Notes from Breakfast Meeting with Minister of Tourism

Notes from Breakfast Meeting with Minister of Tourism Hilton Trafalgar Hotel 2 November 2004

Attendance

Richard Caborn Tourism Minister Valerie Curtis DCMS Kevin Williamson DCMS

Bob Cotton Tourism Alliance Chairman (BHA) Robin Broke Association of Leading Visitors Attractions Viscountess Penelope Cobham British Casino Association Sandie Dawe VisitBritain Colin Dawson British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions Peter Hampson British Resorts Association Michael Hirst Business Tourism Partnership David Howell Holiday Centres Association Kurt Janson Tourism Alliance Ken Robinson Visitor Attractions Forum Brigid Simmonds Business in Sports and Leisure Richard Tobias Tourism Alliance Peter Wear British Waterways Nick Way Country Land and Business Association

Notes from Meeting

The meeting opened with a short introduction from the Chairman of the Tourism Alliance noting how the Alliance, through its Annual Report, and DCMS, through Tomorrow’s Tourism Today, had both signed up to a policy of growth for the tourism industry. With these cornerstone documents in place, the industry looked forward to working with Government to implement the agreed initiatives and priorities contained in the national strategy.

The Tourism Alliance’s main priorities were: 1. Gaining the additional funding required to implement the strategy 2. Improving the vocational skills of those working in the tourism industry 3. Improving communications between regional and national tourism partners so that the national tourism strategy can be coherently implemented.

The Minister responded by expressing his belief that the establishment of the Tourism Review and Implementation Group (TRIG) was a major step forward in the implementation of tourism policy and development in Britain. Its primary function will be to work with the industry to drive change that will help improve the competitiveness and productivity of the industry. He also stated that, to further improve relationships between Government and the tourism industry, it would be a good idea to hold a business leaders breakfast with the Chancellor to address productivity and business issues and that he would write to Gordon Brown to suggest this.

While the allocation of increased funding for tourism marketing was warranted, it had to be acknowledged that 2004 is a particularly tight Comprehensive Spending Review round. As such, one of the aims of the Department has been to try to influence the much larger budgets of other departments where their remit was tourism related (e.g. DEFRA and DfT). DCMS is particularly keen to reposition itself as an economic department that is seen to be generating revenue, rather than absorbing government funds. This repositioning would have considerable benefits in raising the profile of tourism in Government. Lastly, the issue of casinos was raised and the Minister, who is leading on gambling legislation, was reminded that the Bill should, during its passage, readdress the balance a little further in favour of existing operators.

There followed a discussion on five cross-sectoral tourism issues.

1. Planning There was a discussion on the considerable time being taken to produce Best Practice Guidance on PPG21 (tourism) and the concern this delay was causing in the tourism industry. The discussion also highlighted the need for the guidance to encourage planners to be proactive in their approach to tourism development and to co-ordinate tourism-related planning issues across PPG21 and PPG6 (planning for town centres) and PPG 17 (sport and recreation). Although there had been individual representations to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), there had been little evidence that the guidance would be forthcoming.

On PPG6, the discussion surrounded the difficulty for operators of private sector sport and tourism facilities in obtaining planning permission at all.

Action Point It was agreed to invite a senior official from the ODPM to the next TRIG meeting so that there could be an effective discussion of all tourism-related planning issues.

2. Regional Cohesion It was agreed that there was a lack of a cohesive network both between the RDAs and between the RDAs and other tourism bodies as a result of the varying operational structures that they had adopted to undertake tourism-related activities.

To help with co-ordination, the Minister had required each RDA to appoint a senior person to lead on tourism when the RDAs had assumed responsibility for tourism. However, this had not proved enough to ensure the level of co-ordination required. As a result, the ability to effectively communicate and co-ordinate tourism policy across England had been compromised. This lack of co-ordination was seen to be causing problems with the implementation of national schemes and would eventually adversely affect public perception of the tourism industry and tourism products.

It was suggest that responsibility for co-ordination be assumed by VisitBritain, although it would require a change in its mandate from the Government to undertake this activity. The RDAs would also need to be given a directive to work with VisitBritain on improving co-ordination.

Action Point DCMS undertook to produce an action plan on how the connections between tourism organisations at a pan-regional level and between the regional and national organisations can be improved.

3. Local Authority Funding for Tourism There was a general agreement that local authority funding for tourism activities needed to be increased. It was felt that this issue would best be addressed through RDAs’ Regional Strategies. That tourism did not feature highly in some RDAs’ strategies suggested that the benefits of tourism were not being properly articulated. The communication of the benefits to local and regional economies was seen as requiring the efforts of all parties.

Action Point It was agreed that the National Tourism Conference should be used to highlight the benefits of tourism to those RDAs that were still to adequately address tourism in their strategies.

4. The Health White Paper - Smoking The main impact of the Health White Paper will be the introduction of legislation to restrict smoking in public places, noticeably pubs, bars and restaurants. The Tourism Alliance view is that there needs to be a coherent approach in the implementation of any such legislation as that it would be confusing to the public and create distortions in the market if the implementation of any legislation was left to local authorities. What is needed is a consistent application of legislation across the country.

Action Point The Minister will write to the Secretary of State for Health, stating that he has consulted with the Tourism Alliance and, on that basis, requests the consistent national implementation of any legislation restricting smoking in public places rather than making it a devolved responsibility.

5. Tourism Statistics During the discussion on tourism statistics it was acknowledged that the acquisition of tourism statistics is a key cornerstone for the development of the tourism industry. The need for accurate and timely information is even more important considering the risk of disasters impacting on the tourism industry. Although there had been a comprehensive review of tourism statistics completed earlier this year (the TSII report), it was considered that there had been too long a delay in implementing the report’s findings.

Further concerns were expressed that VisitBritain’s refocusing on tourism marketing had led to less research data being available to the industry and that work on developing a Tourism Satellite Account had slowed.

Action Point DCMS will produce an action plan for taking forward the TSII report by the end of 2004. However, it was acknowledged that the implementation of the recommendations would be resource constrained.

6. British Summer Time A Private Members Bill, sponsored by Nigel Beard MP, proposes to advance time in England and Wales by one hour throughout the year (GMT+1 hour in winter; GMT+2 hours in summer). It was agreed that this proposal presents considerable benefits for tourism in providing the opportunity to extend the tourist season in Spring and Autumn, generating potential additional revenue of up to £2bn per annum.

Action Point That the Minister would convey the tourism industry’s supportive for this Bill.

7. Other Issues Raised There were a number of other issues raised briefly including; 1. The need for a London Convention Centre 2. A reduction in VAT on admission income for attractions 3. Support for EnglandNet 4. A reduction of VAT on tourism accommodation 5. Public liability insurance 6. Homeless people affecting tourism areas 7. Rises in the minimum wage affecting tourism businesses 8. Increasing participation in leisure activities 9. Improving transport infrastructure 10. Reviewing capital allowances for tourism developments