House of Commons - Tourism - Culture, Media and Sport

Tourism - Culture, Media and Sport Contents

4 Tourism in the UK

Building on London's success

56. London tourism is doing particularly well—with a record 16.8 million visitors in 2013. We have already discussed that London could also have an important role as a gateway to the rest of the UK. The Mayor of London told us he is "committed to ensuring that London continues to act as a magnet for international visitors and that the whole country benefits from its status as the most visited city in the world."[82] Evidence from the Mayor also notes that further promotion of London would not be at the expense of the rest of the UK: "London's competition is mainly international, not national. In fact, 88 per cent of the tourists who are attracted to London would go elsewhere in the world—not elsewhere in the UK—if they had not visited London."[83]

57. Despite London's undoubted and deserved success as a tourist destination, more could be done. For example, the Mayor of London told us: "On-going consumer research indicates that London still needs to tackle perceptual challenges on welcome and value for money as well as length of stay; where currently we fall behind our near European competitors of Italy and France."[84]

58. The Mayor has devolved responsibility for tourism promotion to London & Partners, the official promotional agency for London, which is funded by the Greater London Authority and private sector partners. The tourism role of London & Partners is "to promote London to international leisure visitors and provide information to help them discover the city."[85]

59. Chris Gottlieb of London & Partners said: "There are 33 boroughs in London with different areas. Our job is to promote London holistically. We look at the experiences that are going to appeal to the audience. We very much try to approach it from what drives the audience, as opposed to individual fiefdoms within it, and we do what we think is going to generate the biggest return on investment … we know that our leisure tourism activity delivers a 17:1 return on investment."[86] Written evidence from the Mayor of London states: "In 2013 London & Partners generated an additional £149 million GVA[87] for the London economy from its tourism promotion, supporting the creation of 2673 jobs."[88] Supplementary written evidence from the Mayor of London provides further details on the basis of these calculations.[89]

60. A key focus of the work of London & Partners is the US market;[90] this is hardly surprising since more Americans visited London in 2013 than any other nationality.[91] London's Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture, Munira Mirza told us: "Part of the challenge is that London & Partners have to get a return on investment immediately. Obviously, like any business, you have to think about the long term and where the future markets will grow."[92] She went on to refer to the longer term potential of the Chinese market, currently London's 36^th biggest:[93] "Even a 0.5% increase in the Chinese tourism market will, because of the numbers involved, have a huge impact. Part of the work we do at the Mayor's office, as well as the paid-for marketing campaigns, is fund major events such as the New Year's Eve fireworks and bid for major sporting and cultural events in order to raise our profile on the global stage. That is not about paid-for advertising, but it is about making sure that London is continually talked about as an exciting destination, because we know that the Chinese market will expand in the future and what we want to target is not necessarily just the mass numbers but the high-spending Chinese visitors. London is surprisingly good—very good—at attracting that portion of the Chinese tourism market compared with our European competitors."[94]

61. Acknowledging the impact of the Olympics, Munira Mirza emphasised the importance of hosting major events, noting that there was a dedicated sports team working at City Hall with London & Partners to bid for them. One option was to bid to host the World Expo in 2025, mindful of the impact on Shanghai from hosting it in 2010.[95] Some of the largest international events are the world's fairs. Since their inception in London in 1851, over one billion people have visited a world's fair. Known in most of the world as "expos," the largest held so far was the one in Shanghai.[96] The Local Government Association also reminded us of the potential of major events for other parts of the country:

62. Major cultural and sporting events have an important role to play in promoting London and the rest of the UK to the outside world, as the Grand Départ of the Tour de France from Yorkshire and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow demonstrated. Even greater attention needs to be paid to ensuring that they leave a lasting legacy, not least in terms of the tourism economy.

Seaside destinations

63. Reversing the decline in visitors to certain coastal places in the UK is, in the words of Bernard Donoghue of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, "the biggest tourism challenge the UK faces." He told us: "If a Government could find a designated sum of money to restore particularly heritage coastal communities, that would be one of the greatest things they could do. This is partly because heritage communities and coastal communities in particular are highly dependent on tourism, or at least they have been so; they are highly dependent on seasonal tourism, and they often experience high levels of unemployment right the way throughout the year".[98] Bourne Leisure referred to the "decades of neglect and decay" that many traditional coastal resorts have suffered, characterised by ageing and transient populations and extremely high unemployment, especially among school leavers. More optimistically, Bourne leisure told us that the traditional British seaside offer provides an (untapped) opportunity for economic growth.[99]

64. In January 2015, the Government announced almost £46 million of funding for seaside towns in England and for Scotland's coastline.[100] The source of this funding is the Coastal Communities Fund, created in 2012 to support the economic development of coastal communities by promoting sustainable economic growth and jobs. The recent announcements bring the total of the Coastal Communities Fund (CCF) spending to £116 million. Across the UK, it is funding 211 projects, which will create almost 12,400 jobs and provide over 6,000 training places and apprenticeships. The Fund is financed by the Government through the earmarking of the equivalent of 50% of the revenues earned from the Crown Estate's marine activities in England and the devolved administrations.

