Overall Structure of Tourism - Tourism North East

The Overall Structure of Tourism

This topic covers:

Public sector tourism
Private sector tourism
What does it mean for tourism businesses

Public sector tourism

There are two sides to the tourism industry in this country: public sector tourism (the organisations that are there to promote tourism) and private sector tourism (the organisations and business that deliver and sell tourism products and services to customers).

Below is the public sector structure. Click here for the private sector structure.

English tourism

We have a fairly complicated structure for tourism in this country. Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man all have their own organisations for promoting tourism, funded by their own governments or executives. For England it works like this:

Promoting the nation - VisitBritain

75 Million (07/08 budget)
VisitBritain promotes the whole of the UK to overseas visitors, trying to encourage as many visitors here as possible. It has its own network of offices in 36 countries but also works with the big private sector tourism and travel operators. £50m of its £75m estimated budget comes from DCMS (the Department of Media, Culture and Sport).

Through its Enjoy England branding it is also responsible for promoting England (as a country) to Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The other national counterparts are: the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Visit Wales, Visit Scotland and Visit London. Even though London clearly isn't a nation, the London Development Agency funds Visit London to the tune of £22.9 m - a similar budget to the other national boards.

Consumer sites are: www.visitbritain.org.uk and www.enjoyengland.com

VisitBritain's trade site for tourism businesses and professionals is: www.tourismtrade.org.uk

Promoting the regions - Regional Development Agencies

collective budget £22.8m (06/07)
There are eight RDAs in the UK (excluding London) South West, South East, East of England, East Midlands, West Midlands, Yorkshire, North West and the North East. They have a statutory responsibility for tourism, ie they must provide for it.

As regards tourism (they have a much wider remit for regional economic development), they are responsible for promoting their region to the UK and abroad. Additionally they ensure there is good support for businesses and their workforce. They also have a key role in managing and influencing the activities of the area and local tourism bodies within their region to ensure the least duplication of effort.

For general information about the regional development agencies visit www.englandsrdas.com.
To visit our region's development agency go to www.onenortheast.co.uk .

Promoting local areas - Destination Management Organisations

Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) are responsible for supporting and growing tourism in their area. Their area can be their city, their resort, their district, their county or even an area that crosses several geographical or political boundaries, like the New Forest, because that's the area that visitors recognise. DMOs are set up, run and funded differently (and called different things) in different parts of the UK but broadly speaking they get their funding, and their remit, from their RDA and/or their local authorities. Often they have to be slightly self-sufficient, raising money from visitors through booking commissions and from tourism businesses through membership or subscription to advertising campaigns. There are approximately 100 DMOs throughout England.

In the North East we have the four Area Tourism Partnerships, which are independent organisations with their own boards and remit, but are funded by One NorthEast, our regional development agency, the Local Authorities in their area and also through some private sector funding. They are: visitTeesvalley, Northumberland Tourism, Tourism Tyne and Wear and County Durham Tourism Partnership.

Promoting individual places - Tourist Information Centres

There are over 500 TICs operating throughout England. They provide information to visitors and potential visitors. They book accommodation (it's a free service to visitors, but there's usually a commission charge of 10% serviced and 5% self-catering to accommodation providers), suggest places to visit and itineraries, provide directions and sell maps and retail goods.

Located in highly visible locations - high streets, attractions, places of high visitor footfall - they see literally millions of visitors through their doors each year. In the North East we have 37 Tourist Information Centres all able to promote and book tourism businesses.