Memorandum submitted by the National Trust
INTRODUCTION AND
SUMMARY
1. We welcome the opportunity to respond
to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee Inquiry
into tourism policy. This comes at a critical time for the tourism
sector with the approach of the 2012 Olympics, the forthcoming
Government's Comprehensive Spending Review and the ongoing debates
about the impacts of expansion of the aviation industry and the
contribution air travel makes to climate change.
2. The Committee's inquiry is, therefore,
well placed to reinforce the contribution tourism makes to the
UK's economy, and in particular its value for the economy of rural
areas; assert the need to protect and care for the assets which
attract visitors, namely a high quality environment and a rich
cultural heritage; and to understand what resources are required
to help the tourism sector deliver a more sustainable product.
This should follow up on the Government Prospectus for Tourism
and the work of the Tourism Reform Implementation Group (TRIG).
3. We refer the Committee to the written
and oral evidence the National Trust submitted to the previous
Committee Inquiry Tourism After September 11th in 2002.
Our contribution to the recent Committee inquiry into heritage
Protecting and Preserving our heritage also provides evidence
of the role of the historic environment for tourism and the specific
challenges the heritage sector is currently facing
4. Tourism is expected to continue to grow
as an economic sector for the foreseeable future and the Government's
Tourism Prospectus—Tomorrow's Tourism—established
a target to grow the UK market to £100 billion by 2010. However,
the tourism sector faces a number of challenges that without action
this target will be undermined—namely the investment and
resources required to care for the assets of a high quality natural
and historic environment, the ever increasing tourism deficit
and the effects of the rise in visitor car based travel.
5. Our key points and recommendations are:
— to recognise the significant
contribution domestic tourism makes to the UK economy and that
realising the growth already occurring in this market— by
concentrating on further development and promotion of domestic
tourism—will address the tourism deficit much more efficiently
than by greater investment into increasing the number of overseas
visitors;
— that a secondary benefit of
improving and growing the domestic tourism market is that it can
tackle the need to provide greater air travel capacity and so
diminish the demand for detrimental airport expansion;
— that tourism is particularly
well placed to deliver public policy objectives for rural regeneration;
— that tourism has a wider importance
and significance beyond the purely economic, such as the role
it plays in providing local identity and wellbeing;
— that despite these benefits
tourism, particularly on the domestic scale, remains under-recognised
within current debates in the policy agenda such as sustainable
regeneration or climate change, and that the contribution and
impacts tourism can make needs to be integrated into wider planning
and policy development;
— to recognise the need to reduce
the environmental impact from leisure related travel through greater
funding for public transport and requiring the use of visitor
travel plans; and
— that the Government need to
recognise, support, protect and enhance the high quality environmental
assets ( natural and cultural) on which tourism depends including
by examining the role of visitor pay back schemes
ROLE OF
THE NATIONAL
TRUST
6. The Trust's contribution to the inquiry
draws on our role as owner, manager and landlord of an extensive
portfolio of properties and landholdings across England, Wales
and Northern Ireland with extensive public access. We seek to
integrate our conservation responsibilities with the management
of a major tourism business turning over £300 million each
year. We annually welcome some 13 million visits to our-pay-for-entry
properties and an estimated 100 million visits to our coast and
countryside properties. We also undertake a vast range of tourism-related
activity to support these visits. This includes:
— operating the Europe's largest
collection of holiday cottages—with over 350 cottages across
the country and an annual turnover in excess of £6 million;
— offering over 400 working holidays
a year where people volunteer to work on conservation projects
at our properties;
— hosting over 80 tenants offering
bed and breakfast accommodation, 50 camping and caravanning sites
on our land and accommodating 21 YHA hostels;
— running 135 restaurants, cafes
and tea rooms with a collective turnover of £17.5 million—the
nation's largest network;
— promoting and investing in regional
and local produce and crafts—including 25 local vineyards,
32 local cheese makers and 20 local ice cream makers; and
— investing significantly in domestic
advertising and promotions—including events, press and other
media activity and as a partner with VisitBritain.
7. We are members of a large number of Destination
Management Partnerships throughout England and sit on the board
of several Regional Tourism Bodies. We work closely with relevant
organisations such as the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions
(ALVA) and Tourism Alliance and contributed our expertise and
experience to the work of the Department of Culture, Media and
Sports Tourism Reform Implementation Group (TRIG).
