Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the importance of live music venues to music tourism in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The Government recognises the significant contribution of live music to the UK, both culturally and economically. Live music venues are hugely important to the UK’s music tourism industry, which - according to UK Music - generated £4 billion in spend in 2017. That is why we have undertaken a number of measures to support and protect this sector, including reforming licensing and planning and introducing the Live Music Act, making it easier for promoters and venues to put on live music events.
VisitBritain research shows that in 2017, over 2.6m international visitors attended a live music event while visiting Great Britain, representing 7% of the total visitors received.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent steps they have taken to review the affordability of major tourist attractions for children from lower income families.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
As part of the recently launched Tourism Sector Deal, the Government committed to making the UK Europe’s most accessible tourism destination by 2025. As we develop our policies in this area, we will consider our policy around this.
The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions ranked seven DCMS-sponsored museums, free to enter for all, amongst the nation’s top ten most visited attractions in 2018. All fifteen DCMS-sponsored museums run extensive outreach programmes for schools and young people, with free activities timed to coincide with school summer holidays.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the return amount from the grant-in-aid investments in (1) VisitBritian, and (2) VisitEngland, by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in each of the last two years.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
British Tourist Authority analysis suggests they generated £1,055m in 2017-18, equating to a return on investment of 25:1. This is an increase on £867m in 2016-17, which equates to a return on investment of 20:1. They are unable to provide a return on investment estimate for VisitEngland or VisitBritain activity specifically.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what return they expect to make on their investment in the #MyMicrogap domestic campaign led by VisitEngland and Airbnb.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
VisitEngland created the #MyMicroGap campaign as a match funded partnership with AirBnB of £500,000, with both parties contributing £250,000. The campaign was part of VisitBritain’s overall 2018-19 activity and as such will be included as part of the Annual Report for the year.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of youth travel in growing the UK tourism industry.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
According to VisitBritain research, the UK received 12.1m visits from people aged between 16-34, who spent £7.2bn while they were here in 2018. On average they spent approximately 8 nights in the UK during their stay.
With 63% of inbound travellers to the UK being return visitors, the youth travel market can be important for supporting long-term tourism growth.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the rate of youth and educational travel to become more competitive with global rates.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Government and VisitBritain continue to assess the UK’s competitiveness against other countries, working to ensure that the UK remains the destination of choice for youth and student travellers.
VisitBritain regularly engage with the British Educational Travel Association and English UK, who are members of the British Tourism Industry Group in order to stay abreast of the challenges and opportunities in this market. They use the ‘Join the world - #MyMicroGap’ marketing campaign to support youth and student travel within the UK, and have used the GREAT campaign to market to Chinese and Malaysian markets what the UK’s tourism offer is.
Several Discover England Fund products have targeted the youth and student market internationally, including the England-wide The Collection and Liverpool and Warrington’s Buzzing for the Weekend.
VisitBritain have also conducted research into segments of the market who visit the UK, including the youth and student market.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent steps they have taken to assist with the growth and viability of independent museums.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The museum sector in England is vibrant and dynamic, and has an impact on a wide variety of social outcomes including education, health and wellbeing, community cohesion and social inclusion. Independent museums are an important and successful part of the museums sector: around half of the museums accredited by Arts Council England are independent. In addition, the Association of Independent Museums estimates that they are visited by over 9 million people annually.
Over the last ten years, museums have received over £800m annually from public sources. DCMS supports museums through Arts Council England, the museum sector development agency. Arts Council England funds some independent museums directly as National Portfolio Organisations, as well as supporting many projects run by them through its grants programmes and strategic funds. It also funds Sector Support Organisations and Museum
Development organisations which can also assist independent museums. Independent museums are eligible for other public funding such as capital grants from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and support for permanent and temporary exhibitions through the Museums and Galleries tax relief introduced in 2017. The £4m 2018-20 round of DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund awarded 40% of its funding to independent museums.