Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Minutes of Evidence


Memorandum submitted by English Heritage

INTRODUCTION

  1.  This document represents English Heritage's response to questions posed by the DCMS Select Committee as part of its inquiry into tourism in the UK. The response does not cover all the questions asked by the Committee, but concentrates on questions where there are particular issues for tourism and the historic environment. This response does not cover specific factors affecting heritage tourism in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

BACKGROUND

  2.  English Heritage is a non-departmental public body established under the National Heritage Act 1983 to help protect the historic environment of England and promote awareness, understanding and enjoyment of it. The historic environment is all around us and encompasses the whole of our historic landscape and buried archaeology, not just visible buildings and scheduled monuments. It is our most accessible cultural resource and has a powerful influence on decisions made by foreign resident and domestic tourists to undertake holidays and day trips.

  3.  English Heritage has long experience in managing and marketing visitor attractions. English Heritage looks after over 400 properties including some of the most iconic historic places in the country such as Stonehenge, Whitby Abbey, Dover and Kenilworth Castles, Battle Abbey and Osborne House. These sites are visited by people from all over the world as well as domestic holiday makers and day visitors. There are 5 million visits a year to our pay sites and an estimated 6 million visits to our free sites. We currently have a major programme to invest in improving the quality of the facilities and the visitor experience at our sites. In addition the grant schemes operated by English Heritage have contributed to the upkeep of heritage assets that are part of England's tourism offer.

  4.  The importance of heritage related tourism in England can be demonstrated by the following key facts.

    —  At least 56.4 million visits to heritage visitor attraction sites in 2005.

    —  Recent trend of visits to heritage sites is broadly flat with small year to year changes. Within this overall trend, visits to sites with gardens have grown but visits to castles and forts have fallen.

    —  About 33,000 people work at heritage visitor attraction sites of which over 21,000 are unpaid volunteers.

    —  Average adult admission charge at pay sites is £4.57.

    —  69.9% of adults resident in England visited a heritage site at least once in the past 12 months.

    —  50.7% of adults from black and minority ethnic backgrounds resident in England visited a heritage site at least once in the past 12 months.

    —  53% of those visiting heritage sites say that the main reason they do so is personal enjoyment and relaxation.

    —  3.39 million members of the National Trust and 630,000 members of English Heritage.

    —  More people go to an historic property at the weekend than attend a football match.

    —  A number of places rely on their heritage tourism for much of their economic activity, for example York, Bath, Canterbury.

    —  400,000 volunteers in the historic environment sector.

    —  12% of all holiday visitors from North America go to Stonehenge.

    —  Market research shows that visitors from all over the world value this country's history and heritage, and that access to history and heritage, always a strong driver, remains a core reason for coming to this country. According to a survey of visitors to the Britain and London Visitor Centre 56% had already or were planning to visit one or more of a castle, church, monument or historic house. Research carried out in 10 emerging tourism markets found that the most likely activity that people would take part in when visiting Britain was again visits to a castle, church, monument or historic house.

  5.  Responses to specific questions posed by the Committee are set out below:

    The effectiveness of DCMS and its sponsored bodies (such as VisitBritain) in supporting the industry.

    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.

    What data on tourism would usefully inform government policy on tourism.

  6.  The comments below take these three questions together. We believe that there is a very important role for both DCMS and VisitBritain in supporting the tourism industry. In the light of the findings about the importance of the historic environment to the brand image of this country to foreign tourists, the maintenance and enhancement of that environment is a key factor in underpinning the growth in tourist demand. Policies and funding to achieve that desirable state of affairs are not the responsibility of any one body or person, but the DCMS should make sure that its own policies and funding allow the historic environment to make its full contribution to the tourism offer. In addition there is a leadership role for DCMS in ensuring that other organisations in the public and private sector are aware of the contribution they can make to the historic environment.

  7.  Individual organisations in the heritage tourism sector undertake marketing, promotion and research, but because the benefits of such activities are likely to go beyond any one organisation's immediate interests, there is a risk of under-provision, compared with what would be desirable for the industry, and by implication for the whole economy. Therefore there is a case for some co-ordinated public funded promotion of the industry to make up for that under-provision. However, while there is a clear justification for public involvement the scale and nature of that involvement is less obvious. In particular the increasing use of electronic media to communicate information, ideas and opinions directly to consumers may be complementary to, but also in part substitutes for, traditional means of communications such as books and tourist offices. But whatever the format of communication we know that VisitBritain's marketing effort can generate excellent returns to the industry, and net additional activity to the economy as a whole.

  8.  Public investment and marketing effort by regional and national organisations should market areas or groups of attractions rather than individual attractions. This can have a beneficial effect by encouraging people to stay longer in a place or region and therefore spend more money in the local economy. An example is marketing for the area around Hadrian's Wall where the different attractions work together to produce joint publicity and leaflets. An additional consideration is that visitors come from very diverse backgrounds and with different requirements. Marketing and the services provided by the tourism industry should be planned with this diversity in mind. Another example English Heritage is involved with is the Sacred Britain Tourism Partnership, a grouping of organisations with an interest in promoting tourism to historic places of worship. We have a particular interest as a major grant-giver to places of worship, given that we include a standard condition of grant requiring the grant recipient to open the building to the public. We have a wider interest as well in encouraging access to the historic environment.

