CAPITALISING ON EVENTS CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT CHAMPIONING AND LEADING OUR ROLE THE INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE DEVELOPING THE VISITOR VISITENGLAND ANNUAL KEY A REPORT chievements OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT LOOKING AHEAD STIMULATING CONSUMER DEMAND SUPPORTING LOCAL GROWTH VISITENGLAND ANNUAL REPORT ChAiRmAN’s F OREwORd We certainly live in interesting times. Without a doubt, 2012 delivered some of the most awe-inspiring events and anniversaries ever celebrated by this country and created unprecedented opportunities to position England as one of the most exciting destinations on Earth. During the same year, the industry battled against provides a very attractive and cost effective destination a complex set of challenges affecting various sectors to host business visits and events from many international in a myriad of different ways across the country depending markets. VisitEngland is now established in a number of on their offering, location and the fluctuating local overseas markets and our accelerated efforts have forged delivery landscape. close to £10million of confirmed business for England. A look at the numbers is incredibly revealing. The Why work alone when in partnership we are stronger economy remained sluggish, the summer was and more effective? To this end we have garnered extensive the wettest for a century and the Olympics, though widely new partnership agreements with other like-minded Contents enjoyed, changed the pattern of demand for goods and organisations such as Arts Council England, National services. Whilst economic conditions continued to be Parks England, as well as other Government departments broadly conducive to growing domestic tourism during for the mutual benefit of a shared agenda to grow local 2012/13, prolonged macro-economic conditions impacted economies. This has led to opportunities for destinations on consumers’ willingness to spend their disposable and strategic partners that simply would not have existed 03 income. Against this background, it is perhaps not had we followed a solo path. CHAIRman’S FOREWORD surprising that the number of domestic overnight tourism The blueprint for tourism, England’s Strategic Framework trips remained flat whilst day visits grew by an impressive for Tourism is holding true and the country’s tourism 12 per cent compared to 2011. Positively, the amount 04 OUR ROLE industry is delivering on its promise to grow tourism. spent on overnight trips increased by a record high No matter what opportunities and challenges lie ahead, of 9 per cent, ensuring overall figures are still well above core to our existence as the national tourist board is our 05 pre-recession levels. OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT 2012/13 commitment to add value, to remain always supportive The events of 2012 provided the best advertisement for and to represent the growth opportunity of this exciting, 06 CHAMPIONING AND LEADING THE INDUSTRY England we could have ever wished for. We know from dynamic and agile industry to Government. our research that the feel good factor generated by the Diamond Jubilee, Torch Relay and London 2012 Olympic 08 SUPPORTING LOCAL GROWTH & Paralympic Games meant that 60 per cent of Brits felt more proud to be British, with 20 per cent saying they planned to take more breaks in England. 10 Summary OF KEY Achievements Every host nation has concerns that however wonderful the Olympic Games are, they may deter international tourists Penelope, Viscountess Cobham 12 STIMULATING CONSUMER DEMAND and induce an ‘escape mentality’ in domestic visitors. With Chairman of VisitEngland invaluable support from Government we were able to lead the charge to mitigate against this risk with the launch 14 CAPITALISING ON THE EVENTS OF 2012 of the biggest ever domestic tourism campaign, Holidays at Home are GREAT. This pan-UK integrated TV campaign, together with the second highly successful English Tourism 16 DEVELOPING THE VISITOR EXPERIENCE Week, kicked off the holiday season putting England firmly on the radar of our valued visitors. 17 CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT Momentum is everything and the implementation of destination and thematic led marketing campaigns funded by the Regional Growth Fund ensured that our commitment 18 LOOKING AHEAD WITH JAMES BERRESFORD to Government to support local economies and grow jobs was executed through thoughtful and targeted local campaigns. Whilst domestic leisure tourism has always 19 THE PEOPLE BEHIND VISITENGLAND been a focus for us we recognised early on that England 02 CONTENTS CHAIRMAN’S FOREWARD 03 VISITENGLAND ANNUAL REPORT A happy family relaxing along the Long Walk at Windsor Castle on a summer’s day. OUR ROLE Credit: © VisitBritain/Tourism South East VisitEngland is England’s OPERATiONAL ENViRONmENT 