DCMS March Tourism Update (2)

Budget offers financial support

The Budget on 16 March saw support offered to tourist attractions and small businesses. Hull, as the City of Culture, is set to receive £13 million, the Tour de Yorkshire will receive £500,000 for an international marketing campaign, whilst an extra £20 million for the Cathedral Repair Fund will ensure the upkeep of these important visitor attractions. 

It was also confirmed that the Great Exhibition of the North will take place in summer 2018. We will shortly be launching a competition to find a venue in the North of England to host the Exhibition.

Also, small businesses such as B&Bs, the lifeblood of the tourism industry, will benefit from either a reduction in or complete removal of business rates - saving them thousands of pounds. 

Campaign sees strong results

In February, VisitEngland launched a £1 million domestic marketing campaign to encourage people to spend their February half term and Easter holidays in the North of England and change perceptions that the North is #OpenForBusiness. The campaign aimed to help northern businesses recover from the recent floods and was supported by Virgin Trains which offered a discount of 30% off advance bookings for trips to the affected areas. 

The campaign has been successful in raising awareness of the flood affected areas, with comms activity reaching over 75 million people in the UK including through BBC, ITV and Sky coverage. There were almost 275k unique visitors to the destination campaign landing pages and 2,676 train tickets were booked with Virgin Trains.

A busy fortnight for the tourism industry

Bernard Donoghue, Chairman of the Tourism Alliance and Director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) takes a look back at what has been a very busy fortnight in the tourism industry. 

From English Tourism Week, to the publication of figures confirming another record year for tourism attractions, the industry has not strayed far from the public’s attention. Bernard also discusses the importance of close working between industry and Government.  

Read Bernard’s blog here. 

Rail news

The Department for Transport has launched a £1 million competition, offering grants to train operators who come up with innovative ways to increase the number of tourist train journeys. 

ALVA has sent a joint letter with ATOC encouraging its members to sign up to ATOC's new 2-4-1 train/attractions deal for international visitors. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. at ATOC can be contacted on this.

National Apprenticeship Week

National Apprenticeship Week (NAW 2016) ran from the 14 - 18 March. This is part of the Government’s drive to increase the number of apprenticeships to 3 million by 2020. 

Our revamped Tourism Industry Council and Inter-Ministerial Group have met, and one of the first topics discussed was how to help young people forge exciting and long-lasting careers in the tourism industry. This is a key part of a strategy for the sector, and is delivering on the Government's Five Point Tourism Plan.

For example, the Cornwall Apprenticeship Agency (CAA) has been working with SMEs in the leisure, travel and tourism sector to help them grow their workforce with apprentices.