Tourism (Hansard, 21 July 2004)

§ Tony Lloyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will make a statement on the work of regional development agencies in developing tourism in Manchester Central. [184170]

§ Mr. Caborn
The North West Development Agency (NWDA) is working closely with Marketing Manchester, the nominated Destination Management 305W Organisation (DMO) for Manchester. DMOs are effectively mini tourist boards that will ensure a strong visitor and market focus to all that is done within the region, and aim to strengthen the connection that exist within the region between businesses and other organisations that make up the tourism sector.
Marketing Manchester also has a key role in securing funds for tourism development from the NWDA. Hence any funding for Manchester Central would need to be secured via that route. During 2003–04 Marketing Manchester received £898,000 to promote and develop tourism within the sub region. A similar amount has been identified to support their work during 2004–05.
Unfortunately at this stage NWDA cannot show a specific breakdown of funding provided to Manchester Central but the impact of NWDA funding to Marketing Manchester will certainly have been beneficial to the Manchester Central tourism product.

§ Mr. Moss
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many visitor attractions have signed up to the Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Scheme. [186034]

§ Mr. Caborn
The Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Service (VAQAS) has accredited 510 visitor attractions.

§ Mr. Moss
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the rate of productivity in the tourism industry has been in each of the last 10 years; and what criteria are used to measure these rates. [186036]

§ Estelle Morris
The Department estimates the rate of change of labour productivity in Tourism.
Data is derived from the Annual Business Inquiry, carried out by the Office for National Statistics. This takes the form of estimates of Gross Value Added and numbers in employment. Productivity is estimated as the ratio of Gross Value Added to numbers in employment, and the rate of change from one year to the next is calculated.
Information has been collected in its present form only since 1998. The latest figures are those for 2002.
The figures are as follows:

Percentage

1998–99 + 3.1

1999–2000 + 4.0

2000–01 + 2.5

2001–02 + 4.6

	Percentage
1998–99	+ 3.1
1999–2000	+ 4.0
2000–01	+ 2.5
2001–02	+ 4.6