TOURISM AND
THE BENEFITS
IT DELIVERS
8. Tourism is one of the largest industries
in the UK, worth approximately £75 billion in 2003 and employing
some 2.2 million people, 8% of the working population. We believe
that many tourism businesses are of the future—in an increasingly
competitive world the raw materials for UK plc will increasingly
be based on knowledge, skills, sense of place, quality and a clean
environment. We are investing over £160 million in the nation's
environmental infrastructure, often in places bypassed by market
forces. In many ways, the Trust is like a development agency—investing
for ever in the economic resources of the future. Trust activities
alone in the North East, Wales, Cumbria and the South West generate
between five and nine additional full time jobs for every person
(Full Time Equivalent) directly employed by the Trust. In total,
the high quality of the natural and built environment generates
just over 137,000 full time jobs (FTEs) in these areas.
9. As well as being a hugely important economic
driver, we believe tourism has much to offer wider social and
environmental objectives. This includes providing opportunities
for education and lifelong learning (through visits to properties
but also through active engagement and volunteering to help look
after these properties), underpinning the viability of a huge
range of rural (often small) businesses, promoting a sense of
positive local identity and social cohesion from a shared local
history/culture and the resources that it offers and providing
attractive places where businesses and communities can thrive.
10. Given its importance in rural areas,
the aforementioned targeted growth of tourism by the Government
also has the potential to contribute to the Government's rural
regeneration targets to raise economic productivity within the
least well performing rural wards. For example, in Cornwall, the
poorest county in the country, tourism is a key driver of the
local economy. The sector contributes up to 24% of Cornwall's
GDP, including retail spend—a figure five times the national
average—and one in five people in Cornwall gain an income
from the tourist industry.
11. However, whilst the impacts of the 2001
Foot and Mouth outbreak, which saw tourism losses at £3.3
billion, illustrated just how important tourism is to rural economies,
this experience and the lessons learnt have not yet been fully
appreciated. As a result, the Trust believes the wider role of
tourism is still not properly recognised in either current debates
about tourism or the public policy framework which supports it.
All too often the focus of much of the tourism debate remains
on large scale visitor attractions, infrastructure and the international
market which needs to move to one that emphasises the potential
contribution of tourism to sustainable regeneration and development
in both urban and rural areas and its dependence on a high quality
environment and the competitive advantage of local and regional
character in building sustainable and successful businesses.
DOMESTIC TOURISM
12. The role which domestic tourism has
to play in driving forward the sector is, in particular, underplayed
by current tourism policy and investment from national and regional
Government. There is at present an £18 billion balance of
payments deficit at the expense of the domestic tourism industry.
As the DCMS Tourism Prospectus recognises the domestic market
in England accounts for 86% of the tourism revenue and there is
the potential for further significant growth in short break and
rural and cultural tourism markets. The recent domestic marketing
campaigns run by VisitBritain and EMAB have been extremely welcome
and we look forward to continuing to work with them and the various
regional partners in future domestic campaigns. We are disappointed,
however, that despite the overriding importance and future potential
of the domestic market, government tourism policy overall continues
to place significant emphasis on international markets and the
pursuit of growth per se. This is despite the fact that
even small changes in the trends in domestic tourism would outstrip
even significant changes in the much smaller international market.
13. VisitBritain is given £35.5 million
to spend on international marketing, but only £13.3 million
to invest on marketing England to the domestic tourist in 2005-06.
However, in terms of tourism revenue, the domestic market far
out-strips the international market with UK residents contributing
over £60 billion a year compared to just under £12 billion
from international visitors. As the graph below shows, a 10% rise
in domestic tourism would generate £6 billion in additional
revenue, whilst the same rise in international would result in
just £1.2 billion.
Graph: Office of National Statistics
14. Moreover the benefits and burdens of
domestic tourism are more widely spread over the UK, given the
focus of international tourists on relatively few locations. This
is especially important in rural areas where, for example, in
the south-west of England domestic visits account for 14 times
the number of those from overseas. The Trust believes more emphasis
needs to be placed on persuading people to take short breaks and
holidays in this country. This would bring a range of benefits
including helping to reduce the growing balance of tourism payments
deficit, bring welcome tourism revenue to rural (and urban) communities
and reduce the risks to the sector of the continued volatility
in international tourism and travel.
