UK Government publishes review of Destination Management Organisations - Chief Executive of Marketing Lancashire Rachel McQueen responds

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The UK Government has today (20/7/2022) published its response to the independent de Bois review of Destination Management Organisations in England, conducted by VisitEngland Advisory Board Chair, Nick de Bois. 
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The response recognises that Destination Management Organisations are a vital part of England’s tourism landscape, connecting with local businesses and Government agencies to attract investment and visitors across the regions, boosting the visitor economy. The response states that, for this to happen, it is necessary to transform the DMO landscape at a local level and address long-running concerns about the structure, funding models and fragmentation of England’s DMO landscape.

As a result, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has announced that it will provide £4 million over the next three years for us to develop and administer a new accreditation scheme. This funding will also be used to create a pilot in one region of the country, giving one top-tier DMO or a group of local DMOs the opportunity and investment to restructure under a new model.

Under the new accreditation scheme, DMOs will be renamed Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs). Running alongside this, the pilot of a tiering model in a region of England will run over the next couple of years. It will give one top tier partnership, or a collection of partnerships (known as a Destination Development Partnership), funding and the opportunity to focus on activities that ensure their destination remains sustainable, competitive and responsive to challenges such as boosting skills, accessibility and levelling up.

We welcome the UK Government’s response and the opportunity to play our part in implementing the recommendations. Over the summer, we will be working through how we implement the accreditation scheme and the Destination Development Partnership pilot and will keep you updated as we develop our plans.

We look forward to working with you, to ensure we have the right national and local infrastructure to enable England to continue to be a compelling destination for domestic and international visitors. This will also strengthen the case for future funding.

 

VisitEngland Director Andrew Stokes said:

“VisitEngland welcomes the Government’s response to the de Bois review of Destination Management Organisations in England and the opportunity to play our part in implementing the recommendations.

“Destination Management Organisations are a vital part of England’s tourism landscape, connecting with local businesses and Government agencies to attract investment and visitors across the regions, boosting the visitor economy. We look forward to implementing the accreditation scheme and the Destination Development Partnership pilot, ensuring we have the right national and local infrastructure to enable England to continue to be a compelling destination for domestic and international visitors. This will also strengthen the case for future funding.”

 

Rachel McQueen, Chief Executive of Marketing Lancashire responds:

“Marketing Lancashire made a significant contribution to the de Bois review of Destination Management Organisations (DMOs), hosting the North West consultation workshop at Browsholme Hall, and ensuring that the challenges and opportunities of the sector here in Lancashire were fully understood. We are now pleased to see that the majority of recommendations have been accepted so positively by government, with Tourism Minister, Nigel Huddleston, looking towards ‘a bigger and better tourism industry’.

“DMOs play a crucial role in connecting and supporting a wide variety of visitor economy businesses and in Lancashire, we have a particularly strong visitor offer across urban, rural and coastal locations, which up until the Covid-19 pandemic, had seen visitor numbers and economic impact grow year-on-year for six consecutive years.

“We are working hard to return to those levels of growth and welcome this new national strategy. We also look forward to learning more about the pilot project, accreditation scheme and new Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs).

“Until then, Marketing Lancashire will continue to work with Visit England, DCMS, local stakeholders and partners to assist and grow our visitor economy businesses, encourage inward investment and support public and private initiatives to help deliver economic growth for Lancashire.”