Tourism (Hansard, 23 July 1998)

§ Mr. Fearn
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what amount of EU funding has been used for tourism information technology initiatives in the United Kingdom in the last year for which figures are available. [51544]

§ Mr. Tom Clarke
The figure is not available in the form requested. However, £31 million of European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) is available in the current year for DCMS policy areas, of which tourism is the main beneficiary.

§ Mr. Fearn
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what advice his Department gives to(a) tourist boards and (b) tourist information centres who wish to set up compatible computerised booking systems. [51555]

§ Mr. Tom Clarke
DCMS sponsors the English Tourist Board (ETB) which has established a Tourism Technology Forum. The Forum comprises representatives of public and private destination marketing organisations as well as commercial systems developers and is looking at issues concerning compatibility and information exchange.
The ETB has appointed a Tourism Technology Co-ordinator to provide impartial advice to Tourist Information Centre Managers about the availability of systems and has produced a report, analysing the functions and costs of existing systems.
The Tourism Technology Forum has established a working group and is investigating the commercial viability of reservation systems. A planned Tourist Boards
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Intranet is currently under development and should be completed shortly, through which information and experience of booking systems will be shared.

§ Mr. Fearn
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the number of local tourist information centres which provide web pages for their area on the Internet. [51554]

§ Mr. Tom Clarke
None. However, the English Tourist Board, in collaboration with the Local Government Association and the Tourism Management Institute, has recently surveyed all Tourist Information Centres (TICs) and Local Authority Tourism Departments to establish the extent to which new technology is being used in the promotion and management of tourism destinations. 55 per cent. of TIC respondents and 50 per cent. of local authority respondents indicated they had a website.