Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Written Evidence


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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