Minutes:
Sarah Wood (Managing Director of Mulberry Cottages and Visit Kent Board Member) Sandra Matthews-Marsh (Chief Executive Officer - Visit Kent), and David Statham (Chief Executive Officer of South Eastern Railway and Visit Kent Board Member) were in attendance for this item.
1. Ms Wood (Founder and Managing Director of Mulberry Cottages) presented a series of slides that set out the current state of Visit Kent’s Economy, the consumer trends and the financial impact of the tourism industry which had supported the increased viability of both large and small businesses throughout Kent.
2. In response to questions and comments Sandra Matthews-Marsh provided further information:
a. In regard to the installation of wind turbines, Visit Kent had not received any negative response through the available research but welcomed the view that Kent’s coast was an enormous environmental asset. Ms Matthews-Marsh assured Members that matters, such as the demand for resource, had been acknowledged by the Visit Kent Board. She also said that the coastal landscape was a contributing factor to visitor growth in 2017 and environmental pressures would continue to be monitored through on-going research.
b. Research showed that other countries used VAT as a lever to stimulate the visitor economy. Visit Kent’s competitor set applied a 10% VAT rate to hospitality and studies showed that if applied within Kent following Britain’s exit from the European Union, this would act as an immediate stimulant for visitor growth and create an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 jobs.
c. In response to the Bedroom Tax, there was a pilot launched in Bath whereby a 4% Tax was applied to visitor accommodation Ms Matthews-Marsh said that there were no statistics to suggest it would have a positive effect on Kent, however, examples from Canada demonstrated that whilst the levy had reduced the volume of visitors, it had increased the visitor economy value.
d. Visit Kent used the Cambridge Economic Impact Model and its national standard to collect domestic and international data on visitor attraction numbers, the number of tourists travelling by ferry and monthly occupancy monitoring to collect data on hotel and bed-stock numbers. Visit Kent was due to carry out an Economic Impact Study and this could be shared at future meeting of the committee.
e. Ms Matthews-Marsh said the growth of business tourism within larger cities had impacted on shire counties including Kent, Sussex and Essex as they did not have the infrastructure needed to sustain conferencing facilities. Assurance was given to Members that the growth of these sectors was due to be reviewed in the next iteration of the Visit Kent Business Plan.
f. Ms Matthews-Marsh welcomed Members’ suggestions to incorporate the North Sea Race Schedule for 2022 into the Visit Kent presentation.
g. Kent County Council supported Visit Kent in advocating the Hospitality Guild and would continue to work in conjunction with Visit Kent on the Skills Agenda to encourage employment opportunities.
h. Ms Matthews-Marsh said that the visitor economy saw a decline of 0.9% during the year of Operation Stack.
i. In response to Members’ concerns regarding the flight path over Kent’s heritage sites, Visit Kent assured Members that representations had been made which supported Hever Castle’s Chief Executive, Duncan Leslie, in his proposals to improve the visitor economy.
3. RESOLVED that the information set out in the presentation and given in response to comments and questions be noted.