New government funding for tourism

Over the last month there have been a string of announcements from the government regarding new funding for the national tourism boards – VisitBritain and VisitEngland – to help boost tourism associated with next year’s Diamond Jubilee and Olympics. Here is a brief overview of the funding that has been provided and how it will be utilised.

1. Three million pounds from the Olympic budget is to be used to boost domestic tourism in 2012 and beyond, in a drive to maximise the economic legacy of the London’s Games for the whole country. The investment, announced by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, will kick-start a new tourism campaign to make the most of the Torch Relay and the Cultural Olympiad to showcase the whole nation. Over the next three years it is expected to deliver: 12,000 new jobs; £500m extra tourist spending; 5.3m more short break nights taken; all resulting in 10% additional overnight short breaks.

2. VisitEngland’s bid for additional funding from the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) was successful, it was announced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The money will be used on a three-year project entitled, ‘Growing Tourism Locally’. A key part of the project will be a national campaign aimed at inspiring Britons to take more short breaks and holidays at home and in doing so grow jobs in the tourism sector.

James Berresford, VisitEngland’s Chief Executive commented: “This is a huge boost for VisitEngland as the country’s national tourist board, working in partnership to facilitate growth at a local level, and an acknowledgement of the value of our industry to England’s economy. With this additional money we can mount a serious campaign to stimulate domestic tourism that has the potential to create the equivalent of 9,500 full-time jobs in areas across the country suffering economic challenges.”

The majority of this will be put into domestic marketing campaigns and will tie-in with the 2012 “stay at home” campaign, previously announced.

3. The Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that VisitBritain will benefit from a further £27m of funding to help promote Britain in key overseas markets in a concerted effort to drive greater numbers of visitors to the country over the next four years.

Funding for the national tourism agency will be made available to capitalise on the international attention the UK will receive during 2012 – the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This will be in addition to the existing £100m match-funded marketing campaign being run by VisitBritain, and means that over the next four years inbound tourism to the UK aims to attract an extra 4.6m visitors, spending an additional £2.3bn across the country and supporting the creation of almost 60,000 new jobs.

This initiative is part of the GREAT campaign launched by the Prime Minister in September to show the world that Britain is a great place to visit, to live, to invest and to do business with.