Tourism Alliance update

In this newsletter:

• Government’s legislative agenda outlined
• VisitBritain Annual Attractions Survey 2023
• VE Domestic Sentiment Tracker continues
• UKVI Visa assets for social media
• Parliament recess dates confirmed

Tourism Policy Conference: early bird rate finishes at end of July

Government’s legislative agenda outlined

 

Yesterday was a big day for the new Government with the King outlining its legislative programme for this parliamentary session. The scale of legislative ambition was clear with over 40 bills pledged.

The full speech, and some background info to each of the proposed bills is here.

This is a very useful document.  There are a number of bills which we will be following and engaging with closely.

 

Firstly, we were pleased to see the Skills England Bill which will reform the apprenticeship levy, hopefully to make it much more flexible in how it can be used. This has been a key ask from many in the sector. It goes much further than that, though, and will establish a new body, Skills England, to take a strategic view about the skills landscape and need, with a pledge to bring businesses into that decision-making.

The other key bill is the English Devolution Bill. The bill aims to strengthen the existing devolution arrangements in England, and extend to new areas. It will make ‘devolution the default setting’. The Government intends to devolve enhanced powers over ‘strategic planning, local transport networks, skills and employment support’ and ‘new powers and duties for local leaders to produce Local Growth Plans.’

What this precisely means for the visitor economy, and how these new powers will impact on and interact with LVEPs remains to be seen. This is one we’ll be engaging with closely.

We support the Government’s ambitions to reform the planning regime. Many tourism businesses have felt the pain of the current system and many DMOs have also struggled to see new projects get the green light in their areas which would support their work and the visitor economy locally. And the lack of house building has meant that holiday accommodation has come under attack in some quarters. Building more homes is the way forward, not attacking holiday properties which fuel the broader local visitor economy.

Lastly, the Government included in its plans a Sustainable Aviation Fuels (Revenue Certainty Mechanism) Bill which has been welcomed by the airline industry as a means of incentivising domestic Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) production, which is vital for the sector to hit its ambitious targets. We strongly support this as ensuring that flying to and from our island nation remains viable socially and environmentally is crucial.

It is important to say that many of the policy areas we are advocating and actions we want to see do not require legislation. We do not need a bill for the Government to push forward with a new Sustainable Tourism Growth Plan, to move ahead with statutory registration, or to reform visa fees, for example. On those areas, and so many others, we don’t need to wait for legislation and can crack on.

Download the King’s Speech Background Briefing here

 

VisitBritain Annual Attractions Survey 2023

 

Visit Britain has published its Annual Attractions Survey results for 2023.

As usual this is an extremely comprehensive dataset. However, there are some key data points it is worth drawing out.

Visits to attractions continued to grow in 2023 but the rate of increase has slowed to 11%, which means the sector was still seeing far fewer visitors than in 2019 – down 28%. That is significant and shows the attractions sector is still struggling to fully recover, in line with many other parts of the broader visitor sector.

Not a new story, but key to the reasons why is the cost of living which means visitors are being more cautious about their spending.

Attractions, again like much of the rest of the sector, has felt the pinch of rising energy costs (44% saying this has resulted in reduced income for the site; 26% having to pass some of this cost onto visitors) as well as rising supplier costs.

Employment is a big factor too with many feeling the impact of rising wages and struggles to recruit. A quarter are still operating below pre-Covid staffing levels.

The full slide deck of results can be downloaded via the VisitBritain website

 

VE Domestic Sentiment Tracker continues

As a reminder, VisitEngland’s very useful monthly Domestic Sentiment Tracker continues to be published. June’s data and slide deck were published this week.

Generally, the trends shown are positive. We now see the smallest percentage of the UK population who say that the ‘worst is still to come’ on cost of living, but 37% still believe so. 65% of adults are either ‘cautious and being very careful’ (44%) or have been ‘hit hard and are cutting back’ (21%).

77% are planning a UK overnight trip in the next twelve months which is up from 74% 12 months earlier.

Overnight trips are much less negotiable than domestic ones: 98% vs  87%.

Cost of living remains the main barrier to taking an overnight UK trip.

Download the data from the latest Domestic Sentiment Tracker wave here

 

UKVI Visa assets for social media

 

 

UK Visas and Immigration, the Home Office agency responsible for those areas, is keen to push visa visitors to apply for a visa in plenty of time and to ensure they get a visa if they need one. They have published a set of social media assets which they are keen to promote far and wide. They incorporate scenes from around the UK, promoting many of our wonderful tourism offerings.

You can access the asset library here. Please feel free to use these assets in your comms, share with your members where appropriate, and if possible, let us know how you may use them so we can keep UKVI informed.

Obviously, we have plenty of policy asks to make with the Home Office and UKVI, especially on cost and complexity of visas, but the general thrust to promote Britain and encouraging early application for those who need a visit is one we absolutely support.

 

Parliament recess dates confirmed

The Leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell MP, has announced the following recess dates.

The House will rise for the Summer recess at the conclusion of business on Tuesday 30th July and return on Monday 2nd September.

Subject to the progress of business, the House will rise for the Conference recess on Thursday 12th September and return on Monday 7th October.

 

Tourism Policy Conference: early bird rate finishes at end of July

 

 

A reminder that the early bird offer of £185+VAT for the Tourism Policy Conference ends on 31 July at which point the standard member rate of £205+VAT will apply. If you’d like to guarantee your place and at a lower rate please remember to book ASAP.

Book now at the early bird rate

See the sponsorship packages available