65. According to the Tourism Alliance, the Government has committed itself to the CCF until 2016/17 and the amount committed has increased as revenue generated from the marine assets has increased. Nevertheless, the Alliance has criticised the ways in which the fund is targeted: "At the moment, there is a scatter-gun approach to the allocation of the funds with a large number of locations getting a small amount of funding. This approach is not going to resolve the regeneration problems affecting many large coastal destinations. To make the most of this Fund, we would like to see it used as part of a holistic Government programme to regenerate key coastal towns. The funding would be allocated as part of a package that includes enhanced capabilities for councils to tackle housing and social issues so that real progress can be made on regeneration."[101]

66. The Minister for Communities and Local Government, Penny Mordaunt MP, described the Coastal Communities Fund as having been "incredibly successful": "I think the fund should remain; I think it has been terrific."[102] We agree with the Minister that the Coastal Communities Fund should continue. However, we would welcome a review to consider whether any successor fund is needed and, if so, whether such a successor should have a more focused approach, targeting key destinations in a way that might then benefit neighbouring communities.

67. One of the beneficiaries of the Coastal Communities Fund has been the National Coastal Tourism Academy (NCTA). The Academy is a Coastal Communities Fund project seeking to accelerate growth in the visitor economy, create jobs and establish a centre of excellence. The NCTA works with industry across all aspects of the visitor economy (hospitality, attractions, retail, transport, conference, international education, night time economy and arts & culture) as well as with Destination Management Organisations, the Local Enterprise Partnerships and academia. Established in 2013, and currently funded until December 2015, the first phase of the National Coastal Tourism Academy project focuses on using Bournemouth as a test bed to build understanding and tackle key issues facing coastal destinations.

68. In written evidence from the NCTA, the decline in some seaside destinations is acknowledged, though a study of employment by Sheffield Hallam University has found that a number of seaside destinations have grown since the start of the recession. Overall, the number of overnight seaside trips has been steady at 14.4 million [annually] for the last few years.

69. The NCTA told us: "Seaside tourism in England in 2012 was valued at £4.3 billion for overnight domestic trips and £3.8 billion for tourism day trips. Although predominantly a domestic market for many seaside destinations, there are some seaside destinations that have significant international visits, for example Bournemouth, where the International Education market is valued at £212 million."[103]

70. To date, the NCTA has identified two key factors that present a barrier to growth for seaside destinations:

· Very high concentration of independently owned MSEs (Micro and Small Enterprises). This means corporate representation is typically very low, as is the number of national business and accommodation brands. This "has serious implications on the delivery of change in these destinations."

· Reduction in public sector funding for tourism at sub-national level—many coastal towns have seen a significant reduction in public sector funding for tourism provision. Not all Local Enterprise Partnerships recognise the importance of tourism. In addition, with a high concentration of MSEs, it is not easy to supplement funding through private sector investment. The combined effects are a reduction in promotion, services, business support, and market research.[104]

71. Phil Evans of VisitEngland expressed support for the National Coastal Tourism Academy: "The whole concept of the National Coastal Tourism Academy was that it would provide case studies and material that could be adopted elsewhere … The work of the National Coastal Tourism Academy is very worthwhile and I hope it continues to get support and funding."[105] We welcome the start made by the National Coastal Tourism Academy in identifying and promulgating best practice. However, an extension of its funding is needed if it is to become a truly national resource for the benefit of seaside resorts throughout England and the rest of the UK.

72. John Dunford of Bourne Leisure argued persuasively that best practice would not include appealing to the destructive elements of the stag and hen night market: "If you go back prior to the 1970s, the British seaside was very strong economically. Package holidays came in and it declined. That led to a reduction in investment and one of the follow-on effects was the search for guests, which went into stag and hen nights. What that does is it reinforces with mums, in the research we see, that the seaside is grubby. It is not safe and it is not a place to take your family. You have to deal with all of those elements if you want to recreate a successful British seaside."[106] Recreating a successful British seaside is a laudable aspiration; while coastal resorts have traditionally catered for the domestic market, there is surely scope for them to attract more guests from overseas. Students are but one example. The Leader of Bournemouth Borough Council, John Beesley, told us: "In terms of foreign language students, Bournemouth is the second largest centre for that industry in the country, second only to London. We have 29 accredited language schools and the stipulations for those are quite rigid. We attract some 40,000 foreign language students." [107]

73. While a focus of our inquiry has been encouraging more people to holiday in the UK, we acknowledge the contribution made to the economy by outbound tourism. Mark Tanzer of ABTA explained the benefits and opportunities:

We have no problem with people choosing to holiday within the UK, but I think there has been a view historically of outbound = bad and domestic = good and if everybody stayed at home it would be good for the economy. We commissioned research that demonstrated that the outbound sector contributes over £50 billion to the economy, not just because of money spent on travel services but all the things you buy to go on holiday and so on, and generates employment of 1.3 million. It is a very significant business in its own right within the UK.

108

82 Mayor of London (TOU0085), para 3 Back

83 Mayor of London (TOU0085), para 12 Back

84 Mayor of London (TOU0085), para 15 Back

85 Mayor of London (TOU0085), para 5 Back

86 Q 334 Back

87 Gross Value Added Back

88 Mayor of London (TOU0085), para 6 Back

89 Mayor of London (TOU0099) Back

90 Q 348 Back

91 Heathrow Airport (TOU0073), para 3.2 Back

92 Q 348 Back