the production of reports and enable monitoring of funding and
its results to be quantified.
LONDON OLYMPICS
2012
14. How to derive maximum benefit for the
industry from the London 2012 Games
14.(a) Investing in the product and promotion
of the best attractions and destinations in the UK is an imperative
requirement. Investment is needed from the moment the torch is
handed over in Beijing (or sooner) up to and including a two year
period after the Olympic Games have concluded in London. Currently
improvements in marketing or promotion of a destination are either
not eligible for funding, excluded from applying for funding or
the funding available is of insufficient capacity to have any
international impact on raising the profile of a single attraction
or destination.
14.(b) Promoting and investing in the best
UK destinations and attractions is the only way to ensure that
the UK benefits from additional tourism by investing and improving
the promotional profile leading up to, during and after the Olympic
Games.
USEFUL FACTS
15. Tourism in the West Midlands is a considerable
contributor to the economic growth of the region accounting for
a considerable share of the regions economic stability with statistical
research data as follows:
15.(a) Origin of Overseas Visitors in Warwickshire
in 2006:
|
| Overseas Visitors to Warwickshire |
Percentage |
|
| USA | 27% |
| Australia | 20%
|
| Eastern Europe | 8%
|
| Germany | 7%
|
| New Zealand | 5%
|
| Canada | 4%
|
| France | 3%
|
| Spain | 3%
|
| Republic of Ireland | 3%
|
| Rest of Asia | 3%
|
| South Africa | 3%
|
|
Sourced from the Heart of England Tourism "Coventry & Warwickshire Visitor Survey 2006".
Commissioned by the Coventry & Warwickshire Visitor Economy Forum in 2006
|
15.(b) Economic Impact of Business Tourism in the West Midlands
in 2005:
97,300 FTE Jobs supported.
Sourced from the KPMG "Economic impact of Business Tourism
in the West Midlands".
Commissioned by Advantage West Midlands and Marketing Birmingham,
October 2006.
15.(c) Economic Impact of Tourism in the West Midlands
in 2004:
£4.49bn Net Contribution.
126,078 FTE Jobs supported.
Sourced from the Heart of England Tourism "Economic Impact
of Tourism—Warwickshire 2002-04.
Commissioned by Advantage West Midlands, July 2006.
15.(d) Economic Impact of Tourism in Warwickshire in
2004:
15,840 FTE Jobs supported.
Sourced from the Heart of England Tourism "Economic Impact
of Tourism—Warwickshire 2002-04".
Commissioned by Advantage West Midlands, July 2006.
16. However funding support for tourism generally and in
particular for South Warwickshire Tourism Ltd. has been influenced
by the financial commitment and funding allocated by the DCMS
for tourism. For example DCMS funding for VisitBritain has risen
at much lower rate compared to other DCMS departments and in comparison
to the overall departmental fund; also when compared to the rate
of national inflation VisitBritain and subsequently tourism as
a whole has seen a financial shrinkage rather than growth in its
funding support:
16.(a) Percentage Increase in Funding for DCMS and its
Sponsored Bodies 1997-2006:
|
| Percentage Increase in funding for DCMS and its sponsored bodies
| £000
1997-98
| £000
2005-06
| %
Increase |
|
| Sport England | 36,925
| 78,963 | 113.8
|
| Arts Council | 194,171
| 409,178 | 110.7
|
| Museums, Libraries and Archives Council |
9,721 | 14,174
| 45.8 |
| Royal Parks | 21,871
| 30,989 | 41.7
|
| British Museum | 31,850
| 39,794 | 24.9
|
| Film Council | 20,850
| 24,110 | 15.6
|
| British Library | 87,200
| 97,562 | 11.9
|
| English Heritage | 116,256
| 129,136 | 11.1
|
| VisitBritain | 44,866
| 48,900 | 9.0
|
| DCMS (admin and research) | 21,168
| 49,329 | 133.0
|
| Overall DCMS Budget | 904,790
| 1,458,228 | 61.2
|
|
| Data sourced from The Tourism Alliance 2006.
|
16.(b) Percentage Increase in Funding for SWT 1997-2006:
|
| Percentage Increase in funding for SWT from its partner funding District Councils
| £000
1997-98
| £000
2005-06
| %
Increase |
|
| South Warwickshire Tourism Ltd. | 474
| 488 | 2.9
|
|
| Data sourced from The South Warwickshire Tourism Annual Reports 1997-98 to 2005-06.
|
RECCOMMENDATIONS
17. DCMS needs to invest in tourism at a similar level compared
to UK competitor destination countries. The gap between the UK
as a desirable and recognised destination compared to other countries
is currently being eroded; without significant investment the
UK tourism market will be left behind.
18. DCMS needs to make tourism and the funding of tourism
as a priority to support the Olympic Games so that the synergies
and potential benefits for the UK economy can be maximised.
19. DCMS through VisitBritain need to create funding schemes
specifically designed to enhance and improve promotional and marketing
initiatives aimed at the international market to maximise the
profile of the country as a destination.
20. DCMS through VisitBritain need to set industry wide Key
Performance Indicators and identify the type of data that is required
to be collected and collated within the sector to ensure that
robust statistical analysis and reporting is delivered succinctly
and efficiently across the UK and the tourism sector.
21. The proposal of a Bed Tax should be considered very carefully
and the taxation income generated from such a scheme should be
carefully analysed and balanced in comparison to the negative
impact it will have on the tourism economy, tourism businesses
and the potential international investment in the development
of five star accommodation provisions in the UK.
22. The Arts Council need to identify and support public
art installations that benefit regeneration and tourism.
23. DCMS need to raise the profile of tourism on the agendas
of regeneration and infrastructure development across the public
sector, so that developments that benefit businesses, residents,
commuters and the public also benefit the tourists, the visitors
and the investors.
24. DCMS through VisitBritain need to invest in the accreditation
rating scheme to encourage more independent operators and international
businesses to sign up to the scheme. The provision of grants or
incentives scheme to assist and encourage business to raise their
standards to meet accreditation is urgently required. The DDA
element of the accreditation scheme needs additional support and
funding as this regions accessibility levels are woefully poor.
March 2007
| 
