Who Will Be The Next Tourism And Leisure Minister

[Charles Flynn]

I would hope whoever is made Minister for Tourism and Leisure has extensive experience in tourism and can demonstrate real achievements and vision for the future. Of course political skills are different than business skills so we need someone who can see the whole pictuire with a degree of balance to represent and take account of the many competing interests including the T.T.

 

I do not know who that would be from the people declared at the moment, but if we have a clear idea what is wanted then after the election hopefully someone will closely fit the bill.

[Ripsaw]

The TT is cost effective and makes money. I can't tell you how I know, so don't ask.

 

I'm sorry but that appears to be the cross the board response in most areas - its a secret, we don't tell anyone, we don't publish figures or anything but trust me, it makes money.

 

Not being critical of you as you probably can't without breaking cover, but the best way to stop idle speculation is to publish the figures particularly if they are good and particularly if people would be surprised. Its the absence of anything tangible that leads to such speculation.

I'm not very good with graphs, what does this picture from the 'DoT&L Service Delivery Plan 2004-2007' mean?

[hboy]

if we have a clear idea what is wanted then after the election hopefully someone will closely fit the bill.

 

I would hope that after a rigourous democratic process we could find someone capable of doing something for the tourist industry, it should not be too hard! People might not be overly keen on Robertshaw but I'd rather have money on someone who managed to turn a hotel that was worth bugger all in the early 80's into a top class hotel in spite of falling traditional tourist figures.

 

The trick is to know your market, and he has done that well. You can't argue with that. I stayed at the Sefton in the late 80's and it was a dump full of old grannies on cheap package deals.

 

They should look for people who at least can demonstrate proven success in the industry

[Ripsaw]

(Can you tell it's Friday night and I'm bored?)

 

While I'm posting pictures, here's one you won't find on the Government website

[hboy]

The TT is cost effective and makes money. I can't tell you how I know, so don't ask.

 

I'm sorry but that appears to be the cross the board response in most areas - its a secret, we don't tell anyone, we don't publish figures or anything but trust me, it makes money.

 

Not being critical of you as you probably can't without breaking cover, but the best way to stop idle speculation is to publish the figures particularly if they are good and particularly if people would be surprised. Its the absence of anything tangible that leads to such speculation.

I'm not very good with graphs, what does this picture from the 'DoT&L Service Delivery Plan 2004-2007' mean?

 

Income static. Costs gone up?

[Frances]

I read it as saying we get a return of about £12 for every £200 spent - 6% return on capital and decreasing - but that costs were increasing at about 10% per year

[Illiam Dhone]

it is chrystal clear that we have lost thousands and thousands of hotel beds in the last ten years

I think I heard that the latest figure is a shade over 6,000 beds from all hotels, guest houses etc (everything licensed).

 

A couple of decades ago we had 1 million visitors each year; now we have a quarter of that.

[Max Power]

The plain fact is that we have nothing but scenery without the motorsport events!

There is nothing of spectacular entertainment value and nothing that makes us stand out in the world at all. We appear to look inward and have an inflated opinion of our own importance.

Unless we are prepared to promote and develop motorsport events such as the TT and rally (including looking towards MotoGP and world championship status) we will never have an infrastructure to put us on the international stage!

[Theskeat]

The DTL is one of the largest Government departments and costs the taxpayer more than in creates, The IOM has no future in tourism so why waste more money

[Max Power]

Without tourism we have no viable entertainment for local people, the Island would become a more intollerable place to live and it would be difficult to attract people to live and work here, young people would leave in droves.

[Frances]

Look at the events in Port Erin later this week - the music festival will probably bring more tourist money than the IoM Rally - walking tours (based on the scenery!) could be a consistent and probably year round tourist event - motor sports are not the way to go, but we have a petrolhead in charge.

[Max Power]

I would seriously doubt that the music festival will attract anything like the amount of money that our motorsport heritage brings in.

You do not see droves of tourists specifically heading to the Island for this type of event, they can be entertained like this at any time in the UK.

As for walking holidays, fine but again numbers are very small and neither of these groups spend anything like the money individuals do at the TT, MGP or Rally's, and that is a fact!

[Frances]

neither of these groups spend anything like the money individuals do at the TT, MGP or Rally's, and that is a fact!

 

The TT and to a lesser degree the MGP bring over many spectators who do spend their money - probably over a period of a week or so though from what I hear the average length of stay for both is decreasing - however both these events cost significant money + a hidden subsidy from the rest of us in terms of poor road layouts + reduced maintenance on on off course roads , annual disruption etc - I also think the TT in its present form will not survive, no ferry company wants peak loads, the Island's accomodation is no longer the same as when the TT (and the younger MGP) were promoted as attractions to extend the season. The car rallies, though they have existed for many years, have only recently mushroomed into the major road closure events of the last few years - I doubt if the number of spectators was more than 2 or 3 x the number of competitors. I have no doubt that the competitors had a good time but at the cost of annoyance to many. Judging from the dash for the ferry on Sat afternnon my guess is that most competitors came over on Weds and left 3 days later.

[stookie]

"I read it as saying we get a return of about £12 for every £200 spent - 6% return on capital and decreasing - but that costs were increasing at about 10% per year"

 

Not sure I agree with that, as that top line looks like revenue spending, not capital. If I'm right (anyone prepared to come on here and explain the figures any differently?) this is not a return at all, this a loss of £188 for every £200 spent.

 

That would be a waste of money in most people's eyes. The argument for doing it would be that revenue is generated from the collection of taxes and payment of VAT/duty by people employed in the industry and associated businesses and in the form of VAT/duty receipts from people who visit. Anyone know if those kinds of statistics are gathered or available?

 

What needs to be remembered is the staffing cost of the department is only going to increase without radical (and unpopular) action with final salary pension plans for sundry civil servants (for the most part, no longer enjoyed in the private sector) etc, etc so the department needs to be a bit more 'scientific' about its spending in my view.

[Ripsaw]

Don't forget that the T&L figures include subsidies for the Busses, trains, Villa Marina, and a whole host of 'Special' events that take place.

 

The Department really does cost a lot more than it earns.