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TOURA 40 03
TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE TOURISM ALLIANCE EXECUTIVE GROUP
Minutes of the Tourism Alliance Executive Group held on Tuesday July 1st at Centre Point.
In the Chair
Digby JonesChairman of the Alliance
Members
Robin Broke Association of Leading Visitor Attractions
Bob Cotton, OBEBritish Hospitality Association
Bernard Donoghue VisitBritain
Colin Dawson BALLPA
Stephen DowdBritish Incoming Tour Operators Association
Rob Hayward, OBEBritish Beer and Pub Association
Dorothy Naylor Regional Tourist Boards
Tony MillnsAssociation of Recognised English Language Services
Ros Pritchard British Association of Holiday & Home Parks
Ian ReynoldsAssociation of British Travel Agents
June-Alison Sealy CBI
Richard Tobias OBETourism Alliance
In Attendance
Karishma ChandariaTourism Alliance
Agenda Item 1: Chairman's welcome:
Digby Jones welcomed members and Bernard Donoghue representing Sandie Dawe of VisitBritain.
Agenda Item 2: Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising:
Members agreed the minutes of the last meeting.
Chairmanship of the Alliance
Digby Jones stated that he would inform members by 25th July as to whether he would be carrying on as Chairman of the Tourism Alliance.
Agenda Item 3: Future aims and objectives of the Tourism Alliance:
Digby Jones introduced this item. He stated that in addition to the published work-plan produced last year he would very much like member's views on what they see as the Alliance's key aims and objectives for the coming year.
Points raised by members:
Establishing key lobbying issues
- Alliance needs to establish seven or eight policy areas that it is going to concentrate its lobbying activities on and build a long-term strategy around them.
Lobbying Focus
- Alliance's resources are limited therefore it needs to focus on general issues that cut across the whole tourism industry and leave sector specific and technical issues to the appropriate associations to deal with. By using this approach the influence of individual associations with government departments is not diluted.
- If the Alliance is to focus on overarching issues then its prime targets should be Government and Regional Development Agencies, which deal with strategic issues.
Media Profile
- To gain credibility as a lobbying organisation, the Alliance needs to continue raising its profile in the media and increase contact with its principle constituencies which includes its members, Central Government, RDAs and Local Government.
Memberships issues
- As the Alliance is to be self-funding from 2004 it needs to provide a tangible service to the wider membership which demonstrates clear value for money. Suggestions for improving the service it provides included increasing the frequency of the newsletter, organising more events and engaging members through inclusion in consultation.
- Elected board members of Alliance member associations also need be targeted, as they will have ultimate responsibility for deciding budget allocations.
Relationship with DCMS
- The DCMS would like to work more closely with the Alliance. But the Alliance needs to clarify its relationship with the department before moving towards closer relations. This is to avoid DCMS viewing the Alliance as a delivery mechanism for the functions previously carried out by ETC. The Alliance needs to make clear that it is primarily a lobbying body acting as communications /consultation mechanism between the industry and government.
Action Points:
- Executive Group members to e-mail the secretariat with what they consider the Alliance's main lobbying issues should be in the coming year and also the issues which are specific to their association.
- Executive Group members to pass on monthly newsletter to press/publications staff for inclusion in press releases and other communications.
Agenda Item 4: Tourism Alliance Plenary Session at the CBI National Conference:
Richard Tobias informed members that the CBI National Conference Strategy board had met and agreed that the plenary session could go ahead in its revised format. He also stated that the new Minister for Sport & Tourism Richard Caborn was confirmed as the headline speaker. He then outlined a draft format for the session.
- Format
Members agreed on the following format.
-Introduction from Chairman
-10/15 minute presentation from Minster for Tourism Richard Caborn
-Q & A session with a panel of industry 3-4 representatives.
- Attendees
Members decided that the event would be open to Tourism Alliance members and their board members along with CBI members attending the conference.
- CBI Conference Gala Dinner
Digby Jones invited members of the Executive Group to stay for the Conference Gala dinner, which takes place after the plenary session.
Action Points:
- Secretariat to send out invitation letters to potential panel members and liase with CBI conference team.
- Executive Group members to inform Secretariat if they would like to attend the Gala dinner as soon as possible.
Agenda Item 5: Any Other Business
- Relationship between NWTB and NWDA
Dorothy Naylor informed members that the NorthWest Tourist Board and the Northwest Development Agency were exploring plans to merge together with the intention that NWTB become a smaller strategic body within NWDA. This change would also affect other regional tourist boards such as Cumbria, whose areas come under the boundaries of the NWDA. She stated that this was the start of a break-up and restructuring of all regional tourist boards due to the new responsibilities given to RDAs for tourism delivery.
Members stated that in the light of this restructuring it was imperative that a representative from the RDAs be cooped onto the Executive Group.
Action Point: Secretariat to write to South West Regional Development Agency (which has responsibility for tourism amongst RDAs) and ask them to nominate a representative to sit on TAEG.
- Visitor Attractions Conference Autumn 2004.
Robin Brooke informed members that ALVA, in conjunction with VisitBritain were planning to hold a major visitor attractions conference in the autumn of 2004 and that he would welcome ideas from the Executive Group as to issues, which the conference should tackle.
- Royal Tourism Day follow up
Bernard Donoghue stated that following the success of the recent Royal Tourism Day the Royal Family was keen to repeat the event at least every two years. He asked Executive Group members to write to Sir Robin Javrin expressing their congratulations on the success of the day and encouraging the Royal Family to repeat it.
- Meetings with ministers
Rob Hayward suggested that in future when the Alliance meets with ministers, where possible different members of the Executive Group should represent the Alliance.
- Joint Tourism Alliance/DCMS tourism strategy document
June-Alison Sealy asked Richard Tobias about the progress of the strategy and if the DCMS was seeking input from the Alliance. Richard stated that the DCMS had approached him and at the moment they were preparing a first draft which would then be circulated to the Alliance as soon as possible. They would then ask for formal input from Alliance members and the document would be prepared over the summer for publication in late October/ early November.