CONFIDENTIAL



CONFIDENTIAL

TOURA 11 02

TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE TOURISM ALLIANCE

NOTES OF THE MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE GROUP HELD ON WEDNESDAY 06 FEBRURAY 2002

Venue: Centre Point, London WC1

Attendance

Chairman: Digby Jones, CBI

Members:

Robin Broke Association of Leading Visitor Attractions

Bob Cotton British Hospitality Association

Sue Garland British Tourist Authority

Rob Hayward OBE British Beer and Pub Association

Tony Millns ARELS

Dorothy Naylor North West Tourist Board

Ros Pritchard British Holiday and Home Parks Association

Ian Reynolds Association of British Travel Agents

CBI

Tony Bird Director – Membership

June-Alison Sealy Secretary to the Alliance

Karishma Chandaria Policy Adviser

Agenda item 1: Chairman’s welcome

1 Digby Jones welcomed members to the meeting of the Tourism Alliance.

Agenda item 2: Minutes of the meetings held on 19 December and matters arising

2 Members were asked to agree the revised set of Minutes.

Agenda item 3: Report Back

3. Digby Jones led this item.

- Digby Jones reported that he had a telephone conversation with Tessa Jowell during which he raised the issue of tourism funding by central government.

- Silverstone - Digby Jones explained the significance of the motor sport industry to tourism and commented on steps that need to be taken to make sure that sponsorship of a British Grand Prix continued.

- UKOK - Members raised concerns about the effectiveness of the campaign and pointed out that the private sector had not been involved fully in the development of the campaign, despite having contributed over £5m to it. Members also discussed the amount that the government might commit to fund the continuation of UKOK.

Agenda item 4: SR2002 Paper

4. Members were asked for their comments and for any amendments that needed to be made to the draft SR2002 paper (due to be taken to Tessa Jowell in draft form on February 14th). In general members felt that the paper needed to be strengthened with some more concrete examples. Specifically it was felt that the following sections needed to be refined:

• Skills and Training

Members thought that this section needed to be fleshed out and include a reference to the bid for a Sector Skills Council for the tourism and hospitality industry.

Action Point: Secretariat to get more information on the HTF/BHA Sector Skills Council submission.

• Air Passenger Duty

Members raised concerns as to whether the Alliance should advocate hypothecation of APD at all and that if the Alliance were to do this it could result in an increase on APD or the introduction of other taxes such as a tax on fuel. The Group agreed that the Alliance could not advocate complete hypothecation and that the section would be reworded.

Action Point: It was an agreed that a letter would be sent to the Treasury as an appendix to SR2002 emphasising the importance of the APD issue.

• VAT

Members agreed that reducing VAT on hotel accommodation was a major issue. However other types of holiday accommodation such as caravans and cottages needed to be included too. It was agreed that the more general term tourist accommodation should be used in the paper. Members also raised concerns about the level of the VAT threshold in the UK.

Action Point: Secretariat to find out who sets VAT threshold rates in the UK and where it sits in relation to the other member states.

• Regulation

Members asked for a specific section on regulation to be included in the paper in order to highlight in particular, the negative effect of many of the Budd Report's recommendations on pubs and private clubs (which have gaming machines in the premises). They also wished to see progress on the recommendations made by the Better Regulation Task Force Report on Hospitality.

Action Point: Secretariat to follow up.

• Outbound Market

Members agreed that this section needed more detail.

Action: Ian Reynolds stated that he would provide a paragraph on the issues facing the outbound holiday market.

• London as the Gateway

The Chairman stated that the paper needed to state more explicitly what the Alliance saw as the longer-term goals for London as a tourist destination.

• Quality and Grading

Members agreed that it needed to be made clear whether the Alliance was advocating promoting a harmonised Quality Grading scheme to the industry or actually subsidising such a scheme.

Action Point: English Tourism Council to provide information and costing for a harmonised scheme.

Agenda Item 5: Items for Discussion

5. Operational issues:

• Minutes

Members agreed that the minutes would remain confidential to the Executive Group. They also agreed that a report of the minutes would be made available to members via the website. A full sets of minutes would be available on request.

• Logo

Members were presented with a number of logo examples and were asked which one they preferred. Members agreed on option number 1 as the logo for the Alliance.

Action Point: Karishma Chandaria to proceed with investigating turning the Logo into a template for the Alliance to use on all its correspondence.

6. Media Relations

Tony Bird outlined a proposal, which the Alliance had received from a media relations consultancy offering to provide public relations services to the Alliance for an initial three-month period. Members were asked whether they would be willing to support the cost of such a campaign. The general feeling amongst the members was that the Alliance was still at a formative stage and that it would be unwise to involve an external company to promote the Alliance when its agenda was still being established.

Action Point: The Secretariat was asked to consider a communications strategy for the Alliance.

Agenda Item 6: Items to note

7. March 4: Tourism Alliance Meeting

Members discussed the programme for the first full meeting of the Alliance. It was agreed that a pre-meeting of the Executive Group should be held prior to the main event and that the format of the meeting should be in the style of a debate. Possible chairmen for the meeting were also discussed.

8. London Tourism Strategy Paper

Members were asked whether the Alliance should submit a formal response to the consultation paper. Members agreed that it would be more appropriate for the members of the Executive Group to respond on an individual basis on behalf of their respective associations.

Agenda Item 7: Any Other Business

9 Dorothy Naylor mentioned that the first meeting of the Domestic Marketing Group had recently taken place and that she had attended in her capacity as the Chairman of the Chief Executives of the English Tourist Boards. She noted that there was no representative from the Alliance present. She asked what the Alliance proposed to do about representation on this group. It was agreed that Bob Cotton would be the representative for the Alliance on this group.

Action Point: Secretariat to circulate Dorothy Naylor's notes of the first meetings of the Domestic Marketing Group.

Secretariat: February 2002

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