BRITISH TOURIST AUTHORITY TRADING AS VISITBRITAIN ...
BRITISH TOURIST AUTHORITY TRADING AS VISITBRITAIN ...
BRITISH TOURIST AUTHORITY TRADING AS VISITBRITAIN ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
VisitBritain and VisitEngland<br />
Annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 st March 2010<br />
Sustainability, Social & Community Issues (continued)<br />
Work in this area has included:<br />
Stakeholder engagement<br />
FIFA 2018 World Cup bid. Working with The Carbon Trust, Positive Impacts and Envirowise, VisitEngland put together a<br />
one-off educational workshop on achieving sustainability goals for the bidding cities. The aim was to ensure that cities<br />
came together with a common understanding of sustainable development principles and how to achieve success.<br />
VisitEngland was also a contributor to the environmental part of the bid book.<br />
ISO 2012:2. Certification and management systems to embed sustainability are important to a number of organisations in<br />
the tourism sector. British Standards launched the first sustainable management standard for the event industry in 2008<br />
(BS8901) that has been fast tracked to become an international standard. VisitEngland are on the steering committee to<br />
help develop this into ISO 2012.2 that is to be launched in 2012.<br />
Industry engagement activities<br />
Research into why businesses join certification programmes and the benefits gained resulted in a greater understanding of<br />
the role that certification plays but also identified where VisitEngland and its regional tourism partners could add additional<br />
value. A key output of the research included the development of a marketing and communications toolkit aiming to help<br />
businesses understand how to make the most of their sustainable credentials. This was commissioned as a joint project<br />
with the nine regional tourism delivery bodies in England.<br />
Further development of Green Start was made with a view to launch in early June 2010. The entry level awareness<br />
raising, entry level training, and business review tool is available to tourism businesses in England seeking to reduce their<br />
impacts on the environment or community in which they are located.<br />
VisitEngland co-ordinated a dedicated area on sustainable tourism at the Best of Britain and Ireland Show, on behalf of the<br />
other national tourist board in the British Isles. The aim of the area was to build on successes of the 2009 show and to<br />
increase further debate and action from industry. Visitor numbers and satisfaction levels of the sustainable tourism area<br />
were significantly higher.<br />
Tourism for all<br />
VisitEngland assisted over 18,000 tourism businesses provide an Access Statement - a written description of their facilities<br />
and services to inform people with access needs. VisitEngland provides an online template tool, which is being fully<br />
updated and relaunched at the end of summer 2010.<br />
VisitEngland provides the National Accessible Scheme, the only national scheme that rates the accessibility of visitor<br />
accommodation; an approach that is popular with disabled people. N<strong>AS</strong> membership has grown 15% over the last 14<br />
months.<br />
VisitEngland led a national accessibility data collection programme across England to increase the provision of key<br />
information on facilities and services by tourism businesses. In 2010, accessibility information was introduced to<br />
enjoyengland.com and the VisitBritain and VisitEngland suite of websites under a new Accessibility tab on product listings.<br />
2010/11 Priorities<br />
The following priorities have emerged from VisitBritain’s 2010/11 business planning:<br />
Strategic Priorities for VisitBritain 2010/11<br />
VisitBritain starts the next year with a clear focused strategy to deliver on its mission of building the value of tourism to Britain.<br />
The key planks of this are:<br />
Inspiring travellers from overseas to visit and explore Britain<br />
Delivering a global network to support tourism promotion overseas<br />
Championing tourism and engaging industry and government in support of its growth, and<br />
Maximising the tourism legacy benefits of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.<br />
VisitBritain will be working alongside DCMS and the new Secretary of State and Tourism Minister to deliver the key tourism priority of<br />
ensuring that hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games leaves a lasting tourism legacy for London and the whole country<br />
and not just for London. Learning the lessons of other countries, the ambition is to produce the best tourism marketing plans that any<br />
Games host country has ever had, to deliver a sustained and sustainable uplift in tourism. This is to be accomplished by creating a<br />
new fund with the goal of generating £1 billion worth of PR and marketing activity in our 20 priority markets in the years around 2012.<br />
17