Second Report - Promoting Britain abroad

Britain’s world-leading cultural sector enjoys global attention and contributes enormously to the country’s appeal, but the competition is getting stronger. The voice of the cultural sector must be included at a strategic level if it is to fulfil its potential to attract visitors from across the globe. Establishing a Creative Industries Export Office would enable both industry and Government to work together to promote British talent and attract higher numbers of visitors. However, for an export office to succeed it must command industry support, include officials from across government and be sufficiently resourced.

We recommend that the Government should work with the creative industries at a strategic level and establish a creative industries export office. This should be coordinated by the DCMS but involve officials from all relevant departments, such as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Home Office and the Department for Transport.

London will always be key to our tourism offer; it is a global brand which attracts millions of visitors each year. But every part of Britain has something to offer and a story to tell. Our evidence tells us that many visitors are unaware of what else there is to see or believe other destinations are too far or too difficult to travel to. Addressing these issues will help drive people beyond the capital. Attracting international business events also has clear potential not only to drive tourism across the country but throughout the year, as evidenced by the forecast impact of the events secured with the support of the Business Events Growth Programme.

VisitBritain should continue its work with tourism providers to identify how best to showcase all regions of the UK, with a particular focus on addressing the travel barriers, both perceived and actual. The Government should expand VisitBritain’s Business Events Growth Programme and indicate in its response to our report the level of additional funding and the date by which it will be awarded. (Paragraph 27) Government policy

The Government’s decision to withdraw from the VAT Retail Export Scheme has made Britain less appealing to tourists while increasing the appeal of our European competitors. It has been a spectacular own goal, signalling that the Government does not, despite its protestations to the contrary, recognise the significance of retail to the inbound tourism sector. For a short while, it appeared to have seen sense, committing once again to providing tax-free shopping for inbound visitors. To then reverse this decision, less than a month later with no new financial analysis provided, only serves to demonstrate the paucity of thought associated with these policy changes. By the Treasury’s own estimation, the scheme could at the very least have been cost neutral. We agree with the industry that a broader analysis of the indirect benefits of the scheme would demonstrate that its cost would be far outweighed by the revenue it would generate and the increased numbers of tourists coming to the UK. (Paragraph 37) 34 Promoting Britain abroad

We find it astonishing that the Minister and the Treasury were unable to tell us what assessment was made of the impact on the number of tourists coming here, not just in terms of raw visitor numbers but also the indirect benefits of their staying here. We are led to conclude that either the Treasury did not consider this or, if they did, gave little weight to DCMS’s warnings of its potential devastating impact on the industry. The Government fixed on its policy without ensuring it had the full facts before doing so. To make such a decision without considering its indirect impact, not just the direct one, is extraordinary and has already harmed the industry on which so much of our economy depends.

The Government should publish an assessment of the direct and indirect impact that withdrawing from the VAT Retail Export Scheme will have had on the inbound tourism sector.

In all future decisions affecting the inbound tourism sector, the Government should conduct impact assessments not only of the direct consequences of a policy but of the indirect ones as well.

The decision to ban ID cards is having a crippling effect on those businesses which rely on inbound visits from children and young people, businesses which are often based in seaside resorts. Any potential risk to security needs to be balanced with common sense: those on organised educational trips are unlikely to attempt to remain illegally.

We recommend that the Government should allow children and young people under the age of 18, travelling as part of a supervised educational and/or cultural group visit, to enter the UK on a single group ID card.

In an increasingly competitive tourism market, the UK must keep pace with other countries’ visa schemes and match, or surpass, those of our competitors. Moreover, the Government’s strategy of agreeing bilateral arrangements with EU Member States for performers touring the EU is failing to address the industry’s needs. The Government needs to recognise the bureaucratic burden caused by performers having to navigate multiple bilateral schemes for a single visit to the EU.

We recommend that the Government should review entry requirements for visitors with a view to ensuring they match or surpass those of our competitors. It should publish the outcome of its review within 12 months.

We recommend that the Government should negotiate an agreement with the EU to provide a single-entry document for performers to submit to any EU country they wish to visit. (Paragraph 57) Resources

Though staffing shortages have been exacerbated by the pandemic, the problems are long-term. The level of vacancies in the tourism and hospitality sectors are directly impacting the quality of our offer, yet both sectors can take a teenager in a holiday job all the way up to management and leadership. There not only needs to be a clear message from Government that careers in hospitality and tourism are viable, long- Promoting Britain abroad 35 term and year-round, but also a strategy to fill immediate vacancies. We welcome efforts to create apprenticeships and the new T-Level in Catering in 2023 but believe that more could be done to support business-owners who are short of staff today.

