Examination of Witnesses (Questions 160
- 171)
TUESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2007
MS ROS
PRITCHARD, MR
KURT JANSON,
MR TONY
MILLNS AND
MRS BRIGID
SIMMONDS
Q160 Mr Hall: You are not prepared
to say how much you want the Government to spend? You cannot have
it both ways.
Ms Pritchard: We want a review
to look at where it should be spent.
Mrs Simmonds: What is spent at
the moment and where it should be spent in the future, particularly
looking at this marketing role. I think then once we have got
that review we can put together a set of proposals which indicates
how much perhaps the private sector was prepared to put in on
the back of that. The very least we would be looking for is the
£20 million which VisitBritain asked for and gave details
of how they wished to attract visitors to come here in 2012. That
would have been an excellent start.
Q161 Mr Hall: So we are clear on
the record, you are actually asking them to put in an extra £20
million on top of what is already announced?
Mrs Simmonds: We are clear on
the record that we would have liked some of the CSR bid which
VisitBritain made to have been honoured and recognised and forthcoming.
Q162 Mr Hall: Can I move on now to
the set of questions I was asked to ask about statistics. We do
not have a clear picture of what the industry is like and reports
going back three or four years. We do not have a clear picture
of what the industry is like. We do not know how many attractions
we have got in the UK. We will have the Allnutt report. DCMS have
made their views known about the Allnutt report. Have we got a
clear picture now? Do you know how many attractions we have got
in the UK that people can visit?
Mrs Simmonds: I have actually
chaired two sessions as part of Partners for England which is
looking at how we can improve statistics. We now actually have
a commitment that funding will be made available where we have
two people who will be in the National Statistical Office looking
to improve how we produce the statistics; which we consider is
a start because the Allnutt report, which we all supported, has
never been fully implemented and the funding had not been made
available.
Q163 Mr Hall: Would it help if the
Allnutt report was implemented?
Mrs Simmonds: Absolutely.
Q164 Mr Hall: That is the sort of
thing the Government could do?
Mrs Simmonds: Yes, absolutely
certain. One of the other issues is that at the moment we do have
a lot of statistics but we do not know where they are nationally.
A lot of RDAs produce statistics within their own RDAs but it
is how that information can be shared. We have got a commitment
that a lot of that information will be shared and forthcoming
and we should see an improvement. Kurt will tell you when this
is all going to start.
Mr Janson: In the next year there
is a English Tourism Intelligence Partnership being put together
which is being co-funded through the RDAs and VisitBritain which
is an initiative to try and draw together all the information
that is being produced into one pot which everyone can share to
ensure that it is being gained in ways that are consistent across
the regions, so we can compare information from one region with
another and know that is being collected in the same way. That
will be incredibly useful.
Q165 Mr Hall: That would not be a
real alternative to implementing the Allnutt report in full?
Mr Janson: No, it is a start to
it. It is what the RDAs and VisitBritain have tried to do, because
Allnutt has not been implemented.
Q166 Rosemary McKenna: My questions
come under the heading London 2012, but in actual fact we can
now add on to that Glasgow's Commonwealth Games in 2014 because
people will come into various points of the UK to get to Glasgow.
The whole thing actually is looking very, very healthy. According
to DCMS they expect that 50-75% of the economic benefits of that
will come to the tourist industry. Do you think they are right
in saying that the economic benefits could be in the region of
£2 billion?
Mrs Simmonds: Yes, we do believe
that is quite possible but you have got to make the effort to
do something about it. It will not just happen if we do not market
the country to those people who are coming here; if we do not
look after families and friends, which is a very important part
of visitors. There is some very good work which was done by Sheffield
Hallam University looking at major sporting events in the UK and
how they attract people. There is absolutely clear evidence, and
indeed VisitBritain is working with UK Sport to look at attracting
100 or so events between now and 2012. Glasgow is a very good
example and the Manchester Commonwealth Games was another very
good example. They are enormously beneficial to the UK. As I have
said before, it has got to be about changing perhaps the picture
of the sort of people who visit here, and attracting younger people
who come as part of the Olympic Games, whether they be supporters,
whether they be families or whether they be media in particular
to go out and visit Britain and then want to come back again.
Q167 Rosemary McKenna: Of course
the international media will be covering Britain for several years
before the event, so people will see that as well. That is marketing
that is not costing anything.
Mrs Simmonds: Yes.
Q168 Rosemary McKenna: Is the Government
right in saying there is going to be marketing that is being done
naturally so maybe they are right in reducing the amount of money
that is given to VisitBritain?
Mrs Simmonds: I think it is natural
that you will have unaccredited journalists who will be coming
here during the Games. I do not think you will attract many people
to write about it between now and 2012 if you do not put the effort
into making it easy; it is making those contacts in the individual
cities, in the areas they want to go and look at; it is going
out and seeking the Tourist Boards, the RDAs, the local authorities
and the local businesses. That is something we can put together.
As we know, the media can be very fickle. If you make it easy
for them to go and see something then we are much more likely
to get that sort of response.
Q169 Rosemary McKenna: In one of
your submissions you call for an "Olympics Tourism Forum".
Is this something the Tourism Alliance should be taking forward,
and will be taking forward?
Mrs Simmonds: At the moment we
have a Ministerial Group on 2012 which is in fact due to meet
next week to look at where we move from here. As a result of that
we will be looking at whether there is a need for a forum. We
also have the Nations and Regions Group which is part of LOCOG
which, if anything, I think has been much more effective in coordinating
activity at a regional level across tourism than it has in sport.
The only problem is that it is a bit like a secret society. No-one
knows nationally exactly what it is doing, but there is quite
a lot of good work going on out there. An Olympic Forum is something
we can and will think about as industry gets together. I think
the other thing we are really looking for is some branding. There
is a huge success in Australia for Fun and Games which was the
brand that was developed for smaller business. You want to have
something you can hang on a bed and breakfast in Glasgow that
will make them feel they are part of the Olympics and want to
encourage their visitors to see that as well.
Q170 Rosemary McKenna: Whose responsibility
should that be?
Mrs Simmonds: That responsibility
probably lies with LOCOG. As you know, there are all sorts of
issues about commercial brand and how the branding for 2012 can
be developed. We understand there will be a non-commercial brand
that will be unveiled after Beijing, but at the moment our understanding
of that non-commercial brand is that it will not be something
you can hang on every bed and breakfast; it will be for very specific
projects. We would like to work, and we would like VisitBritain
to work, with either Olympics sponsors, which is one way of doing
it, or with LOCOG to develop something that we can use as an industry,
and that should be part of that ongoing work.
Q171 Chairman: LOCOG at the moment
see their role as going round preventing people using Olympic
branding, rather than promoting it?
Mrs Simmonds: They do and we clearly
understand the problems the IOC have with Olympic branding. It
has been done very effectively elsewhere. You have recently been
to Canada where you will have seen the work which was done in
Vancouver; and Australia did it effectively. There is no reason
why we cannot do it here; it just needs a bit of leadership.
Chairman: I think that is all we have
for you. Thank you very much.
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