John Penrose - we must sell Britain to tourists!

John Penrose MP Minister for Tourism and Heritage just prior to the launch of the Government's new tourism strategy has gone on record to say that “Domestic tourism is one of the biggest prizes for our tourism industry." However where we let ourselves down is that "As a country we are rubbish at valuing the stuff on our own front doorstep. We have got to sell it to ourselves and people abroad.”

Tourism and the letter i

Is the letter 'i' the single most important letter in tourism? 

A sign containing nothing but this single letter is able to let you know that you have found somewhere that will provide you with information. And, as far as tourism goes I mean useful, helpful and quality Visitor Information on things like where to stay, places to eat, things to do and what's on.

TICs are being closed across the UK

The Guardian recently ran an article entitled "Tourist information centres face extinction" describing that the country was soon to lose our network of TICs. I tweeted the link to the article and was genuinely surprised at how many retweets I got and how many people also contacted me directly to discuss the issue further. It seems that the closure of TICs is a very emotional issue.

UK Tourism - The BIG Problem

The big problem with UK tourism is that our tourism businesses fail to provide the Visitor Information that properly informs, inspires and compels consumers to choose the UK as their destination of choice.


Research indicates that 80% of these Tourism Businesses websites contain no Visitor Information. These websites contain no destination content that would help consumers to plan their trips, inspire them to do more things, arrive sooner, stay longer and spend more money!

Tourism Improvement Districts

Should UK Tourism Businesses take responsibility for Destination Marketing now that there is little or no public funding available? This is a question that I posed on various LinkedIn discussion groups that has provided some really interesting and stimulating debate. At a time when there is little or no public funding available for tourism promotion where does that leave our tourism businesses? Where does that leave those tourism businesses who relied upon a strong public sector role in tourism and destination marketing? Who will market the destination if the local tourist board no longer has the funds to do so?