Culture has always been an important motive for travel, and the relative importance of tourism in an area will significantly influence the output and programming of artists and arts organisations. Nigel Buckler reviews the role of tourism in creating benefits for artists, organisations and audiences, and describes some trends in tourism at home and from overseas.
The tourist market for the arts, like the local and resident market, is not a single market. It is a segment, or a grouping of segments, that has, on the whole, very different expectations of a holiday. Tourism and the arts, together, represent a serious opportunity to develop artistic activity and a more secure art economy.
While the tourist market is diverse it is widely agreed that one significant theme recurs - increasingly, the visitor is demanding high quality and value-for-money in every aspect of the holiday product. Tourism is the world?s fastest growing industry and the market at every level is, therefore, highly competitive.
The UK Tourism Survey and International Passenger Survey calculate total tourism spending in the UK to be worth £64 billion per year. 50% of spending is on day trips, 25% is by UK residents on staying trips, 20% is by visitors from overseas, and 5% is in fares paid to UK carriers. Arts tourism is defined by the British Tourist Authority (BTA) as ?visits to all types of cultural events and attractions, heritage and contemporary, classic and popular, in performance or collection.? BTA estimates that spending on arts tourism now exceeds £5 billion per year.
Tourism and the arts
The economic importance of arts tourism is established and its growth can be central to the economy of destinations and their arts industry. The economic argument of investing in arts tourism is important - but tourism and the arts can develop other significant relationships. Arts activity may be modified through its contact with the tourist audience. The tourist?s experience can be enhanced by contact with the arts and a distinctive culture.
The natural and built environments of the UK are among the most powerful attractions to visitors from home and overseas. Performance and public art, for example, can do much to enhance and interpret those environments. The visitor?s enjoyment and understanding of the destination are greater - the visitor is inclined to increase the length of stay or make a return visit.
Campaigns
There are campaigns that make the most of the benefits of arts tourism. BTA ran its Festival of Arts and Culture in 1995; at the time, it had the highest number of enquiries generated by a single campaign. Since then there have been campaigns based on themes including literary and movie connections, style and design, rock and pop, and arts festivals.
Increasing the regional spread of visitors in the UK is a priority for the tourism industry and such campaigns, by their spread of destinations and tours, can address that priority. An increased seasonal spread of tourism is also a priority, both for the industry and for residents in popular areas. Some tourism activity depends on the likelihood of fine, warm weather but it is also known that some tourism markets, that are relatively free to travel outside the main summer months, are strongly motivated to travel by special events. Tourism and the arts can develop audiences based on these markets.
The whole holiday
Whether singly or in partnership, tourism and the arts need to develop and promote the quality of the whole holiday experience. In the case of group travel they will probably need to package the main elements of the trip - accommodation, meals and admissions. The independent traveller is often resistant to too much packaging but will need to know the options. Both tourism and the arts need to know the basics of each other?s part of the whole product as a simple function of customer care.
Segmenting the market
The segmentation of domestic tourism markets is patchy. Some work has been done by tourist boards, local authorities and the commercial sector; there is some free material on the Internet. Arts organisations and arts officers will know about the composition of their audiences and how significant the tourists are to their area. Regional and area tourist boards and local authority tourism departments will, in the main, spend the larger part of their marketing budget in the UK. Their strategies, often accessible on the Internet, should indicate which market segments they have selected and the media being used. For the fuller picture there needs to be some form of dialogue if one does not already exist.
Domestic and overseas tourism
The UK resident staying away from home in the UK is away for an average 3.4 nights. The average spend on the trip is £111 or £33 per day. 33% of those trips will be to visit friends or relatives who will, no doubt, be influential in knowing which arts events and venues can be visited. The 33% who visit friends and relatives is a number that has increased significantly over the last decade. At the same time, trips to cities and the countryside by all groups have increased as those destinations have invested more in tourism marketing. The relative decline in seaside resort tourism, explained in part by the popularity of overseas air travel since the 1970s, now makes resort regeneration one of tourism?s most important issues. The industry is also adapting to the continuing trend away from the traditional week-long holidays towards more flexible, later-booked shorter breaks.
Visitors from overseas to the UK stay longer and spend more. The average length of stay is 8.3 nights, total spending per trip is £487 or £58 per day. As well as the natural and built environments most overseas visitors are attracted to the UK by their perception or understanding of its culture. This culture can encompass their interpretations of the traditional, twee, high and street art. There has been much work done in identifying the segments overseas that are interested in these versions of UK culture.
What next?
Tourism is being badly hit by unfavourable exchange rates and, particularly in rural areas, by the foot and mouth epidemic. It is vulnerable to international conflict and terrorism. The funding of the arts and the roles of the major distributors are fragile. Individual artists and arts organisations often work at the margin of financial viability. It is no time for paying lip service to cultural tourism and to arts and tourism partnership; two of many practical issues could be addressed.
First, there is duplication of effort, particularly at regional and local level, that can inhibit joint working. It would help enormously if appropriate agreements could be reached, for example, on print production, media buying, booking systems and similar supplies. Second, there is scope within the arts and tourism for increasing knowledge about each others? product; there are different markets for contemporary arts and for heritage culture - as there are tourist market segments with very different needs and expectations of the arts. Anyone can be ?the cultured tourist?.
Nigel Buckler is an independent tourism and marketing consultant whose recent commissions have included work for Bath Tourism Bureau and Film Office, the English Tourism Council, and the Cornwall and the English Riviera Tourist Boards. He is also advises applicants to South West Arts on Lottery funding. t: 01392 425992 e: buckler@talk21.com
Some practicalities
Much of the arts? first contact with the tourist is through a third party in the tourism industry. The main third party sectors comprise:
? Holiday accommodation and attractions - more than just a repository for print but, with encouragement, a source of PR for the arts
? Tourist Information Centres (TICs) - the most direct face-to-face, spoken, written and sales contact with customers
? Local government departments - likely to operate the TICs, produce holiday guides, run familiarisation trips and websites
? National and regional/area tourist boards - broadly similar marketing functions that can include publications, collecting information, running familiarisation trips, news/consumer PR campaigns, developing websites and online commerce, domestic and overseas workshops and exhibitions, trade missions, and marketing training.
Contacts, including trade web addresses
English Tourism Council (no marketing function but links to the ten English Regional Tourist Boards? sites)
t: 020 8563 3000
w: http://www.englishtourism.org.uk
Wales Tourist Board
t: 029 2049 9909
w: http://www.wtbonline.gov.uk
Scottish Tourist Board
t: 0131 332 2433
w: http://www.scotexchange.net
Northern Ireland Tourist Board
t: 028 9023 1221
w: http://www. discovernorthernireland.com (consumer site)
British Tourist Authority
t: 020 8563 3186
w: http://www.tourismtrade.org.uk