Tourism Alliance Briefing

DECEMBER NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the December Newsletter. April 2005 You’d think that when almost everyone involved in the debate on smoking in public places (the industry, the health professionals and 56% of the public) supports a total ban on smoking, it would a simple matter for the Government to note the support and introduce the necessary legislation. Not so it seems.

Instead, we are faced with the prospect of exemptions for pubs that do not sell food and for private member organisations. If, as Government states, the legislation is being introduced to protect the health of employees and customers, then it is hard to see the relevance of whether premises are open to the public serve or serve food.

The proposed exemptions will only distort the market. Premises that do not sell food will have a competitive advantage over those that do. This, in turn, will result in businesses ending the sale of food in order to boost alcohol sales, which is counter to all Government and industry efforts to encourage responsible drinking. Already one pub chain has announced that it is considering ending food sales in 300 pubs where the majority of customers smoke in order to prevent customers migrating to rival pubs. Worryingly, these pubs are concentrated in the same low-income areas the Department for Health wants to target to reduce smoking. No wonder the chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, almost resigned.

Similarly, in many areas such as Northern England, public businesses compete directly with membership organisations for trade. To allow one set of businesses a competitive advantage over another by will be detrimental to retaining a level playing field and provide an incentive for businesses to find a legal loophole that would allow them to operate as membership organisations.

Even the Health secretary Patricia Hewitt, has said that a total ban would be a simpler thing to do and that it is only a matter of time before a total ban is introduced anyway.

The Health Bill received its Second Reading in the Commons last week where there was fierce criticism of the proposed exemptions. This criticism will continue when the Health Select Committee reports back on its recent inquiry and when the Bill is discussed in Committee early next year. Hopefully this will spark the Government to see sense on this issue.

Regards

1 Kurt Janson Policy Director Tourism Alliance MEETING WITH THE PRIME MINISTER

Representatives of the tourism industry met with the Prime Minister on 15 November 2005 to discuss a range of issues affecting the tourism industry and its ability to support Government initiatives, reach the target of £100bn by 2010 and to maximise the benefits of staging the 2012 Olympic games. The meeting focused on five key issues; 1. Improving the welcome of visitors to the UK and the quality of the visitor environment and transport infrastructure. 2. Better co-ordination of tourism marketing/investment in a post devolution environment 3. Gaining better cross-government/Whitehall co-ordination and support for tourism issues. 4. How the tourism industry and Government can work together on public diplomacy and opening up new markets 5. The need to increase workforce skills and training in order to improve productivity and deliver high quality products and services.

The key outcome from the meeting was the Tourism Alliance Chairman, Brigid Simmonds co-signing a Statement of Intent between the Tourism Industry and the Government regarding the 2012 Olympic games. While supporting Government’s ambitions for the Olympics, Brigid also outlined what the Government needed to do next to support the industry.

Click Here for a copy of the Statement of Intent and the related Tourism Alliance Press Release

INTERIM REPORT ON LICENSING FEES

The interim report of the Independent Licensing Fees Review Panel was released on 5 December 2005. The report contains four recommendations; 1. That there should be a central source of information established to explain the new regime. 2. That an annual date should be set for the payment of the Annual Fee. 3. That consideration should be given to simplifying the application process. 4. That there should be no impediment to licensing authorities making their monitoring, enforcement, and administration more efficient and cost effective.

Unfortunately, at this stage, the panel does not include any recommendations regarding the fees themselves. For this, we will have to wait for the final report, which is due in Autumn 2006.

Click Here for a copy of the Report

REDUCING THE BURDEN ON TOURISM BUSINESSES

Following on from the Better Regulation Task Force Report and the Hampton Report, every Government Department has been asked by the Cabinet Office to examine the regulation it controls.

2 In DCMS, the Tourism Minister, James Purnell, has formed the Better Regulation Task Group. This group comprises a number of tourism industry representatives, including the Tourism Alliance, and will be charged with looking at the Regulatory Impact Assessments undertaken when new regulation is considered and at the burdens placed on tourism businesses by existing regulation – including European legislation. The findings of this Group will be aggregated with the findings of groups dealing with other DCMS responsibilities (eg., sport, broadcasting, arts and heritage) to develop an administrative reduction plan for the Department.

If you have suggestions for reducing the administrative burden on tourism businesses, could you please send them to either Brigid or Kurt by 16 January 2006 so that they can be included in this initiative.

EQUALITY BILL TO PLUG SEX LOOPHOLE

The Equality Bill, which is now progressing through Parliament, will plug a loophole in the legislation whereby it is not currently illegal to refuse to provide goods and services on the basis of the customer’s sexual orientation. The new legislation will prevent tourism and hospitality businesses, notably accommodation providers and tour operators, refusing to take bookings from gay or lesbian couples in future. The legislation will also make it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of religion or belief when providing goods and services.

AWARD WINNING BRITAIN

Britain dominated the World Travel Markets 12th Annual World Travel Awards last month with London winning the award for World’s Leading Destination Award, while VisitBritain won three awards: World’s Leading Tourism and Convention Bureau, World’s Leading Tourism Authority Internet Site and VisitBritain’s Chairman, Lord Marshall, won the Award for Destination & Convention Bureau Travel Personality of the Year.

IMPACT OF VISA INCREASES

On 1 July 2005, UKvisas increased the cost of a standard six month multiple entry visa to the UK by almost 40% from £36 to £50 and student visas by 135% from £36 to £85. At the time, the Tourism Alliance calculated that the increase would reduce tourism revenue from visa countries by well over £100m per annum. It is now three months since the increase the fees and the first hard data is now available. This data shows that applications for visas have dropped by 18% since increase. While some of this decrease is attributable to the impact of London bombings, an analysis of the visa application and Inbound tourism figures indicates that about 10% of this decrease in visa demand is attributable to the price increase.

Click Here for a copy of the Tourism Alliance briefing on the impact of the visa increases.

3 POINTS-BASED IMMIGRATION SUBMISSION

Submissions on the Home Office’s proposed points based immigration scheme closed on 7 November 2005. The Tourism Alliance submission to the Home Office centred on five main issues;

1. The need to raise skills and productivity 2. The need to allocating points for tourism-related skills 3. The need for the Skills Advisory Board to work closely with People 1st 4. The need to not impose costs on the tourism industry 5. The need to protect workers from exploitation

The submission concluded that, with vacancies within the sector comprising almost a third of all UK vacancies, it was important that the Home Office work closely with the industry in the development and implementation of the points-based system to ensure that it achieves its aim of improving productivity within the sector rather than exacerbating the black market economy.

Click Here for a copy of the Tourism Alliance submission on the Home Office’s proposed Point’s Based Immigration Scheme

THE TOURISM ALLIANCE

The Tourism Alliance is the Voice of the Tourism Industry.

Established in 2001 with the support of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the Tourism Alliance comprises over 45 Tourism Industry Organisations that together represent some 200,000 businesses of all sizes throughout the UK.

The purpose of the Tourism Alliance is to identify and develop policies and strategies to raise standards and promote quality within the industry and work with and lobby government on all key issues relevant to the growth and development of tourism and its contribution to the economy.

President: Sir Digby Jones Chairman: Brigid Simmonds Policy Director: Kurt Janson Email: [email protected] Telephone: 020 7395 8246 Fax: 020 7395 8178 Mobile: 07964428123

Website: WWW .TOURISMALLIANCE .COM

4 Tourism Alliance: Centre Point, 103 New Oxford Street, London, WC1A 1DU