2012/13 national tourist board. In addition to the industry targets set out in the Strategic Framework Our mission is to lead and drive the quality, for Tourism in England 2010-20, the Government’s Tourism Policy, competitiveness and sustainable growth of England’s in conjunction with its localism and economic growth agendas, sets visitor economy by providing strategic direction, a clear fiscal policy and delivery framework for tourism in England. intelligence and coordinated marketing for the sector. Over the last year, VisitEngland has led and supported The year, however, was not without its challenges. the sector in a period of unprecedented celebration. Changes in the local delivery landscape have As the lead body for tourism in England, our purpose is to ensure that tourism in 2012 provided the industry with an opportunity like no continued, with new destination organisations England thrives, working with industry and government to safeguard the sector’s other to raise awareness both of its products and the and partnerships emerging and existing ones successful and sustainable future. diversity and quality of the tourism offer, as well as to reducing in size or merging with other local raise the profile of tourism as a significant and growing organisations. In almost all destinations, funding In line with the Strategic Framework for Tourism in England 2010-20, we are contributor to the UK economy. As a result, UK tourism and resources have remained tight. Increasingly working towards an industry target of 5% growth per annum in domestic tourism has enjoyed greater support from national government the private sector locally has been expected to fill revenue and the generation of 225,000 new jobs. Through capitalising on the than it has in many years. the gap but with challenging trading conditions and events of 2012, focusing our work programme and maximising collaborative more public agencies turning to the private sector opportunities, we have achieved major steps towards these ambitious targets. Further information results are progressively more difficult to achieve. Taken together, domestic and inbound visitors spent over £84bn in England in on our role is available Despite this, there is still a good level of investment 2012. Since 2010, year on year growth has averaged 8.7% - well ahead of both on our website: and visitor levels of expenditure are continuing to rise. the 5% industry target and performance in the wider economy. visitengland.org Quick summary local tourism organisations considered functioning 200 40 Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) VisiTOR sATisFACTiON - England delivers a high quality visitor experience % of domestic visitors say that % would “definitely” or 85 the destination they visited was 86 “probably” recommend the “excellent” or “very good” destination they visited in England to friends and family 2012 TOURISM VOLUmEs ANd sPENdiNG was spent by inbound visitors who made 26.8m trips £16.3bn and stayed for 203m nights was spent by British residents on 105m overnight trips in England, £19.5bn equating to 310m nights away from home £48.5bn was spent on 1.5bn domestic tourism day trips 04 OUR ROLE OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT 2012/13 05 VISITENGLAND ANNUAL REPORT KEY AChiEVEmENTs iN 2012 / 2013 strategic Framework The second English Tourism week As the custodian of the Strategic Framework for Tourism We led the industry in the delivery of the second in England 2010–2020, we published the last of the three- annual English Tourism Week (ETW) during 16-23 March. year action plans for the Framework. Leading partners in Key highlights included: its delivery, the majority of activity is underway (82%) and 48% of actions have been completed. • His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales confirmed his patronage of ETW for the next five years Olympic Opportunities • Over 400 events took place across the country, including We worked to communicate the opportunities surrounding record numbers of visitors at Kent’s ‘Big Weekend’ the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and to • MPs across England showed their support for the sector address industry concerns regarding the Games’ potential by visiting local tourism businesses, with many going negative impacts whilst delivering press and media back to the shop floor to help on a practical level activities to provide further opportunities for businesses • A theme of ‘Customer First!’ highlighted the important in areas outside London. role of customer care in growing the value of England’s tourism. This included a Tourism Superstar competition Forging Partnerships focusing on customer care shown by employees at We have agreed a three-year Partnership Statement England’s attractions, run in conjunction with the with Arts Council England that sets out joint priorities Daily Mirror and identifies