Tourism boards in England are to undergo a £4m radical restructuring

This Monday’s Insights (July 25th) feature brings you the industry headlines you may have missed from the last week.

Headlines

Tourism boards in England are to undergo a £4m radical restructuring as the Government aims to make it easier for planners to discover the country’s destinations.

According to a feature on M&IT, the Government wants a “simpler structure where tourism boards, otherwise known as destination management organisations (DMOs), are a one-stop shop for visitors to find all they need to know about a local area.”

The £4 million will fund a pilot – in one region – of a new accreditation scheme to highlight the best DMOs, which will be renamed Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs).

The funding will also be used to create a pilot in one region of the country, giving one top-tier DMO or a group of local DMOs the opportunity and investment to restructure under a new model, to show the best their region has to offer.

The changes follow last year’s independent review into DMOs, carried out by the chair of VisitEngland’s advisory board Nick de Bois. The review found the DMO landscape to be overly complex, making it confusing for tourists planning breaks and businesses looking to invest. 

De Bois recommended a tiering model for DMOs, including multi-year core funding. Tourism minister Nigel Huddleston said:

“Whilst I realise it will be disappointing that we aren’t rolling out the de Bois funding proposals nationwide at this point, we also need to be as confident as we can be that public sector investment will be value for money.

“De Bois highlights that there are gaps in information on existing DMO performance and the evidence that has been collected suggests the DMO structures in some parts of England are not currently mature enough to take on significant public funds. Furthermore, we need more robust evidence that state funding of Destination Development Partnerships drives up private sector investment and growth.

“My hope is that our pilot will serve as a proof of concept which, when combined with the rollout of the accreditation system, will give us the information we need to proceed with confidence at a national level.”

Read the full feature here, and view the full Government response to the De Bois review here.

Jacqui Kavanagh, CEO, EDGE Venues has asked ‘The Race for Number 10 – what does it mean for our industry?’ in her latest opinion post.

Read it in full, here.

As enquiries for hybrid events decrease, venues across Coventry and Warwickshire have seen a return to in-person meetings, conferences and exhibitions. 

Conference Coventry and Warwickshire, the region’s convention bureau, surveyed venues from across the region, including Coventry Building Society Arena, Coventry Conferences, Warwick Conferences, British Motor Museum, Telegraph Hotel, Eliot Park Innovation Centre and IXL Events Centre. 

One venue, in particular, reported that 75% of enquiries favour face-to-face over hybrid events.

Toby Batchelor, head of commerce, British Motor Museum, said: “Hybrid is still an element of conference and exhibition delivery, but I think it is now being used more as an extension for organisers rather than the focus.”

Paul Jones, managing director, Conference Coventry and Warwickshire, commented: “There has been a huge desire from people to get back to face-to-face events and the inevitable impact of that has been a reduction in enquiries for hybrid events.

“The return to face-to-face events is fantastic for our visitor economy and we have a varied portfolio of venues for event organisers to choose from in Coventry and Warwickshire.”

Read more on the findings here. 

The Independent Print Industries Association (IPIA) will tackle sustainability at its Autumn Conference on September 1 at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC).

The event’s theme is ‘Print in Balance – Supporting People and our Planet’ and will tackle wellbeing at work alongside environmental sustainability.

According to IPIA, proposed government legislation, cultural changes, and corporate social responsibility shift will impact the UK print industry. Find out those impacts and what solutions the conference will bring on Conference News.

Andrew Harrison, director of the Event Services and Suppliers Association (ESSA), asks, what does ‘industry standard’ really mean, why do we need standards, and how can we uphold them, especially when the going gets tough?

In an opinion piece for M&IT, Harrison examines why standards matter, especially when under pressure. And with the events industry being so busy, the current shorter lead times and staffing issues, there has never been a more appropriate time to discuss the topic.

Check it out here.

Double Take

ICC Wales has hosted a Protect Duty Roundtable to highlight the role venues and event organisers play in ensuring they are as safe and secure as possible for attendees.

Following ICC Wales’ Protect Duty Report, the roundtable aimed to strengthen the events sector’s response to forthcoming legislation.

The new legislation, also known as Martyn’s Law, will formalize the responsibilities and actions that publicly accessible places must take to mitigate the risk of a terrorist attack.

Heather Lishman, executive director of the Association of British Professional Conference Organizers (ABPCO), said the discussions helped ease some of the uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the new legislation. She continued:

“Protect Duty can sound quite formal and scary, but ultimately protecting someone should be seen as a very positive message – it’s a caring cause, keeping people safe from harm. If we as all stakeholders work together and work out the potential harms together, hopefully we can mitigate the risk as a team effort. ”

Read the full story here.