PAPER B

Committee :    ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PLANNING, TOURISM AND LEISURE SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE

Date :              23 SEPTEMBER 2002

Title :              EXTERNALISATION OF ISLE OF WIGHT TOURISM

REPORT OF THE STRATEGIC DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

SUMMARY/PURPOSE

Members are invited to debate some of the issues arising out of the initial work in respect of the externalisation of Isle of Wight Tourism and to consider the potential locations for the responsibility for the development of the tourism policy and strategy.

BACKGROUND

The Executive has resolved to externalise the services currently provided through Isle of Wight Tourism. This was one of three main options for the future delivery of the services identified in a Best Value Review of Isle of Wight Tourism (IWT).

Since that resolution the Island Tourist Industry Association (ITIA) has been making strenuous efforts to determine a service delivery model for an externalised IWT. In fact it is currently considering four proposals within its Executive. It would wish to keep these proposals confidential at this time.

           It would be fair to say that consideration of service delivery models by the Council is not yet as advanced as the work of ITIA. This is in part due to the loss of the Head of Tourism Services and the need to stabilise the management arrangements of IWT until such time as a new service manager can be appointed.

The classic externalisation model would see the Council retaining the responsibility for tourism strategy, development and policy and it would procure the services of advertising and promotion from an independent third part provider (IWT). In this particular instance however the industry has a much, if not a greater role to play in the development and implementation of policy and therefore there needs to be clear lines of accountability and responsibility set out if the industry is also to be involved with the new third party provider.

The externalisation issue is further complicated by the amalgamation of the Southern and South Eastern Tourist Boards. The Council has been vigorously pursuing a clear identity as one of a limited number of sub regions within a new, especially large, tourist board area. This pursuit is made especially difficult as the roles and responsibility of a sub region are as unclear as the definition of “sub region” itself.

It would seem clear that a fundamental part of the externalisation process will be to address the future role of the Tourism Partnership. Presently this is the forum whereby

representatives of ITIA and the Council meet to discuss tourism issues but there would appear to be little to compel either partner to deliver on decisions that are agreed at such meetings.

The current role of IWT is to advertise and promote the tourist industry on the Isle of Wight, this role being especially fulfilled for those businesses that are members of Isle of Wight Tourism (and hence ITIA) which presently number some 840. It is of some concern in a wider strategic sense that the issues pertaining to non-members are somehow effectively addressed in any externalisation. It should be clearly recognised that such businesses can affect the perception of the Island Tourism product as much as an IWT member.

KEY ISSUES

The key issue for debate today would seem to be about the future potential roles of the Tourism Partnership, the Council’s post-externalisation Executive, this Select Committee and ITIA in the development and management of tourism strategy and policy within a new Regional Tourist Board.

The Committee may also wish to consider how the non-members of IWT can be engaged in the delivery of agreed tourism strategies and policies.

Contact Point : John Metcalfe, Head of Community Development and Tourism, ☎ 823825

D PETTIT

Strategic Director of Education and Community Development