Who's who in tourism? – Wales and the UK
United Kingdom
The Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) www.culture.gov.uk/tourism is responsible for supporting the tourism industry at national level, and for putting regional and local support for the sector into a strategic context.
Tomorrow's Tourism set out our strategic approach to meeting the needs of the tourism sector's customers, and its aims for encouraging and a growing and prosperous industry. Building on this, in July 2004 Tomorrow's Tourism Today was published- a prospectus for tourism development in five key areas, setting out the responsibilities and actions of public and private sector organisations in the key areas of marketing, quality, skills and data. DCMS oversees Visit Britain.
Visit Britain (formerly the British Tourist Authority) is tasked with the promotion of Britain to overseas markets. They also, undertake promotion of England to UK markets. They do not get involved in marketing Wales within the UK.
VisitBritain's Board members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in accordance with the terms of the Development of Tourism Act 1969. The Act provides for the Board to consist of a Chairman and up to five other members, plus the Chairmen of VisitScotland, the Welsh Assembly Government Tourism Advisory Panel and the England Marketing Advisory Board, acting in an ex-officio capacity. The Chairmen of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Visit London also attend Board meetings as observers by invitation from the Chairman of VisitBritain.
For most operators, the 'products' or opportunities offered by Visit Britain’s overseas division will not be relevant unless you cater for a particular type of customer such as overseas back-packers.
Visit Britain has 27 overseas officers but the ones most likely to be of interest to South West Wales businesses will be in Dublin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin and Paris. Each overseas office will provide a range of services including brochure racking and mailing.
Trade web site (www.tourismtrade.org.uk) with contacts, information and campaign details; it also has some useful facts and figures. Visit Britain’s corporate site can be found at www.visitbritain.org.Visit Britain’s Consumer site can be found at www.visitbritain.com
Wales
Visit Wales came into being on 1st April 2006 as part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Department of Enterprise and Transport (DE&T). Visit Wales succeeds the Wales Tourist Board. Visit Wales has an excellent website resource for the tourism trade, new.wales.gov.uk/topics/tourism, which provides a range of information from grading, grant availability and current marketing campaigns to research and advice.
Visit Wales has a team of advisors who can help with business development and provide advice on subjects such as marketing, accessibility issues and e-commerce. Visit Wales has a range of capital grants in operation. Look under 'schemes' in the 'investing in your business' section.
Visit Wales operate the Visit Wales consumer website (www.visitwales.co.uk) and an information desk at the British Travel Centre on Regent Street in London.
The former Welsh Development Agency is also now part of the Assembly Government’s Department of Enterprise and Transport (DE&T). The regional office for the South West Division can be found at: Llys-Y-Ddraig, Penllergaer Business Park, Swansea SA4 9HL.
new.wales.gov.uk/topics/businessandeconomy.
Visit Wales also funds the South West Wales Regional Tourism Partnership (RTP), which consists of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea and Neath/Port Talbot. SWWTP is one of 4 RTPs that came into being in 2002. SWWTP’s role is to develop and lead implementation of the regional Strategy ‘Open All Year’ rather than actually delivering services itself. You can find all contact details on the ‘Contact Us’ page www.swwtp.co.uk
SWWTP’s role is to ensure that national policies and activities are reflected locally in the context of regional priorities.
The Tourism Training Forum for Wales (TTFW) is the country’s leading independent voice on tourism education and training and provides line management to the Gallu project.
TTFW Provides leadership, guidance and co-ordination for tourism training and education in Wales.
TTFW strives to highlight the role education and training has in securing the industry’s future.
- Businesses who wish to flourish must invest in their workforce’s development and futures
- Training and education courses must reflect the industry’s needs
South West Wales Region
SWWTP as above
South West Wales Economic Forum www.swwef.org
The Regional Economic Fora in Wales promote the economic growth and development of the region and are vehicles for coordinating strategic issues and policy direction such as investment and transport which frequently impact on tourism. SWWTP sits on the Forum in the region.
Local Authorities –Carmarthenshire, City & County of Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Pembrokeshire
Working with SWWTP in the region are the 4 Local Authorities of Carmarthenshire County Council, City and County of Swansea, Neath Port Talbot County Council and Pembrokeshire County Council and 2 National Parks, Pembrokeshire Coast and Brecon Beacons. All have representatives on the SWWTP Board – all links can be found on swwtp website Links/Partners Pages.
The Local Authorities in the region contribute both directly and indirectly to the wellbeing of the tourism industry and the visitor.
Some of their diverse responsibilities include:
- Marketing of their destination areas
- Funding and or managing some key Tourist Information Centres (both of the above are non-statutory) also;
- Land use, planning and development control
- Attraction of private sector investment
- Accessing and advising on specific funding assistance to develop tourism
- The development, funding and management of visitor attractions, leisure and recreational amenities
- The provision and maintenance of key tourism infrastructure and facilities such as car and coach parking, public toilets and refuse collection
- Regulatory functions such as those related to environmental health e.g. food hygiene
- Planning and administration of the highway network
- Tourism signing
- Rights of way and footpath network
National Parks – Pembrokeshire Coast and Brecon Beacons
The National Parks are responsible for enhancing and conserving the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the Parks (in the SWW region they include the whole of the Pembrokeshire Coast and also the western part of the Brecon Beacons).
The Parks operate warden services and visitor centres (and some Tourist Information Centres) as well as being local authorities in their own right. They have planning powers and a duty towards the social and economic welfare of residents as well as environmental management responsibility for their areas.
All links can be found on swwtp website Links-Partners pages.
Trade Associations (TAs)– Carmarthenshire Tourist Association, Pembrokeshire Tourism and Tourism Swansea Bay
As well as the larger sectoral groupings such as the Wales Tourism Alliance (see Links-Tourism Organisations) there is a network of strong local trade associations in the region.
Each Association (find all links on Links-Partners pages) is currently represented on the SWWTP board and receives core funding annually from SWWTP under a formal funding contract. This contract stipulates key services that should be undertaken for the local industry.
The SWWTP ‘Open All Year’ strategy clearly states the importance of a strong industry and local networks and as such a cornerstone of the annual Business Plan for SWWTP has been to work closely with public and private sector partners to develop the three associations – now representing a total regional membership of approaching 1000.
In the last 12 months this includes communication to the local industry via Open meetings and newsletters, facilitation of trade days and events in conjunction with organisations such as Visit Wales and Gallu (the latter body works in conjunction with each Association) and also special projects such as the administration of the small events scheme using SWWTP funding.
The TAs offer a vital link to operators in the context of providing the opportunity to access information, discuss issues, take part in specialist marketing opportunities such as packaging initiatives and buy-in to national schemes and a chance to lobby and inform in wider for arena.
The three Tourist Associations websites are:
The training arm of all 3 Tourist Associations is called Gallu their website is www.gallu.org.uk
'Gallu' is the People Development Programme for all tourism related businesses in South West Wales.
The aim of 'Gallu' is to help tourism related businesses with any training and business development challenges they have within their business and help them find the solutions. The programme up-skills the workforce, improves the quality of visitor experience and in the long term hopes to increase the competitiveness of the tourism industry in South West Wales.
Gallu's strong HRD Team assist individual businesses in identifying their training and development needs, and work with each Tourist Association to encourage businesses to engage with Gallu and invest in staff development by participating in training courses, workshops, seminars and open days.
Gallu can help with all your training needs either with the facilitation of a workshop or by helping you source a training provider who already has exactly what you need.
The Gallu team will also be working on behalf of the tourism sector behind the scenes, influencing people to ensure that tourism is as high on their Agenda as it should be!
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