Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and Trossachs Tourist Board
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THIS REPORT RELATES STIRLING COUNCIL TO ITEM ON THE AGENDA STIRLING COUNCIL ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES 14 DECEMBER 1995 NOT EXEMPT ARGYLL, THE ISLES, LOCH LOMOND, STIRLING AND TROSSACHS TOURIST BOARD 1.0 SUMMARY 1.1 On the 10 August 1995, the Government as part of the Local Government Scotland Act laid before Parliament the Statutory Instrument to form the Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and Trossachs Tourist Board, which as one of 14 new Area Tourist Boards in Scotland will take over the functions currently carried out by the existing 31 Boards from the 1 April, 1996. 1.2 The new Area Tourist Board will cover the local government areas of Argyll and Bute, Clackmannan, Falkirk, Dumbarton and Clydebank and Stirling and will for the first time be a statutory body. 1.3 At the outset there will be 7 local authority representatives out of 18 members of the Board of the now Area Tourist Board; two from Stirling Council, two from Argyll and Bute Council and one each from Clackmannan, Falkirk, Dumbarton and Clydebank Councils. Councillors Ian Wyles and Kenneth Campbell have been nominated to represent Stirling Council. 1.4 The Local Authorities are obliged under the Local Government Act to undertake tourism marketing and visitor services provision by the hand of the new Area Tourist Board and continue to be a key partner in the funding of the new Board. 1.5 Given the complexities of this new Board and the importance of the Tourism industry to the economy of the area and at a time of financial stringency measures a great deal of commitment and goodwill is required from all parties involved to ensure the success of this new organisation. 2.0 RECOMMENDATIONS 2.1 The Council agrees in principle to fund the new Area Tourist Board on a rollover basis in 1996/97 up to a maximum of £306,000 based on the resource allocation identified by Stirling District Council to be available 1995/6, subject to the following conditions: (i) that other local authorities and in particular Argyll and Bute Council commit an appropriate and equitable level of funding support; (ii) that the ATB agrees to enter into an appropriate service level agreement with the Council to ensure value for money and satisfactory performance; (iii) that the ATB agrees to play a full part in assisting the Council to realise its economic development and social policy objectives. 3.0 BACKGROUND 3.1 The new Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and Trossachs Tourist, Board, under its new Chief Executive, Mr. James Fraser (the current Director of Tourism for the Loch Lomond, Stirling and Trossachs Tourist Board) presented the first draft of a Business Plan for the new Board on the 16 October 1995 showing an indicative annual budget of £5.32m. 3.2 Funding issues for the new Board revolve around an historic under resourcing of the current Tourist Boards in the Argyll and Bute Council area and the need for the new Unitary Council to redress this situation at a time when it is dealing with a mismatch of available resources. At the same time there are issues with the disaggregation of funding support from Dumbarton District Council to the new Dumbarton and Clydebank Council coupled with an historic underfunding by Clydebank District Council of the Greater Glasgow Tourist Board. 3.3 The matching of funding between Stirling District Council and Stirling Council is made easier by the continuation of the same geographic boundaries of the Council and the absorption of the existing board area in its entirety within the new Board area, unlike the Falkirk situation for example where the Forth Valley Tourist Board Area is being split At the same time historically Stirling District Council was supportive of the Area Tourist Board. 3.4 In presenting the first Business Plan it is recognised that the new Area Tourist Board is presenting its ideal scenario in terms of marketing, visitor services and administration costs. 3.5 It is worth noting that the new Area Tourist Board is one of the largest and most complex, straddling 5 Local Authority boundaries, 3 Local Enterprise Company boundaries and amalgamating parts of 4 existing Area Tourist Boards. The extensive geographic area is apparent in the name of the new Area Tourist Board. 3.6 It is anticipated that the new Board area will become the largest in terms of Tourism Expenditure at £210m (10% of Scottish Expenditure), Tourism Trips at £1.41m (13% of the Scottish total), Trade Members at 2,670 (16% of the Scottish total), Tourist Information Centres at 28 (16% of the Scottish total), and numbers visiting Tourist Information Centres 1.47 million (19% of the Scottish total) (Source AILLSTTB, September 1995). 3.7 The new Area Tourist Board will also employ 64 full-time staff, 112 part-time staff, 16 cleaners and 4 skill seekers. 