The Government does not understand the urgency of the need
for destination management organisation (DMO) reform, according to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee.
In a withering attack, the DCMS Committee called the
Government’s July response to Nick de Bois’s DMO review from August 2021 “half-hearted”
and said the Government had “failed to commit to any long-term change.”
The de Bois review last year highlighted the lack of
resource for DMOs and the disconnect between national policy and local
delivery. It also presented solutions to make England’s tourism sector better
equipped to compete internationally.
In July this year the Government blamed the Comprehensive Spending Review and departmental business planning for its delayed response to the report. It accepted some of the report’s
recommendations, such as a new accreditation system, and awarded VisitEngland
up to £4 million across the 2022–25 Spending Review period to develop this.
However, it only committed to a pilot of de Bois’ tiering model rather than
implementing the model in full. The pilot will be awarded multi-year core
funding, but the Government refused to commit to funding any national rollout.
The DCMS Committee said: “The de Bois review of Destination
Management Organisations (DMO) received widespread support from across the
industry and it is unacceptable that the Government took 11 months to respond
and in such a half-hearted fashion.
“The Comprehensive Spending Review and departmental business
planning are standard annual events and so the Government should not use these
as an excuse for the delay. We can only conclude that restructuring the DMO
sector was not a priority, confirming stakeholders’ fears that the Government
fails to appreciate the urgency of the issue.
“Now is the time for bold action, yet the Government has
failed to commit to any long-term change. We welcome the fact that the
Government has accepted some of the report’s recommendations, but its response
falls short of the changes necessary for Destination Management Organisations
to reach their full potential.
“We acknowledge the fact that the Government must ensure
public money is spent wisely but are disappointed that the Government has made
no commitment to fund a national scheme should the pilot prove successful, nor
published the criteria by which it will be judged.”
The committee added that it recommends that the Government
should complete the pilot to a swift timescale and commit to implementing the
de Bois recommendations in full.
Nick de Bois described it as “disappointing” that the model
would not be immediately rolled out, but he acknowledged the need to ensure value
for tax-payer funding, adding that he hoped that, in due course, the scheme
would go ahead at national level “with the necessary funding”.
Nick Brooks-Sykes, director of tourism at Marketing
Manchester, said the organisation was “disappointed with the small extent of
the Government’s commitment to support the sector. The whole point of the
review was to highlight the lack of resource and the disconnect between
national policy and local delivery and to present solutions to make England’s
tourism sector better equipped to compete on the global stage. This
announcement does not fix this.”