15. Encouraging the domestic market can
also potentially reduce the need for further significant expansion
in an environmentally damaging aviation sector. It is currently
cheaper to fly from London to southwest France for the weekend
than it is to take the train to Bath. We believe such cheap flights,
where the price of the ticket does not factor in the true cost
of either fuel or the environmental impact of air travel, are
actively encouraging people to holiday overseas. This has in turn
led to the aforementioned £18 billion balance of payments
deficit. We are deeply concerned that this deficit can only worsen
should the policy to greatly expand airports coming out from the
Government's Aviation White Paper (2003) be fully realised. We
believed the resulting Aviation White Paper was greatly flawed,
with it findings based on unrealistic growth forecasts based on
a continuation of current trends for increased air travel. However,
this growth relies on anomalies within the tax system and does
include environmental and social costs. Such forecasts represent
derived demand, and are not a response to need. We believe that
the expansion of airports and the current situation of cheap flights
have caused much damage to domestic tourism.
16. Such impacts are not included in the
economic case made for airport expansion. It is estimated that
in East of England this deficit equates to £2 billion, dwarfing
the £400 million contribution that BAA Stansted makes to
the regional economy. In proposing locations for new airport capacity,
Government also failed to take account of impacts on natural and
historic environment beyond the loss of listed buildings. It is
threatening many beautiful and historic properties owned by the
National Trust such as the effect of noise and pollution on Hatfield
Forest near Stansted, damage from vibrations on Speke Hall on
the edge of Liverpool and the loss of tranquillity on the North
Downs and Hadrians Wall.
17. The Trust takes an active involvement
in aviation and related issues. This has included making representations
at public inquiries into airport expansion at Manchester and Stansted
and publishing research Blue Skies into the impact of the
expansion of aviation on domestic tourism. We made detailed comments
on each of the regional reports that made up the Government's
aviation green paper. We are particularly concerned by the insidious
expansion of smaller regional airports and have actively lobbied
against the plans of Wolverhampton Airport and Robin Hood Airport.
We would like to see a government target to reduce the current
deficit by placing a greater emphasis on the domestic market,
especially in marketing and promotion lessening the pressure for
further significant expansion of an environmentally damaging aviation
sector.
VISITOR TRAVEL
18. Another key concern of the National
Trust, amongst others, is the high dependency of the tourism sector,
particularly in rural areas, of visitors by car and the impacts
these visits have on the quality of the experience, the state
of the assets the industry is based upon and the wider economic,
social and environmental costs of growing visitor and rural traffic.
19. Over the last decade, the National Travel
Survey has recorded an increase of 5% in leisure travel (as measured
by passenger km). The average distance travelled for each trip
has increased by around 11% to an average of 6.8 miles in 1999-2001.
Current figures show that more than seven out of ten tourism day
trips and nearly eight out of 10 holiday visits are made by car.
In some of the most popular but also environmentally sensitive
areas, such as National Parks, this rises to more than nine out
of 10 visits. Rural leisure trips have become one of the fastest
growing sources of traffic, a rise which threatens to undermine
the very assets visitors come to see and experience in the countryside—causing
visual blight, noise and air pollution and visitor dissatisfaction
as well as creating problems of congestion in particular hotspots.
As a conservation charity and major tourism business heavily dependant
on visitors who enjoy the convenience of the car, the National
Trust faces some real dilemmas in meeting the needs of our visitors
while seeking new and less damaging alternatives.
20. Visitor Travel—Policy from
Practice showcases some ways in which the Trust is seeking
to encourage greater choice in leisure travel and the benefits
which come from doing this. Examples include the popular Devils
Dyke bus in the South Downs and the Shropshire Hills Shuttles,
which have both shown that such schemes can also deliver wider
regeneration benefits to local economies, enhance access for both
visitors and local communities and improve the quality of the
visitor experience.
21. Our report also highlights, however,
that whilst the Trust has provided financial support for transport
schemes this can only ever touch the surface of what is needed
to tackle the issue seriously. A stronger sense of direction on
leisure traffic is needed from Government. We believe, for example,
that DCMS has an important role in championing the importance
of sustainable tourism, accessible both for visitors and the workforce,
to Regional Development Agencies as part of their regional economic
strategies. This is especially important now they have lead responsibility
for funding such schemes following the demise of the Countryside
Agency's projects.
