Tourism and Hospitality

Baroness Andrews Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Andrews (Lab)]

I congratulate my noble friend on his remorseless determination to ensure that tourism is at the heart of our economic policy. Whenever he speaks about tourism, he brings to it even greater conviction than when noble Lords spoke in the previous debate. I am always very pleased to participate in debates that he leads. He will not be surprised when I say that I am bound to talk about heritage, as the noble Lord, Lord Lee, anticipated. However, I will also talk about Wales and the issues that it faces in relation to tourism; and, indeed, the issues faced by the regions in ensuring that the wealth generated by tourism spreads beyond London.

The whole world had a fireside view of Britain during the Olympics and of the spectacular heritage that we hold in trust. That is really paying off in that at present you can hardly cross the road outside the Palace of Westminster because of the crowds. At a time when the world is becoming so monolithic, not least because of social media, people are desperate to encounter something different. They come to the UK because we are definitely different in the density, quality and diversity of our heritage. As the noble Lord said, it is a question not simply of our great monuments but of our market towns, our parish churches, our landscapes and much more. It is about the spirit of place.

We have heard a lot of statistics, but I wish to give a few more. Tourism is expected to grow in the future by 3.8% a year between 2013 and 2018. That is faster than retail and, God knows, we in this country like retail. At the heart of this is what we call in shorthand heritage tourism. Thirty per cent of overseas tourists claim that heritage is the main reason for them visiting the UK. It is stronger than any other single factor. In fact, I was rather surprised to note that 48% of visitors holidaying in the UK visited a castle or historic house. That is more than went to museums, art galleries and theatres. The fact that 43% went to museums and art galleries, and 14% to the theatre, also shows the enormous pulling power of culture and the arts as a whole.

So much of what our visitors come for is, indeed, to do with the spirit of place, as will be appreciated by anyone who has tried to get into Sissinghurst recently to see the glory of the gardens there, the Bloomsbury house at Charleston, the Charleston festival or the Bronte parsonage. These small, very fragile places are full of enthusiasts who have come from across the world to see where their favourite writers, artists and, indeed, scientists lived, which is reflected in the great success of Down House.

Brand UK is about the things we cannot measure, sometimes the things we take for granted. Over the years, we have saved, protected and invested in our heritage. Investment pays off. After 25 years, during which Stonehenge was described, chillingly, as a national disgrace for the state it had fallen into, with dreadful provision for visitors and little interpretation, the situation is transformed thanks to English Heritage. The new visitor centre is open and the landscaping of the monument well on the way to completion. Even though it is not complete, visitor numbers are already running way ahead of budget, which shows the relationship between the quality of the offer and the enthusiasm of the visitor. The lesson here is that we need to take this seriously and invest in the care and protection of heritage. We need to support private owners as well as public monuments. We need to ensure that there is the right amount and type of interpretation to excite, animate and bring visitors back many times.

One area that is ripe for more exposure to visitors is our world heritage sites, of which there are 27 in this country. There is no connecting story because they are very different. They range from Blaenavon, the home of the industrial revolution in south Wales, to the great social experiment of Saltaire, and to Blenheim, which is one of the great houses. They are extraordinary in their beauty and diversity. We should be making more of them, and I hope that VisitBritain will do so.

We can quantify the value of heritage almost to decimal points. The latest survey that the Heritage Lottery Fund commissioned from Oxford Economics made it clear that since the last data were collected in 2007, tourism has reached over £14 billion in its contribution to GDP. In 2007 that figure was £12 billion. It also produces more jobs. In 2007 there were 270,000 jobs in heritage; now the figure is 393,000. These are jobs ranging from specialist curatorial staff to the fantastic people in the shops and those who serve walnut cake and tea. That is all part of the reason why people keep returning. Then of course there is the huge force of volunteers. We are talking about real skills, real opportunities and real jobs.

The important thing about this is that it does not stop at income coming in. It brings investment that is about sustainable development. It is hardly surprising that other countries are looking at our fabulous National Trust in order to set up their own national trust to take care of their national heritage.

