Memorandum submitted by Bournemouth Tourism
Management Board
The Bournemouth Tourism Management Board is
unique in representing all aspects of tourism in the resort. This
includes representatives from six business sectors: Conferencing,
Accommodation, International Education, Town Centre, Leisure &
Attractions, Transport as well as two councilors and two tourism
professionals. In addition to the Board members, industry experts,
such as the South West of England Regional Development Agency
and Visit Britain also sit on the Board.
We are pleased that we have the opportunity
to contribute to this important Inquiry. We believe this is an
exciting time for the tourism industry with many opportunities
and challenges ahead. We have comments on each of your main subject
areas in order.
1. The challenges and opportunities for the
domestic and inbound tourism industries including cheap flights
abroad and their impact on traditional tourist resorts
Projected Growth of Tourism
It is extremely positive that there is a healthy
projected growth in tourism as a result of people having more
leisure time and more disposable income, however, there is a key
challenge in how to access and make the most of the potential
market.
Britain and England are strong established brands
which we need to protect and build upon. At the same time we must
capitalise on other key attributes of the British offer including
our entertainment, food, culture and strong sporting offer.
Cheap Air Travel
Cheap flights may offer UK residents more opportunities
to access new destinations at an affordable price but they also
enable visitors from overseas the same opportunity to visit the
UK. It has been our experience in Bournemouth that low cost flights
have brought in new business to the town and we now have easier
access to new markets both from within the UK and overseas.
However, it must be recognised that cheap flights
increase competition as it provides more opportunities to access
all the destinations of the world in a cheaper and more accessible
way. The range and variety of destinations available may mean
less repeat business as people crave the novelty factor and visit
other destinations rather than returning to places they have already
visited. Overall, cheap flights probably take more people out
of the country than into the country so effective marketing and
initiatives are needed to help us move to a more even balance
between inbound and outbound business.
Increase in Interest Rates
Any future increase in interest rates will have
a negative impact on travel and discretionary spend. This will
also depress investment in improved quality.
Maintaining Quality
A key challenge is to maintain the quality of
our resorts and destinations and continually develop the overall
quality of experience. This is particularly challenging when margins
are reducing and tourism businesses have less money available
for re-investment.
Educational Tourism
The international education market remains relatively
buoyant in the UK nevertheless, when compared to other countries
offering language and study, it is still perceived as an expensive
study destination to visit for reasons that we are unable to control—exchange
rate, cost of living etc.
Quality Grading
This is a serious problem. The current targets
will not be achieved and the harmonized grading scheme is poorly
administered and confusing for the customer. This needs an urgent
and radical review.
The Visitor Experience
Future lies in fully exploiting niche opportunities
and experience-led products, constant change and ability to differentiate
existing product. Overcoming negative perceptions of Britain—"expensive",
"cold", "unfriendly", "poor customer
service" and "binge drinking culture" represents
an important challenge.
Education System
In the National Curriculum the positive and
negative issues of tourism are highlighted yet this is not the
case when learning about other industries. This is unhelpful in
encouraging genuine talent into this rewarding and worthwhile
industry.
2. The effectiveness of DCMS and its sponsored
bodies (such as Visit Britain) in supporting the industry
Visit Britain has been very successful in promoting
Britain to overseas markets.
As the national tourism body, Visit Britain
should be the organisation that tourism professionals aspire to
join. In order to achieve this position it needs more stability,
continuity and a long-term future free from the uncertainty of
political vacillation.
In order to be effective there needs to be adequate
funding to deliver tangible benefits to the tourism industry.
Currently, there seems to be inadequate funding for the promotion
of English tourism particularly when compared to our near competitors
both in the UK and wider Europe (such as France, the Netherlands
and Austria). Scotland, Wales and N Ireland have their own, separately
funded National Convention Bureaus, with additional marketing
and sales budgets, to support individual destinations and venues
to target the business tourism sector whereas England does not.
This needs to be corrected quickly.
Visit England is part of Visit Britain but this
is confusing and we believe would benefit from being separate.
Additionally, the role of Visit England needs to be clearly defined.
We are not convinced that the devolved nature of tourism is really
benefiting the development of tourism as much as it should or
could. Money has been invested in new structures and organisational
change that do not always focus on the destination and, more importantly
on the customer and their visitor experience.
We strongly feel that there needs to be more
support for mature destinations from Visit England and DCMS to
ensure they do not go into unnecessary decline. The focus appears
to be on cities and emerging towns and regions with very little
on mature destinations or coastal destinations.
3. 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
In addition to our comments highlighted in our
response to question 2 we feel that the support structure is confusing.
Different areas operate in different ways which does give the
benefit of flexibility but the main result is confusion for people
working in the industry when setting up businesses in other areas
or moving from one hotel to another in a different region. There
should be a consistent approach to the organisation of tourism
support across the country. We also believe there should be a
greater recognition of the broad role of Local Authorities in
managing destinations. This role should be adequately reflected
in the R.S.G. calculations to meet the high cost of additional
safety, cleansing, health care and social support.
4. The effect of the current tax regime (inc
VAT and Air Passenger Duty) and proposals for local government
funding including the "bed tax" upon the industry's
competitiveness
The current tax regime does not offer a level
playing field with our European counterparts. The lower tax costs
means that European destinations are able to offer more to visitors
for less. This is particularly apparent when compared to France
where their tax costs are three times less than Britain. We strongly
oppose any form of bed or hotel tax as this would further damage
our competitive position and worsen the Balance of Payments deficit.
Holidaying in the UK is already expensive compared
to European destinations. Any increases in tourism related taxation
will just exacerbate the situation and discourage small operators
from developing their businesses and improving their offer.
Additionally, we strongly believe that there
needs to be proper recognition of the costs of looking after visitors
incurred by local authorities as explained in 3 above.
5. What data would usefully inform government
policy on tourism
In addition to the data already collected, we
would suggest a better domestic assessment of the value and volume
of trips which should be collated centrally. This would ensure
that there was no inconsistency or double counting across areas
and would develop an understanding of trends across the whole
tourism sector. It is also important to develop market research
that examines what people want and expect from their holidays/short
breaks, the style of holidays people are looking for in the UK
domestic market which can be tracked over time.
6. The practicality of promoting more environmentally
friendly forms of tourism
We believe that people are going to become more
discerning and environmental considerations will play a much bigger
part in people's decision making. The Tourist Boards are to be
congratulated on their work to develop initiatives such as the
Green Tourism Business Scheme. It will be important that the tourism
industry addresses environmental working practices. Therefore,
more needs to be done in support through grants, access to suppliers
and information for businesses to operate in a more environmentally
friendly fashion. We believe that it is important to share best
practice across the tourism industry and support industries as
well as addressing the economic impact of environmental initiatives.
If money is to be raised from environmental
taxation we strongly believe that the money should be re-invested
in improving the environment by providing financial support for
environmental initiatives.
Further public transport and links need to be
improved extensively to persuade people to travel to destinations
by train, bus etc. instead of by car.
7. How to derive maximum benefit for the industry
from the London 2012 Games
The key benefit for the country and the industry
will be the opportunity for the world to understand what England/Britain
has to offer visitors. It is, therefore, vital that we agree the
key messages for the country and then be consistent with that
messaging. This needs to start now.
Improving jobs and up-skilling the workforce.
Transient and migrant workers must be recognised as an increasingly
important cog in the tourism delivery machine and a consistent
approach to the funding and delivery of ESOL training is urgently
required.
March 2007
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