TOURISM


news & jobs at www.leisureopportunities.co.uk Sport tourism prospers in the UK


Two million foreign visitors to Britain attended sports events during 2008 By Martin Nash


According to a new survey by national tourism agency VisitBritain, three million visitors to the UK in 2008 spent £2.3bn watching and playing sport. The survey shows that nearly two million


visitors watched sport in Britain in 2008, the most recent year for which full figures are available. They often did this at a venue such as Lord's or Hampden Park, spending more than £1.3bn in the process. Meanwhile 1.4 million visitors played


amateur sport at more modest British locations, contributing another £1.3bn. Some both watched and played. VisitBritain calculates that sporty foreign


tourists accounted for about 14 per cent of all spending by visitors in 2008, with a sporting visitor spending far more – an average of £900 per trip – than 'ordinary' foreign tourists who typically spend £500.


Venues such as Lord's attract tourists Football is revealed to be the key


attraction for foreign spectators. Around 1.2 million went to a match, of whom 267,000 were Irish, 95,000 Americans, 88,000 Germans, 86,000 Norwegians, 75,000 Spanish, 65,000 Italians, 55,000 Australians and 52,000 Dutch.


£16m to develop Welsh 'adventure tourism' By Pete Hayman


Plans for the creation of four Welsh tourism centres, which will offer facilities for outdoor and adventure activities, have been handed a £16m funding boost. The Welsh Assembly Government has


announced that funding will help create new centres of excellence. North Wales Cycling Activity Tourism


Mountain bike tourism is in line to benefit


Centre of Excellence will receive more than £2.2m, which encompasses nine compo- nents and includes upgraded facilities at Coed Llandegla near Wrexham.


Nearly 40 UK locations have applied for World Heritage Site status, accord- ing to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Tourism minister John Penrose has


DCMS reveals UK's world heritage candidates Among the sites bidding is the


Birmingham Jewellery Quarter; Historic Lincoln; Merthyr Tydfil; Offa's Dyke; and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Brunel's Great Western Railway;


published a list of bids for the country's Tentative List of the 38 sites looking to be included in the UK's submission of candidates to UNESCO in 2011.


© Cybertrek 2010


Chatham Dockyard and its Defences; the Dover Strait; Jodrell Bank Observatory; the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads and the Lake District are also included.


O


ne of the few things that the Labour government and the new coalition agreed on is that, as a


nation, the British drink too much alcohol; that this causes anti-social behavior and that it is a burden on the health system. This view resulted in labour introducing the Licensing Act 2003 and the new Mandatory Code of Practice for the sale of alcohol. While well intentioned, these


requirements had a significant unintended impact on small businesses in the tourism sector. Businesses such as B&Bs, guesthouses and holiday park operators that wanted to provide small amounts of alcohol for customers went from paying £30 and filling in a simple form to suddenly paying a fee based on their rateable value (typically at around 10 times the previous amount) and having to fill in a much more complicated application. As a result, many just stopped selling alcohol. Now the new government aims to


continue where the Labour government left off. The Home Office has just released a consultation that includes a proposal that applicants for an alcohol license undertake an assessment of the impact that their selling of alcohol will have on the local community. It is time that the government


implemented the recommendations of the Elton Review on Licensing and introduced a de minimus approach to licensing so that businesses selling small amounts of alcohol can go back to paying a small fee and filling in a simple registration form.


Read Leisure Opportunities online www.leisureopportunities.com/digital 11


It is time to listen to Elton


Government should look at existing licensing reviews


KURT JANSON is policy director of Tourism Alliance


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