Heritage is also powerful because it is about local economies, which is why getting people out of London and beyond Oxford and Cambridge is vital. On recent heritage open days there were more than 2 million visits to historic properties. Norwich alone, for example, raised £735,000 from those visitors. Considering that we have just come through the worst recession in our history, these are impressive figures.

I am overdosing on statistics because I want to emphasis in the concluding part of my speech the absolute necessity of getting some of this wealth out of London and into other parts of the UK—particularly into Wales, which desperately needs to rebalance its economy and put its enormous assets and skills to work in different ways. It has some of the highest levels of poverty, unemployment and child poverty anywhere in the UK. With those come poor health, poor aspiration and achievement, and cultural and social exclusion. Wales needs new national and local economies, hence the emphasis on apprenticeships and the digital economy, for example. Wales needs every penny that it can get out of tourism, domestic and international. That means investing in its natural, historic and cultural assets. This is only common sense because Wales is a small but smart country. It has everything going for it in terms of tourism, which is already its third most important industry.

The genius of tourism is that it could be Wales-wide. It can be everywhere for everyone. It touches every corner and provides local jobs for local people. This is evident on the ground because wherever you go in Wales you fall over or into a castle, an abbey, a prehistoric site, a magnificent industrial landscape or a fabulous National Trust property. We have the homes of poets, artists and musicians. Brilliantly, Wales is the nation of the book. This year we have the Dylan Thomas festival, which is drawing in lots of visitors, as is the RS Thomas centre in Bangor. So there is no limit to what we can use our cultural assets for. We have coming in Bangor a wonderful new cultural centre called Pontio, which will be an intellectual and cultural centre for north Wales. We also hope, in addition to the three world heritage sites that we have in north Wales, that we will have a fourth in the form of the fantastic slate landscapes of north Wales.

So why am I concerned? We have all these assets, so what is the problem? The fact is that international tourism is simply not doing as well in Wales as it is in other parts of the UK. In Wales, 92% of tourism is domestic; international tourism is only 8%. The problem is that international tourism accounts for 16% of spending. Given the disproportionate benefit it is therefore all the more serious that in the past few years Wales has lost a quarter of a million visitors from overseas. It is such a source of concern that the Welsh Affairs Committee is now looking at how Wales can present a more compelling picture of itself to the world. We know that we have a fantastic product; it is just a question of how that information gets out to the rest of the world. If we could only do what the Hay festival has done and go viral. Sadly Hay is over for another year, but it has gone global. It is now held in six or seven centres all over the globe. It is a model of what Wales needs to do. Our national museums are forever taking their collections abroad and welcoming international visitors.

Visit Wales is doing a brilliant job of branding Wales. The problem is that the consensus seems to be that VisitBritain could and needs to do more. It is not difficult to sell London: it sells itself. Wales needs extra help. The evidence is that VisitBritain needs to identify Wales’ appeal and sell it more energetically. The fact is that in the cutthroat competition that marks global tourism it takes a huge and concerted effort to break through into new markets. VisitBritain’s job is surely to help all the constituent parts of the UK to achieve that breakthrough. I hope that role will be reinforced in the course of the imminent triennial review of VisitBritain, and I hope in particular that it will be reflected in new formal key performance indicators and targets. That might help to drive some of that energy from London and into the regions.

It should not be difficult to do that. VisitBritain itself cited recently, in evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee, a survey of European visitors who said that the thing they most wanted to do when they came to Britain was to go on a tour of Welsh castles—more than to go to Buckingham Palace or Anne Hathaway’s house. I am delighted to hear that. However, Wales needs more exposure to generate curiosity and appetite. The NATO summit at Celtic Manor in Newport in September is a great opportunity to showcase Wales, but we have to ensure that Wales maintains and increases its investment in tourism and the things that people come to see, and in the care and animation of our monuments. It is essential that it promotes museums and collections to throw their doors open wider, and connects the natural history and the historic landscapes. Above all, we need better infrastructure. We need far better local transport in Wales. The loss of some local buses is a very sad story. We certainly need a better hospitality offer.

Can the Minister tell me what VisitBritain is doing to promote Wales specifically, and what future plans it has to ensure that Wales can capitalise on its assets and draw in more of the benefits of overseas tourism? I would be very grateful for anything that he can say on that.