TOURISM ALLIANCE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
THE STATE OF TOURISM IN THE UK
20 JULY 2005
LOCAL GOVERNMENT HOUSE
INTRODUCTION
July has been a rollercoaster of emotions, tragedies and triumphs.
Euphoria of winning the right to host the games, to shock of the 07 July bombs
Londoners and all Britons have shown a determined resilience to press-on.
The tourism sector is now faced with the challenges of planning for and creating the greatest Olympic Games and a lasting economic legacy for the visitor economy
GROWTH
VisitBritain hopes that visitor numbers will continue to grow in 2005, despite recent events and proposed increases costs for tourist visas – which is reassuring of course, but the most important objective is value.
Such growth would follow-on from strong sector growth in 2004
The visitor economy grew by a record 12% from 2003 to 2004
This translated to 27.8 million visitors who spent £13 billion
The visitor sector now employs 1.4 million people, 5% of all workers in the UK Internationally, the UK maintained its international league table ranking of 6th
In 2004, 5th place Italy actually lost 6.4% of visitors
1st place France only grew by 0.1%
Britain’s visitor economy is growing well ahead of European destinations
Domestically in 2003, the British spent over £59 billion domestically
This included 70.5 million holidays and 34.3 million overnight trips to visit friends or relatives.
I believe that the challenge for the TA and broader sector (and VisitBritain) – most obstacles to growth, productivity and competitiveness lie outside DCMS portfolio in areas like Visas, planning, immigration and food regulation. Everyone here must be engaged with Whitehall Ministers to create momentum on these issues.
Also, we all must be honest about the spending of public money, at least in England. I say, it is not as effectively deployed and sometimes not spent by the right players for the best benefit of the visitor economy. This requires us to be robust in dealing with Local Authorises and RDAs, so all of the tourism sector can benefit from growth.
The Minister, James Purnell, was told by No 10 on his appointment that increasing the visitor sector’s competitiveness and productivity were his two key objectives. Whilst the sector, private and public, can deliver much of these, we also require a good economic wind behind us and a conducive legislative and political climate. That is delivered by Government, so I feel they must play their part too.
UK VISAS
Lord Marshall and I have questioned UKvisas over its plans to increase application costs for visitors to the UK.
Without any consultation or warning, the cost of the typical tourist visa, including outsourcing, is about to increase by 89% to £65
It is hard to understand how a £32 increase in one year can be justified when over the last 10 years the average increase has only been £3 per annum.
A tourist visa will now cost around 9% of the total average visitor’s budget.
This will surely reduce the UK’s competitiveness.
Particularly when the Schengen Block offers a £27 one-off visa cost for all 15 countries.
Such an increase is counter-productive to helping DCMS reach its target of the visitor economy being worth £100 billion by 2010.
But let us not dwell for too long on history when our future is so exciting.
WINNING THE OLYMPIC BID
VisitBritain expects the Olympic Games to be worth an additional £2 billion for the visitor economy
By the IOC granting London the 2012 Games, its is not only a vote of confidence in our sporting events and venues but also our tourism and leisure facilities
This will be a unique opportunity to boost international marketing for London and Britain
The entire industry must ensure that the Games will create a lasting economic legacy for the visitor economy.
WHY VISITBRITAIN SHOULD BE THE OLYMPIC MARKETING AGENCY
VisitBritain has asked the recently appointed Olympic Minister, Tessa Jowell, to be part of the Olympic Agency Board, as the official marketing agency.
In this capacity, we would aim spread the benefits of the Games throughout the UK visitor economy.
VisitBritain has the resources, people, skills and proven success to market the Games
VisitBritain has a network across 40 countries to help manage media interest
Presenting the games on the web will be the most important route to the global audience.
VisitBritain’s 50 websites will be a key vehicle to deliver these Olympic messages.
Also, EnglandNet will soon be the one-stop-shop for all visitors to England.
Further expansion into current emerging markets like China and India will make them even more significant to the UK.
We are also working with other agencies to improve our Welcome to Britain message to ensure that all visitors feel a warm welcome the minute they arrive in the country.
THE 07 JULY ATTACKS
The Tourism Industry Emergency Response group (TIER), met immediately after the attacks on 07 July.
Lessons learned from F M D and 09/11 ensured that our crisis communications plans worked smoothly.
Working with the Tourism Alliance, the group has commissioned Oxford Economic Forecasting to generate an accurate figure.
This research will draw from actual London data and provide a relevant and specific assessment of the impact on tourism.
It is still too early to give a precise figure on the effects, but we, and industry expect that the impact will be both short-term and minimal.
It is clear that tourism has shown some resilience and recovery has already begun.
CONCLUSION
This industry is too important in terms of cultural and economic wealth for it to be unplanned and unappreciated.
The £2.6 billion that is paid to the Chancellor each year pays for 130,000 nurses and 1 job is created for every £40,000 that is spent by visitors.
We need to communicate our proud successes and aspirations to a broader constituency so media and government support us in our work.