Trying to convince international tourists to visit more UK cities than just London could backfire if money is siphoned out of existing domestic tourism budgets, experts have warned.
National trade association, British Destinations, has told the commons select committee on tourism that the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) must not waste money by pitching to an international market that is not there.
“London is ingrained and reinforced almost everywhere,” British Destinations told MPs. “Bond never visits M in Norwich, international fashion houses don’t proclaim themselves to be of Birmingham, New York and Paris, not do nervous international businessmen flick to the business pages to see how the Sheffield stock exchange is doing.”
The group explained that for many global visitors, London-Paris-Berlin is currently a far more likely tour itinerary or holiday wish list than London and a combination of British towns and cities.
It added that efforts aimed at moving foreign visitors around must be backed by new public funding and not at the expense of support to domestic tourism.
Organisations speaking at the committee’s first evidence session of the tourism inquiry which is looking at how the industry is supported, said that since 2010, more than £100m (US$157m, €126m)has been taken out of support for the tourist industry, including £65m (US$102m, €82m) earmarked for regional development, making it even harder to get tourists out of London.
Such is the extent of London’s dominance that the group warns, it would be “naive to assume that London’s tourist businesses and London’s promotional agencies will willingly embrace any dispersal marketing efforts.”
However, organisations from across the UK have sent in evidence to the inquiry urging it to address how the cuts have been made. Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said the region had made a vast contribution to the economy of late and stated his case for addressing the cuts. “Many international visitors use London as a base and a two-hour train journey – roughly the time it takes to get to Yorkshire from the capital – is considered a small amount of time by international travellers’ standards.”
Yorkshire’s role in this year’s Tour de France was cited as a key example of what tourism can do for a regional economy. A recent study showed the event’s 3.8 million backers generated £128m (US$200m, €161m) in total revenue, with £102m (US$160m, €129m) in Yorkshire alone, £30m (US$47m, €38m) for Cambridgeshire and Essex and £19.5m (US$30.5m, €25m) for London.
The Office for National Statistics recently produced Tourism Satellite Accounts for the UK for the years 2008-2011. These accounts are widely used by the industry and UK government to provide accurate measures of the importance of tourism. Traditional tourism statistics focus primarily on flows of tourists, whereas TSAs provide a means of evaluating the monetary value of tourism to an economy.
Estimates of the Economic Importance of Tourism 2008-2013 published on 3 December, reports tourism in the UK has grown at a faster rate between 2008 and 2013 than many other sectors of the economy.
