POLICY COMMISSION MEETING

Meeting	Policy Commission for Economy, Tourism, Regeneration and Transport
Ref	E.PC.08/03/06
Date	08 March 2006
Time	18.00 hours
Place	Committee Room 1, County Hall, Newport, Isle of Wight
Purpose of meeting	Formal Public Meeting
Attendance	Commission	Cllrs George Brown (Commissioner), Henry Adams, Ivan Bulwer, Jonathan Fitzgerald-Bond, Charles Hancock, John Hobart, Lora Peacey-Wilcox
	Cabinet	Cllr Tim Hunter-Henderson, Cabinet Member for Island Economy, Regeneration, Tourism and Leisure Cllr Ian Ward, Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport and Planning
	Cabinet Secretariat	Cllr Alan Wells
	Other Councillors	Cllr Mike Cunningham Cllr Arthur Taylor Cllr Anne Bishop
	Officers	Ms April West, O&S Team Ms Andrea Lisseter, O&S Team Mr John Lawson, Acting Chief Executive Mr Derek Rowell, Director of Environment Services
	Stake holders	Mr Nigel Smith, Head of Tourism
	Apologies	Cllr David Pugh
Agenda Items
1. To agree the notes of the previous meeting	1.1 The notes of the meeting held on 8 February 2006 were agreed.
2. To invite Members to declare any interest they might have in the matters on the agenda	2.1 There were no declarations of interest at this stage.
3. To receive a presentation on the Value for Money (VFM)Tourism project from Mr Nigel Smith, Head of Tourism	Mr Nigel Smith put forward the following views: 3.1 Isle of Wight Tourism (IWT) employs 36 staff who manage tourism services. While private operators could provide the service with less staff and at a lower cost, they could not do the job so effectively. 3.2 Publications contribute £300,000 to marketing activity. Surplus is put back into the marketing campaign. 3.3 Businesses are offered free entry into the attractions mini guide. 3.4 Last year online marketing was so successful that it prompted more guides to be printed to meet the demand. 3.5 The Destination Management System (DMS) is a central system updated by IWT and has been in operation since 2004. The system has 950 businesses presented on it and has generated 4,600 accommodation bookings. Approximately £57,500 in Commission has been taken by IWT for accommodation bookings. Service costs are reducing as the system is evolving. 3.6 Online bookings on the DMS would be enabled shortly. Approximately 60 accommodation providers have attended the 3 workshops regarding online bookings. 3.7 IWT advertise in the Mail on Sunday, the Times and the Radio Times. 3.8 The Council contributes £912,000 to run the tourism service. 3.9 Efficiency savings of £330,000 have been made in 3 years. 3.10 The Isle of Wight Council spends considerably less than the Isle of Man or Jersey and has more bed spaces. 3.11 Isle of Wight Tourism are members of the Destination Performance UK Coastal Group and can therefore compare spending with other coastal tourist regions in this group. 3.12 TIC’s are open for 92% of the year. 3.13 Businesses can register free of charge on the DMS. 3.14 Visitor monitoring is undertaken through a survey completed on the ferries by TSE. Figures from the 2004/05 ferry survey show increases in visitor numbers to the Island and the business confidence survey from 2005 revealed that IOW businesses reported better overall performance in 2005 than 2004. This monitoring enables a good understanding of why visitors come to the Island in order to target similar socio-economic groups. 3.15 Experience from working in an externalised operation suggests that the strategic and delivery functions cannot be effectively separated. 3.16 There is better value for money in tourism in house because i. efficiency savings of £330,000 over three years have been found ii. IWT has 50+ performance indicators to ensure that the needs of the service are being met iii. the number and volume of publications has been reduced iv. new income streams from web ads, online bookings, and the overseas campaign are being investigated v. the Council is looking into strategic partnering which could include parts of IWT, e.g. the call centre vi. IWT is looking into potential partnering for TIC’s. Ryde Interchange is a good example of potential partnership arrangements vii. IWT is continuing to push quality agenda initiatives which will generate value for money by changing the product viii. IWT is looking to make a bigger bang with regional, national and international marketing partners, for example EnglandNet.
Action required	Commission to be provided with information on the CAMEO study. Further information on the DMS to be passed to Cllr Brown.		Nigel Smith Nigel Smith