22. The most urgent need is to secure long
term funding following the end of the successful Countryside Agency
Rural Transport Partnership Scheme and the Government's Rural
Bus Challenge Fund. Their loss has left many existing and highly
valued transport schemes on a financial knife-edge or scrapped.
More widely we believe there is a need for visitor travel planning
to be given the same emphasis and promotion on workplace and school
travel plans and that this might be developed in taking forward
the work of Tourism Reform Implementation Group.
PROTECTING THE
ASSETS—THE
VALUE OF
A HIGH
QUALITY ENVIRONMENT
23. From our experience on the ground, we
know that tourism contributes much needed income to local economies
across the country and that there is an important link between
a high quality environment and the future economic sustainability
of communities. For example, our Valuing our Environment
studies found that 40% of the jobs created through tourism rely
directly on a high quality environment and that this increases
to 60% to 70% in rural areas.
24. Many of these visits are attracted by
the quality of the local environment—beautiful coast and
countryside, well-maintained footpaths, local foods and crafts,
historic towns and villages with distinctive architecture or materials,
or a lively cultural life. Significantly, the quality of the overall
experience is as important as the quality of the assets themselves.
For example, in a MORI poll and research commissioned by the National
Trust over 80% of adults, felt that visiting the countryside is
a vital counterbalance to the stresses of their daily life. Over
half those polled are in search of "peace and quiet".
25. We would like to see greater recognition
of the role as an economic asset that a high quality environment
plays and a greater commitment to the duty to care for what is
essentially a vulnerable and fragile commodity. Our experience
across the English regions, Northern Ireland and Wales suggests
that whilst many tourism strategies refer to the importance of
natural, cultural and historic assets the need to protect these
assets is not recognised as a priority.
26. We also believe more could be done to
consider the needs and value of tourism in other policy areas,
such as land use planning policy, transport and regional economic
development. For example, the costs of caring for our historic
environment runs into the hundreds of millions, with the National
Trust facing a £200 million backlog in maintenance costs
alone, and yet these sorts of costs and the impact they will have
on the quality of the visitor experience and expectations if they
are not met is not merited with enough importance. Other agendas
such as museums and agri-environment schemes are also relevant
to the success of the tourism sector.
27. This is not to say that the recognition
of the need to ensure the quality of the visitor experience is
not beginning to be tackled. We support the new VisitBritain's
National Quality Assurance Schemes, a grading scheme that is aiming
to improve the quality of accommodation and services as an essential
foundation to delivering a quality experience—including
achieving a common grading standard that is readily understood
by the customer. Such a system, however, is not without its costs
and we estimate it would require significant investment by the
Trust to implement across all our holiday properties. When looking
at self catered accommodation the particular nature of many holiday
cottages will need to be taken into account as it is often the
character and setting of such accommodation rather than the range
of facilities on offer that matters most.
28. We welcome the recommendation in the
recent Lyons Report that the Government explores the costs and
benefits of a permissive power for local authorities to levy taxes
on tourism. Whilst we do not support proposals for a mandatory
bed tax as we do not believe that these will deliver the kind
of targeted ring fenced funding which is required to help protect
the assets, we are in favour of imaginative schemes that can help
promote sustainable tourism such as the The Tourism Conservation
Partnership (TCP). This was established in 1993 to create a partnership
between business and conservation organisations in the Lake District
including the National Trust. The Partnership runs a "visitor
payback" scheme which is optional and directed at local conservation
projects. Importantly it helps to raise awareness in people's
minds that "the countryside costs" and so it does an
important job above and beyond the income it generates.
29. We would like to see the sector share
lessons on investment schemes such as the North West's high profile
regional programme called Natural Economy with its main
objective to maximise the economic benefit from projects to improve
the natural environment. The North West has also established a
Regional Heritage Tourism Officer. whose aim is to award funding
for heritage attractions to carry out projects that would increase
their commercial benefit—eg tea shops, visitor centres and
so on.
30. However, in general, ensuring the availability
and quality of such "services" often lies beyond immediate
tourism providers and therefore the sector needs to make these
connections to those that do have an influence on the wider environment
is critical. We believe that the DCMS can play a valuable role
as a champion for tourism and that this should take in the responsibility
for ensuring cross departmental working which identifies the current
policy initiatives that may impact on tourism (such as DCLG's
land use planning reforms, DEFRA's work on climate change or DfT's
transport funding and infrastructure policies) and which DCMS
and the sector should be seeking to influence.
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