§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what percentage tourism contributed to the gross domestic product of England in each of the last two financial years. [125098]
188W
§ Mr. CabornIt is not currently possible to calculate the percentage which tourism contributed to the gross domestic product of England in the last two financial years, due to delays in the production of National Statistics' Regional Accounts. However, the equivalent figure for the contribution of tourism to the UK's GDP in the calendar year 2001 was 4.5 per cent., and the proportion for England can be expected to be of a similar magnitude.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much she spent advertising each of the regions as a tourist destination(a) in the United Kingdom and (b) internationally in the last two financial years. [125099]
§ Mr. CabornIn 2001–02, this Department allocated to the English Tourism Council (ETC) £3.8 million from the Reserve to assist the domestic recovery of tourism from foot and mouth disease; over half of that amount was then passed to the 10 regional tourist boards (RTBs) in England and much of it used for promotional activities. In addition, of the sums granted by the Department to the Greater London Authority (GLA) to promote tourism, £500,000 was used for domestic marketing in 2001–02 and £100,000 in 2002–03.
In 2001–02 and 2002–03, the British Tourist Authority (BTA) was responsible for marketing Britain overseas as a tourist destination. It did not allocate funds for individual regions of Britain, but promoted Britain as a whole in a way which maximised the impact of its campaigns in individual markets overseas. DCMS allocated the following amounts to the BTA in the last two years:
£ million BTA 2001–02 2002–03 Baseline grant in aid 35.5 35.5 Additional sums from Reserve to assist recovery 14.2 19.0
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much she spent advertising the UK as a tourist destination in the last two financial years. [125100]
§ Mr. CabornIn 2001–02 and 2002–03, the British Tourist Authority (BTA) was responsible for marketing Britain overseas as a tourist destination. DCMS allocated the following amounts to the BTA in the last two years.
£ million BTA 2001–02 2002–03 Baseline grant in aid 35.5 35.5 Additional sums from Reserve to assist recovery 14.2 19.0 The BTA's statutory role has been the overseas promotion of Britain, rather than the UK, although it had powers to encourage people to visit Northern Ireland by agreement with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB).
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what percentage tourism contributed to the GDP in the north-east in the last two financial years. [125119]
189W
§ Mr. CabornThe only figure for tourism's contribution to GDP in the north-east is for the calendar year 2000. This was derived from "Tourism Impact—a Pilot Study for the North East", which was published in September 2002. This estimated tourism's contribution to the GDP in the north-east to be 3.5 per cent. This study was jointly funded by the regional development agency, ONE, and the Department.
§ Vera BairdTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many international tourists visited(a) England and (b) the north-east in 2001 and 2002; and what percentage of international tourists to the UK this represented. [125120]
§ Mr. CabornThe following table shows the number of staying visits (visits which included a stay of at least one night) to the north-east, England and the UK in 2001 and 2002. The figures for 2002 are provisional.
2001 2002 Staying visits (thousand) Percentage of all staying visits Staying visits (thousand) Percentage of all staying visits North-east 440 2 520 2 Total England 19,320 93 20,390 92 Total UK 20,980 100 22,120 100 Source:
International Passenger Survey, National Statistics.