To consider the findings of the Tourism Review Group following the Review of Tourism with specific reference to Tourist Information Centres.

Councillors PM Morgan and RH Smith declared a personal interest in this item.

The Committee received a report on the Review of Tourism in the County with Specific Reference to Tourist Information Centres.  Councillor RH Smith, on behalf of the Tourism Review Group, presented the paper.  By reference to the Desired Outcomes, Key Questions and the Scoping Statement, he took the Committee through the report and highlighted in particular the following issues:

·            That the review had been undertaken as a result of an Audit Commission report that had highlighted the need for a way of measuring the effectiveness of tourism in the County, and ensuring value for money from its Tourist Information Centres (TICs);

·            The review had been undertaken in line with the scoping statement attached as Appendix 1 to the document;

·            That value for money from the TIC model was a key consideration.  Tourism West Midlands were in the process of developing key performance indicators to measure tourism volume and value throughout the region;

·            That the management and delivery of tourism information services should remain under the Council’s control;

·            That the County should establish at least one exemplar TIC that would be able to stand comparison with the best in the Region, provided that this could be achieved at no extra cost.

·            That the TIC structure should be changed to a ‘hub and spoke’ concept. Such a structure would have no impact on costs, but would offer gains in efficiency and hence value for money.

In the ensuing discussion, the following points were made;

·            Councillor BA Hunt, Ward Member for Bromyard, recording his minority view on the Review Committee that while he would like the facility at Bromyard to be treated the same as the other Market Towns, he accepted the suggestion that the current facility should be upgraded.

·            Concern was expressed by a Member about a proposal to move the Ross-on-Wye TIC to the library in Ross-on-Wye.  This would move the TIC from one end of the town to the other, which might prove to be to its detriment.

·            Mr Hands concurred with a comment from a Member that the cost of exhibiting at the World Travel Market at theNational Exhibition Centre, Birmingham had proved prohibitively expensive.  It was for the same reason that Visit Herefordshire had also decided not to attend the Bristol Travel Show.  He added that he was delighted to see the proposal that the Kington TIC should remain in its present location.

·            That consideration might be given to relocating the Hereford TIC to a retail outlet that did not incur such high costs.  The Old House was put forward as a suggested alternative location.  The Committee endorsed the suggestion in the report that, should a Tourist Information Point be established within the Edgar Street Grid development, this should be subsidiary to the City Centre TIC.

·            Visits undertaken as part of the Review had found that the Shrewsbury TIC had featured Herefordshire in its displays, and that the Ludlow TIC had been similarly knowledgeable about Herefordshire.   Mr Hands pointed out that it was the policy of the TICs that they should cover an area around them to a thirty mile radius.  They were likely, therefore, to overlap county boundaries.

·            The Cabinet Member (Economic Development and Community Services) thanked the Committee for a thorough report and all the hard work that had been put into the review.  He said that new figures had been worked up using the Scarborough Model, which meant that the estimates of the total tourism contributed to the economy of the County could be revised from £291 million as outlined in item 4.1 of the report, to £335 million.  The Head of Economic and Community Services reported that this model had been chosen as it was much more locally focused than the Cambridge model that had previously been used.  The latter gave a greater emphasis to national figures. Referring to Appendix 4 at Agenda page 29, it was noted that the Destination Management Partnership spent approximately £105,000 on promoting the County.

·            The Cabinet Member went on to say that the Hereford TIC had an important role to play in the regeneration of the City Centre, and consideration was being given as to where it should be placed.  Care would have to be taken to preserve the heritage offer if the Old House were to be used, as this was a well preserved historic building.  Responding to comments concerning the display of out of County literature, he agreed that whilst the emphasis should be on Herefordshire, under reciprocal arrangements, other should also be displayed.

·            It was agreed that the sentence on page 19, item 8.3 of the report: ‘a TIC may be co-located with an “Info in Herefordshire” office but that the two should never be combined’ should be altered to read, ‘but that the two should not be combined’.

RESOLVED

THAT     (a)     the findings of the Tourism Review Group be submitted to Cabinet;

               (b)    that subject to the Review being approved, the Executive’s response to the Review, including an action plan, be reported to the first available meeting of the Committee after the Executive has approved its response;

                        and;

               (c)     a further report on progress with respect to the Review should be made after six months with consideration then being given to the need for any further reports to be made.