§ Mr. GreenwayTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what estimate he has made of the interim marketing budgets of the regional tourist boards for the next 12 months. [159345]
§ Janet AndersonRegional tourist boards (RTBs) in England will receive £5.5 million during the current financial year. The funding, allocated to the RTBs by the English Tourism Council (ETC), is provided for work that complements the ETC' s role in delivering national and regional programmes—in line with "Tomorrow's Tourism", the Government's tourism strategy—rather than for direct marketing.
However, the ETC have received an additional allocation of £3.8 million to fund a national and regional information and promotion campaign as part of the foot and mouth recovery plan. More than half of this additional money is being passed to the RTBs to help fund specific 656W regional promotions and information campaigns. RTBs will also benefit from the additional funding which regional development agencies (RDAs) will allocate for promotional work to support tourism. I do not yet have detailed information about this funding.