We recommend that the Government should introduce a temporary recovery visa for industries where there is clear evidence of labour and skills shortages.

The fragmented nature of marketing budgets across the UK, with different sectors and different parts of the country supported by different funds, makes it difficult to quantify the exact amount of Government funding for inbound tourism marketing. However, the minister himself acknowledged that it is low by international standards. Whilst we acknowledge the challenge of the current economic climate on public spending, the Government cannot afford to be complacent: tourists need winning back to Britain and we cannot do it on reputation alone. If Britain wants to compete internationally, VisitBritain’s marketing budgets must keep pace with those of our nearest competitors. The cost of this investment will be vastly exceeded by the returns it will generate.

The Government should increase VisitBritain’s marketing budget to match more closely those of our nearest competitors. VisitBritain should ensure that much of this increase in funding should be ringfenced to promoting regional destinations. (Paragraph 68) Leadership

The de Bois review of Destination Management Organisations (DMO) received widespread support from across the industry and it is unacceptable that the Government took 11 months to respond and in such a half-hearted fashion. The Comprehensive Spending Review and departmental business planning are standard annual events and so the Government should not use these as an excuse for the delay. We can only conclude that restructuring the DMO sector was not a priority, confirming stakeholders’ fears that the Government fails to appreciate the urgency of the issue. Now is the time for bold action, yet the Government has failed to commit to any long-term change. We welcome the fact that the Government has accepted some of the report’s recommendations, but its response falls short of the changes necessary for Destination Management Organisations to reach their full potential. We acknowledge the fact that the Government must ensure public money is spent wisely but are disappointed that the Government has made no commitment to fund a national scheme should the pilot prove successful, nor published the criteria by which it will be judged.

We recommend that the Government should complete the pilot to a swift timescale and commit to implementing the de Bois recommendations in full.

We recognise that the pandemic will have had a significant impact on VisitBritain’s engagement with wider industry, while the level of its funding limits its ability to support Destination Management Companies to the extent that both sides would wish. We welcome the progress that VisitBritain has made to address concerns but feel it should also consider the extent to which this engagement should be at a strategic level rather than purely operational. (Paragraph 81) 36 Promoting Britain abroad

We are deeply concerned about how long VisitBritain must wait for confirmation of its Comprehensive Spending Review funding and, particularly, its marketing spend approval. This year’s delays in the Professional Assurance approval process meant VisitBritain was unable to undertake critical work in international markets and so damaged the recovery of the inbound tourism sector as a whole. We welcome the fact that the Cabinet Office responded more quickly during lockdown, but this highlights not only the necessity of acting swiftly but also the Cabinet Office’s ability to do so. All marketing campaigns generate significant costs and so VisitBritain hits the threshold of £100,000 on most, if not all, of its work. Given that the Government established VisitBritain to promote Britain abroad, it is nonsensical that approval processes are directly limiting its ability to do so. We recognise that £100,000 may be a useful threshold for non-marketing organisations but the nature of VisitBritain’s work means that it should have a much higher threshold for its campaign spend.

We recommend that within the next three months the Government should negotiate with VisitBritain a rise in its PASS approval threshold.

VisitBritain is an arms’ length body yet in practice appears to be grasped close to the chest. VisitBritain knows better than officials at No 10 and the Cabinet Office how best to attract visitors to Britain in an increasingly competitive field. Given VisitBritain’s marketing and communications expertise, the requirement for marketing materials approval appears unduly restrictive. Officials’ involvement in budget spending is understandable; their control over operational decisions and campaign messaging is not. The Minister himself acknowledged that there is scope for improvement.

The Government should use a lighter touch with VisitBritain regarding operational decisions and campaign messaging. Any feedback should be considered as advisory only and given to VisitBritain within one month.

The Minister and DCMS officials should feel proud of their hard work supporting the tourism sector through the pandemic and we welcome the establishment of an inter-ministerial working group. However, it can only be effective if all departments recognise the extent to which the economy depends on the sector. Given that so many of the levers which control tourism lie outside of DCMS’s control, the industry’s ability to reach its full potential depends on the working group ensuring that policy from other departments does not undermine the work that DCMS is trying to achieve. This will require a full-time tourism minister who can work across several departments

The Government should make the Tourism Minister a full-time position. We are open- minded as to which department the minister should be placed in, but it is crucial that their views should carry significant weight across all relevant departments, particularly the Home Office, HM Treasury and the Department for Transport. (Paragraph 99) Promoting Britain abroad 37