TOURISM ALLIANCE BRIEFING



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TOURISM ALLIANCE NEWSLETTER

JANUARY 2005

TRIG MEETING

The second meeting of the Tourism Minister’s Tourism Review and Implementation Group (TRIG) was held at DCMS on 30 November 2004. At the meeting there were presentations on People1st, changes to VisitBritain’s overseas marketing strategy and DCMS’s tourism statistic initiative. There followed a debate on which issues TRIG should establish sub-groups to resolve and it was decided to form four sub-groups on Regional Co-ordination of Tourism Policy, Sustainable Tourism, Planning and Workforce Skills. The Tourism Alliance will represent members on the Regional Co-ordination and Planning groups

Click here for a copy of the minutes from the TRIG meeting

Alcohol LICENSING Fees

The Licensing Act 2003 gives the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport the power to make regulations prescribing the level of fees payable to licensing authorities. To assist in the setting of these fees, DCMS recently released a consultation paper on the fee levels to be established by regulation under the Act. The Tourism Alliance has sent in a submission in support of ALVA and the Visitor Attractions Forum stating that, while it supports the underlying principles of cost recovery and equity, it is opposed to the proposed fees for large events of a temporary nature. These fees (up to £50,000 per event) are unjustifiable and threaten the viability of many events.

Click here to view a copy of the Tourism Alliance submission.

If you are seeking support for a submission on an issue of particular relevance to your members, please contact me or use the membership list on the Tourism Alliance website to co-ordinate submissions with other Tourism Alliance members.

Click here to view the Tourism Alliance Members Contact List

National Tourism Conference - 16 March 2005

In the December Newsletter, I mentioned the National Tourism Conference (Tourism UK05), which is being jointly sponsored by the Tourism Alliance, VisitBritain and DCMS and held in the QE II Conference Centre on 16 March 2005. You should by now have received copies of a postcard for distribution to your members alerting them to the conference - if you would like further copies, please let me know and I’ll send them out to you.

Planning for the conference continues apace with confirmed speakers including Digby Jones, Tessa Jowell, Lord Colin Marshall, Tim Smitt, Alan Britten, Tom Wright and Hugh Taylor. Further speakers including the keynote international speaker will be announced shortly. A brochure with the full programme is currently being developed and will be sent to all members by the end of January when the final line-up for the conference is confirmed.

The fees for the conference have been set at £349+VAT, with an early-bird discount of £280+VAT.

GAMBLING Bill and ADS BRIEFs

Briefings for members have been developed for both the Gambling Bill and in expectation of the UK gaining of Approved Destination Status (ADS) with China in January 2005. Both briefings provide valuable information on current proposals, the impacts that they will have on the UK tourism industry and associated issues that still need to be resolved for the industry to be able to operate successfully within the bounds of the proposals.

Click here for the Gambling Bill brief

Click here for the ADS brief

As with all papers linked to this newsletter, the briefings are available on the Tourism Alliance website –

Increased tOURISM fUNDING in Ireland

Minister O'Donoghue, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism in Ireland, recently announced a 14% increase for the Ireland Tourism Marketing Fund in 2005, bringing the total marketing funding by Government in Ireland to 35.8m euros. This builds on the increased funding provided in 2004. He also announced an 8% increase in funding for tourism services, bringing the total allocation for these services in 2005 to almost 123m euros.

This follows the Scottish Executive’s announcement in July 2004 that it will increase VisitScotland’s marketing budget by £17m over three years (a 28% increase) and increase the funding available for quality assurance by £3m.

By contrast, VisitBritain’s international marketing budget (£35.5m) has not increase for over seven years and there looks to be little sign of DCMS allocating any further funding as a result of the 2004 Comprehensive Spending Review.

copies of the ta annual report

There are a number of spare copies of the Tourism Alliance Annual Report for 2004 available for members who would like to distribute these to their Board.

The Annual Report provides a very good synopsis of the state of tourism in the UK, states the key strategic issues that need to be addressed in order for the industry to achieve the Government’s target of £100bn in revenue by 2010 and sets out the Tourism Alliance’s priorities for action. The report also contains the Tourism Alliance’s policies for Education, Training and Skills and for Transport and Infrastructure.

If you would like further copies, contact me by email (kurt.janson@) or phone (020 7395-8246) and I will post them out to you.