  9.  We value timely and accurate data about short term trends in the sector in order to monitor and benchmark the performance of our own sites, and we supply data to VisitBritain. We also support the collection of annual data to monitor longer term trends in visits, by site type, by region, by type of visitor, entry charge paid, and employment. These data are regularly reported in Heritage Counts, the annual report on the state of the historic environment. Data of sufficient quality and data will be needed to accurately monitor and predict the impact of the Olympics on different forms of tourism. In general we believe better co-ordination of the collection and analysis of tourism statistics would be of benefit to all those involved in the sector.

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

  10.  VAT is an issue for the heritage sector because of the different treatment of new build (zero rated) and the generality of expenditure on repairs and maintenance to buildings (subject to 17.5%). We believe that this discrepancy provides an incentive for owners and developers to demolish old buildings or heritage features and replace with new. English Heritage and others in the historic environment sector are of the opinion that this is a perverse incentive for heritage and environmental reasons. A recent report from the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, Protecting and preserving our heritage supported the sector's view. However, the Government has chosen not to make any fundamental changes to VAT for construction, and due to EU rules, there is now no scope to make any fundamental changes until 2010 at the earliest. The Listed Places of Worship Grant scheme refunds VAT on specified expenditure for listed places of worship (and recently extended to listed monuments). But there remains a large amount of the historic environment owned by non-commercial organisations or private individuals that have to pay the full rate of VAT on most repairs and maintenance. Given that the historic environment is such an important part of the tourism offer, we believe that the tax system should provide incentives for its preservation and improvement rather than undermine it as is the tendency now.

The practicality of promoting more environmentally friendly forms of tourism

  11.  We believe that the historic environment can make an important contribution to sustainable development and protection of the environment through the preservation of existing buildings rather than demolition and building new. Demolition and building new can have significant negative impacts through increased demand for landfill and extraction and transport of natural resources. Tourists are both attracted to old buildings and distinctive places and landscapes and contribute directly and indirectly to their upkeep through expenditure on admissions, retail and accommodation. As part of its investment in its own sites, English Heritage is successfully implementing a range of environmentally friendly projects including reusing an existing historic building as the visitor entry point in Osborne House, combining a Visitor Centre for our site and a Tourism Information Centre for the wider area in a single bespoke building at Helmsley Castle, and developing a policy for locally-sourced food in the catering facilities at its sites. Other examples of important heritage buildings and sites that have been maintained and enhanced through strong links with heritage tourism are briefly described below:.

  Cliveden: An example of a conversion to a hotel. A country house built by Charles Barry in 1851 on the site of a previous house built by the second Duke of Buckingham. The present site consists of a grade 1 listed garden, extensive woodlands and Italianate mansion. The house has been host to virtually every British monarch since George I and has been home to three Dukes, an Earl and Frederic Prince of Wales. In 1893 it was purchased by the Astor family and became a meeting place for the great and famous including Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, and George Bernard Shaw. The property and gardens are now run by the National Trust, but the building is also let as a hotel operated by a private company. An example of a site that is both a visitor attraction and a commercial operation that contributes to the sustainability of the historic environment.

  St Ives: An example of a fishing and seaside town that has reinvented its tourist offer to include cultural activities, while retaining its historic buildings and distinctiveness. The success of Tate St Ives in attracting visitors and economic activity is itself partly based on the attractive historic environment of the town, and at the same time the owners and managers of that historic environment benefit from the higher incomes and expenditure associated with the Tate.

  Saltburn-by-the-Sea: pier restoration and heritage centre. The pier was built in the 1860s and is now the only remaining pleasure pier in the North East. Grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund enabled a restoration programme to take place, with improvement in access. The pier has enhanced the locality as a tourist attraction and beneficial knock-on effects on local businesses.

  Clacton: seafront gardens Clacton's Edwardian were a popular visitor attraction until the 1990s when they became run-down and overgrown. HLF grants have enabled extensive repairs and improvements to be carried out together with new facilities and access. The gardens are now the focus of community events and are part of the overall improvement in the character of the resort that has led to increase in visitor numbers.

  Bexhill: De La Warr pavilion First public building in the UK built in the Modernist style. Built in 1935 to a design by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff the structure quickly became a popular public space and also including cultural and leisure facilities for local people and tourists. Following an £8 million restoration project (funded by the Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund, and others) completed in 2005, the pavilion provides an art gallery, auditorium, studio space, terrace and bandstand, public spaces and retail outlets. Visit numbers since re-opening have been encouraging demonstrating that a striking design can attract interest and economic activity.

How to derive maximum benefit for the industry from the London 2012 Games

  12.  There are activities planned for deriving benefit before, during and after the Games. English Heritage and other national cultural organisations are planning the delivery of a Cultural Olympiad running from 2008-12. The Cultural Olympiad is not confined to sport, but embraces a huge spectrum of activities from visual and performance art to the historic environment and science. In addition to the Cultural Olympiad English Heritage is planning events, publications and exhibitions that will celebrate and complement Britain's hosting of the Olympics. After the Games there is an opportunity to enhance and develop the tourism offer, with direct or indirect links to Olympic activities and sites.

March 2007





 
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