Tourism (Hansard, 2 July 2002)

§ Dr. Howells

[holding answer 1 July 2002]: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State^'s announcement on 13 May of a programme of modernisation and radical change followed a full day seminar in October 2001, 262W discussion at the Tourism Summit of Ministers in March 2002 and a Tourism Forum meeting in April 2002. In addition, there has been close consultation with Alan Britten (chairman of the English Tourism Council) and with chairs of regional development agencies as well as informal discussion with many people in the tourism industry over the last year.

Since that announcement, good progress has been made in developing plans for the domestic marketing of English tourism. I have chaired two meetings of a small steering group, comprising senior representatives of the English Tourism Council, British Tourist Authority, Tourism Alliance, regional development agencies, regional tourist boards, Local Government Association and the private sector. We have considered a model for public-private coalition for domestic marketing and made an intital assessment of priorities for strategic develivery of other support to the industry, including considering the roles to be played by the regional development agencies, regional tourist boards and local government.

In due course, we will make a further statement on the marketing of English tourism within the UK, a role which is not currently carried out at national level. However, the events of 2001 illustrated its huge potential and we intend to respond to that opportunity, since it will increase the long-term growth potential and sustainability of the industry. The industry is fully in support of this strategic change and key areas that the new organisation (a radically reformed English Tourism Council) is likely to consider are: the development of a national marketing strategy (including e-tourism and the usefulness and appropriateness of websites such as visitengland.org.uk); thematic marketing of England within the UK along the lines of what the British Tourist Authority does successfully abroad; engagement of the private sector (including match funding); and more efficient coordination of the huge expenditure on tourism marketing that already takes place at regional, sub-regional and local level.

The English Tourism Council has worked effectively to take forward much of what was set out in the Government's 1999 strategy, Tomorrow's Tourism; it has also engaged the regional tourist boards to work efficiently together, including piloting new ideas and disseminating the results of those projects. I am pleased with this progress and we now want to increase the emphasis on delivery and results. The regional development agencies are best placed, working in partnership with the regional tourist boards, to do much of this. Accordingly, we will radically change the English Tourism Council into a body that focuses on marketing and associated activities such as e-tourism and relevant research. We have not yet decided on any transfer of functions to the bodies referred to in the question and no changes are planned to visitengland.org.uk. We will make a fuller announcement once we have completed our deliberations.