3.8 The new Area Tourist Board's other revenue funding sources include income generated from the Board's 2,670 members through membership fees and marketing spend, the Board's own trading activity and commission from services, the block grant received from the Scottish Tourist Board and various European Funding Sources covered by Objective 1, 2 and 5(b). The Local Enterprise Companies will fund discreet capital projects such as computerisation and Tourist Information Centre infrastructure developments but not on-going revenue costs. A synopsis of funding sources is attached as Appendix 1 "Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and Trossachs Tourist Board Analysis of Budget Income” 9 November 1995. 4.0 FUNDING PROPOSALS 4.1 While the Local Authorities have all recognised the important role they have to play in ensuring the success of this now board and the significant partnership input they must make, the realities of constraints on local government funding have led to the proposal for rollover funding at this time rather than meeting the new Area Tourist Board's ideal business plan for growth. Of course Argyll and Bute Council is the exception with its historic under resourcing of the Tourist Boards in its area. 4.2 For Stirling Council an anticipated rollover contribution of £306,480 is projected and breaks down as follows: Stirling Council Rollover Funding Position 1996/97 £ TIC Rents/Rates 54,770 Visitor Attraction Support (1) 76,760 Tourist Association Grants 8,850 Block Grant (2) 166,100 TOTAL 306,480 (1) Includes contributions towards the Old Town Jail, Breadalbane Folklore Centre, National Wallace Monument, Rob Roy and Trossachs Visitor Centre - items all bespoke to the Stirling Council Area. (2) Block Grant represents core funding for HQ/Admin costs associated with the AILLSTTB’s pan regional activities. 4.3 Given the size of the new Area Tourist Board area there is anxiety that value for money is obtained from the Stirling Council's input. As shown above in 3.10, £140,330 or 46% of the £306,480 contribution is for bespoke activity in the Stirling Council Area. As part of the formalisation of the relationship between Stirling Council and the now Area Tourist Board it is proposed to enter into a Service Level Agreement to properly monitor the Board's activity and the return on the Council's investment. 5.0 IMPACT OF TOURISM IN STIRLING COUNCIL AREA 5.1 This £306,000 contribution from Stirling Council should be viewed in the context of the levels of activity of the Area Tourist Board in the Stirling Council area and the significant economic activity generated by tourism. 5.2 Looking at statistics for the Stirling Council area, and drawing on the United Kingdom Tourism Survey, International Passenger Survey and 1991 Census figures; in broad terms, and as a conservative estimate, visitors spend 3 million bad nights in the area, generating in excess of 163 million pounds of expenditure, with 6,500 people working directly in tourism related industries. 5.3 In addition day trip business to the area is significant with visitor attractions such as the National Wallace Monument achieving 76,000 visitors and Stirling Castle for example breaking the 300,000 visitor figure for the first time in 1995, while the Tourist Information Centre network in the Stirling Council area handles over 950,000 visitor enquiries in 1995. It should be noted that approximately 32% of visitor expenditure is by Day Trip visitors. 6SEASONALITY 6.1 Signs are that the issues of seasonality are being addressed with the visitor trips breaking down as follows: January to March 13% April to June 26% July to December 42% October to December 19% (Source IPS 1992/UKTS 1993) and the percentage of day trip visitors in 1990 being: January to March 20% April to June 31% July to September 29% October to December 21% (Source Local Day Trip Survey 1990) 7 TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY 7.1 Tourism development activity in the area should also be viewed against the backdrop of the economic development activities of the local authority through the Economic and Tourism Development Unit, with Stirling District Council investing £1.17m directly in capital tourism projects in 1994/95, drawing in £0.5m of ERDF funding support, with an estimate of private sector investment in tourism projects in the same period of approximately £6m. In addition there is also revenue support of initiatives such as the Rural Stirling Partnership, Trossachs Trail Tourism Management Programme and the Stirling Initiative, all of which have a tourism focus in varying degrees. 7.2 The local authority also supports tourism through the provision of leisure facilities which are used in part by visitors, its events and arts programme, infrastructure provision such as roads, signage and support for public transport, as well as services such as litter collection.