Meetings and conferences – lga and 2012

LGA Tourism Forum Meeting – 31 January 2005

The LGA General Assembly is establishing a new internal consultative body called the Tourism Forum. The first meeting of the Forum will be at Inmarsat Conference Centre, City Road, London, on 31st January 2005. Sessions will include the state of UK tourism, the relationship between the regional bodies and local authorities on tourism and the benefits a successful London 2012 Olympics bid may bring to the UK as whole. For further information, contact the LGA Information Centre on 020 7664 3131 quoting Alert Number 347/04. If the you are not affiliated with a Local Authority, but would like to attend the forum as an observer, contact LGA member services on 020 7664 3040 or email MemberServices@.uk.

Fitness for Purpose Conference 1st February 2005

Fitness for Purpose is a joint initiative between the DCMS and the LGA promoting better inspection and regulation of tourist accommodation as a way of tackling poor safety and trading standards and ensuring that minimum legal requirements are met. It is targeted at hotels, guesthouses and Bed and Breakfasts which are failing to meet minimum legal requirements on health and safety, food hygiene, trading standards and fire safety, in order to help them improve. The Fitness for Purpose initiative will be formally launched at an LGA conference on 1 February 2005. The Tourism Minister Richard Caborn MP will give the keynote address.

Click here for further information and a booking form for this Conference.

Olympic Opportunities – Raising the Game across the UK - 17 January 2005

This conference will set out how every nation, region, city and town in the UK can benefit from the Games during the seven-year build up and for many years afterwards. The benefits include preparation camps and hosting visiting teams, staging world-class events and increasing tourism and business. It's aimed at professionals in leisure and tourism, enterprise and economic development, sporting organisations, local authorities, cultural consortia and the private sector to find out about the short-term and the long-term benefits of bringing the Games to the UK. The conference, being held on Monday 17th January 2005 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London SW1 has Tessa Jowell and Sebastian Coe as the Keynote Speakers and will be chaired by Charles Allen, the Vice Chairman of London 2012.

Click here for further information and a booking form for this Conference

Next Breakfast Meeting with Richard caborn

The next Tourism Alliance breakfast meeting with the Tourism Minister, Richard Caborn, will be held on the 8 March 2005 at 8:30am. Invitations to attend will be sent out to members in mid January when the venue has been confirmed. Priority will be given to members who have not been able to attend previous meetings.

The Tourism Alliance

The Tourism Alliance is the Voice of the UK Tourism Industry.

Established in 2001 with the support of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the Tourism Alliance comprises over 40 Tourism Industry Associations that together represent some 200,000 business of all sizes throughout the UK.

The purpose of the Tourism Alliance is to identify and develop policies and strategies to raise standards and promote quality within the industry and work with and lobby government on all key issues relevant to the growth and development of tourism and its contribution to the economy.

Website:

TOURISM ALLIANCE: CENTRE POINT, 103 NEW OXFORD STREET, LONDON, WC1A 1DU

POLICY DIRECTOR: KURT JANSON, EMAIL: KURT.JANSON@

TELEPHONE: 020 7395 8246 FAX: 020 7395 8178 MOBILE: 07964428123

PRESIDENT: DIGBY JONES

CHAIRMAN: BOB COTTON

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WELCOME TO THE JANUARY NEWSLETTER.

Thank you to all those members that responded to the December 2004 newsletter. From the general comments received it seems that the length and content of the new monthly newsletter are about right. However, any further comments, suggestions and, indeed, contributions are always welcome.

On the policy development side, this month’s newsletter includes briefings on the Gambling Bill, the current status of the UK’s bid to gain Approved Destination Status from China in order to receive leisure visitors from this market as well as a copy of the Tourism Alliance’s submission on a recent DCMS consultation on fee levels to be set under the Licensing Act 2003.

There is also a copy of the minutes from the second meeting of Tourism Review and Implementation Group (TRIG). This group was established by the Tourism Minister to oversee the implementation of the National Tourism Strategy - Tomorrow’s Tourism Today - and provides the tourism industry with a important mechanism for influencing and directing Government initiatives that impact on its activities

There are a number of meetings and conferences in January worth noting, including a major conference on the UK bid for the 1012 Olympic games on 12 January at the QEII Conference Centre.

Finally, the Tourism Alliance’s next meeting with the Tourism Minister has been scheduled for 8 March 2004. Invitations will be sent out to members shortly.

All the best for the New Year !

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Kurt Janson

Policy Director

Tourism Alliance

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