The Structure of Tourism as it affects the South East
VisitBritain (VB)
VisitBritain is a public body funded by the government. It is responsible for marketing Britain (ie. including Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) to the rest of the world and for marketing England to the British.
The National Quality Assurance Scheme is within their remit. Delivery is contracted to GSL Limited, operating under the name of Quality in Tourism which employs quality assessors throughout England. It also works in partnership with other organisations, which have a stake in British and English tourism.
This includes:
Tourism South East (TSE)
Tourism South East is the organisation which supports and fosters the interests of tourism in the South East. It is a Company Limited by Guarantee, a membership body and receives core funding from the South East Regional Development Agency (SEEDA) to act as the strategic regional agency for tourism. There are other types of organisation doing similar jobs in other parts of the country (RDAs[1], DMOs[2], etc).
TSE’s main mission is to generate an improvement in the management and performance of the travel, tourism and leisure sectors of the South East. It works in partnership with the tourism industry and with regional and local government to ensure that limited resources are used to best effect, bringing together the multitude of disparate businesses which make up the tourism sector.
South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)
SEEDA is one of nine regional development agencies in England and is responsible for the economic development and regeneration of the South East. It is TSE’s main funding body.
The economy of the South East is the 20th largest in the world and, with London, it is the main driving force of the whole UK economy.
SEEDA is responsible for the execution of central government’s (the Department of Culture, Media and Sport – DCMS) tourism strategy in the South East and TSE is the agent that delivers this.
The Six Sub Regions of TSE
TSE is the largest tourism organisation in England outside London. The region it covers extends to some 19,000 square kilometres.
To ensure an effective regional structure with meaningful local focus for the industry and an ability to deliver efficiently at a local level six administrative sub regions have been established.
These are:
- Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire
- Hampshire
- Isle of Wight
- Surrey & West Sussex
- East Sussex
- Kent
In most cases these are purely administrative. They do not and are not intended in any way to mirror the consumer’s perception of the key destinations. Indeed quite a few key destinations cross the boundaries of these sub regions (e.g. Cotswolds, South Downs). However there are exceptions – the IOW and Kent for instance are strong destinations in their own right.
Each sub region is led by a committee, a mix of local authority and industry partners, many of whom represent different industry sectors e.g. B&Bs, attractions and hotels. The sub region is led by an elected chair who is also a Director on Tourism South East’s Board representing the sub region. The sub region committees are each supported by a sub region lead manager at TSE.
Most sub region committees have created a ‘Statement of Tourism Priorities’ and a related task list for the sub region. Their job is to drive the delivery of these activities ensuring all available resources are brought to bear.
50% of TSE members’ subscriptions are allocated geographically to each sub region as pump priming money for jointly resourced work on the task list.
Local Authorities and Tourism
TSE works very closely with the local authorities of the region who have overall responsibility for managing tourism within their boundaries. The extent of support and involvement varies depending on the importance of tourism within the area and political support.
Tourism is a non-statutory functionMost local authorities, however, choose to operate tourism services of some kind. These tend to focus on marketing activities and information provision via Tourist Information Centres, although they can extend to a wide range of other support services including facility management, event organisation, training for tourism businesses etc. Most local authorities operate Destination Management Systems (DMSs) which ensure that rich, high quality information about the accommodation, attractions and other tourism products of the destination can be easily accessed on line by potential visitors. Ultimately such tourism products will be bookable on line via DMSs.
Councils also support the tourism industry in many other ways, for instance, through street cleaning, the provision of visitor facilities and planning policies which protect the quality of the environment on which much of tourism is based.
The vast majority of local authorities in the region are partners of TSE and pay an annual subscription for the benefits and services of partnership. This partnership is crucial to the successful management of tourism in the region.
[1] Regional Development Agency | [2] Destination Management Organisation