THE role of a new-look English Tourist Board in the Government’s much-heralded UK tourism strategy has come under fire from the industry.
While trade bodies broadly welcomed culture secretary Chris Smith’s Tomorrow’s Tourism initiative, his plan to give English regions individual control over marketing was decried.
Many had wanted the new ETB to be responsible for a centralised marketing strategy when it is relaunched next month.
The British Incoming Tour Operators Association – the trade body that represents 300 inbound UK tourism businesses – accused the Labour Government of missing a rare opportunity to form a more effective policy.
BITOA chief executive Richard Tobias applauded the Government’s willingness to change the ETB for the first time in 30 years, but was scathing about a the lack of co-ordinated marketing strategy.
“We are disappointed there is no focus in marketing strategy for England with responsibility being passed to the regions,” said Tobias.
“Inevitably, their targeted marketing will be against other English regions and they will be in conflict with each other. An overall focus for England has been left out and it does not make sense.”
He was also unhappy the Government had ignored BITOA’s call for more funding for England to put it on a par with neighbours Scotland and Wales.
England, under a revamped ETB, will continue to receive ú10m annually over the next three years, although an as yet undisclosed extra amount will be made available to help regional development.
The ú10m equates to 20p per head of population. By comparison, Scotland has a ú3.77 spend per person with its ú19.3m annual grant, and Wales has a ú4.03 spend per person through its ú11.75m grant.
Tobias said: “This is not a sensible marketing position for England and is just a political decision.”
The ETB grant has only risen by ú300,000 from this financial year to next and Tobias said the giving out of more money from the ú10m to regions for marketing was an irrelevant exercise.
The Government said it made sense for regional tourist boards to work alongside regional development agencies, which are responsible for ú3bn-worth of regeneration programmes over three years, in order to meet local tourism marketing needs.
This, it said, would allow ETB to take more responsibility for five key areas: research, quality, innovation, data analysis and ensuring sustainable tourism.
During the unveiling of the strategy at the Millennium Dome, Smith said: “We want to strip out the unnecessary bureaucracy in the ETB and increase the focus of the new body.”
He said English tourism will receive an extra ú3m as it transfers more responsibility to regions.
The Tomorrow’s Tourism initiative was welcomed by ETB and British Tourist Authority chairman David Quarmby, who helped draw up the Government’s strategy and sits on the new Tourism Forum, which will ensure the initiative works.
Quarmby said the new ETB will ensure the regions do work alongside each other and not against each other, as feared by Tobias. He said: “We cannot force them to work together, but I expect them to develop themed initiatives together.”
Analysis