Department Of Tourism

[Motivator]

Anyone owning a tourist accommodation business on the Island (large or small) will probably know the answer, because it seems the answer is absolutely bugger all. The Department of Tourism has a considerable advertising budget to spend each year... but what do they spend it on? That's not a rhetorical question by the way, if Carol Glover or Geoff Le Page is reading this, I'd genuinely like to know.

 

I'm sure we've all seen the Northern Irish Tourist Board adverts on telly, about various tourists 'discovering' things like Guinness and the Giants Causway etc. etc. And we've probably seen the Welsh Tourist Board TV ad's about even putting some of the road signs in English, and how we can have anything but we can't take away their mud. But when was the last time you saw a TV ad for the Isle of Man?

 

I mean even Aviemore in Scotland (which is just one resort, let alone a country) runs TV advertising campaigns. And what about the number of times you've seen an ad on telly for Polaris World? Again we're just talking about a resort chain, not an Island nation dependent on tourism for it's economy and employment of several thousand residents.

 

It's not that it would cost us (as tax payers) anymore money each year to run a TV campaign, because the Department of Tourism has an annual advertising budget already that could cover the cost. But it doesn't. Why? I go back to my original question... what does it spend it's millions each year on then? UK Radio commercials perhaps? Well nope, I've never heard any when I've been over there. Posters? Maybe national newspaper adverts? Well no, again I've not seen anything like that for years. In fact I think the last time I saw anything like that, the person running tourism on the Isle of Man was a "Mr T V Bond" whoever he was?

 

As people in the industry know, as accommodation owners, we can't offer tourist accommodation unless we are registered by the Department of Tourism. And for the privilege of being thus registered, we have to pay the Department an annual fee. A fee which (incidentally) went up by 800% overnight for some of us! Hardly in line of inflation huh?

 

And then we also have to pay to be listed in the annual Isle of Man Holiday Guide. I think the smallest advert in that costs over £200. With a full page ad costing over £2,000. That's each year don't forget. And as I say, registering isn't an option, it's a requirement by law.

 

Now I know Carol Glover is on £80,000+ a year. And I dare say Geoff Le Page isn't far behind. And then there are also the hundreds (and hundreds) of government employees/civil servants employed by the Department who are also on the government gravy train. But I'm still at a loss why as far as advertising and promoting tourism for the Isle of Man is concerned, I see absolutely nothing from one year to the next.

 

Of course names are put into a hat in the Department each year, to see which lucky winner/employee will attend the various trade shows in order to "promote tourism on the Island". Trade shows which might include having to trudge to awful places like the USA, or France, or Spain. Maybe Greece, New Zealand or Italy. Yes I know it's a pig of a job, but somebody has to do it, right?

 

I happen to think that the Department of Tourism does nothing, absolutely nothing by way of bringing tourism to the Isle of Man. It seems that any TV promotion of the Island is done by way of us being used as nothing more than a backdrop for the odd cookery programme. Or maybe a location for a film production. But we don't pay for that sort of promotion. That's given to the Island simply by way of it's own natural beauty. And even then it's not promoting the Isle of Man per se. It (the Island) just happens to be a beach or a mountain in the background.

 

I was gobsmacked recently to see that the Islands of Guernsey and Jersey actually have a regular FULL 30 minute programme on one of the Sky channels (either Sky 2 or Sky 3?) which is broadcast three times a week. A regular programme paid for by their respective Departments of Tourism. Now surely to God if Guernsey and Jersey can afford to promote itself by way of entire programmes, and a single resort like Aviemore in Scotland can afford a whole run of TV adverts about itself, it's not too much to ask that the Department of Tourism for an entire country (and that's rightly what we sell ourself as) could afford something similar? Or is it just that we employ so many people in the Department of Tourism, and on such high salaries, that there simply isn't anything left in the annual budget to actually do what the Department is supposedly there for? i.e. to promote tourism to the Isle of Man.

 

Of course there's little point in promoting tourism until Government addresses the REAL reason why people are staying away from the Isle of Man in droves. That of course being the obscene cost of a family and their car getting over here in the first place, thanks to the ludicrous prices charged by the Steam Racket. In summer, it can cost a family and their car over £500 just to get on and off the Island. Let alone accommodation costs, meals and spending money. So why WOULD anyone bother? That £500+ could easily cover the cost of their travel AND accommodation up to the Lake District for a week, or pay for a week in Wales or Scotland or wherever.

 

Sorry to go on, but I just feel the Department of Tourism needs to start being accountable for it's actions... or more precisely, lack of them. They're that busy insisting that accommodation owners send their staff on relatively pointless 'training days' that the concept of actually getting tourists to the Island has escaped them altogether. And whilst having well trained staff is always a good thing, there seems little point in having the best trained staff in the British Isles... if no-one actually bothers to come over here in the first place! Our tourist industry can't survive on healthy business for two weeks of the year, from an event which basically promotes itself anyway - regardless of what the Department of Tourism does or doesn't do. Thanks for reading.

 

Richard

x

[Static]

Some excellent questions and points. What got me a while back was an article in the papers regarding tourist figures being down (last year?) and the spokesperson (can't remember their name) comng out with something along the lines of "it was to be expected" - well if it was expeced then why dn't they get off their overpaid backsides and try and do something about it.

 

Now they might be - but as you said - where is the visible evidence of the Department of Tourism actually trying to promote tourism?

[Gladys]

The Dept of Tourism is an anachronism, we do not have a tourist trade any more. We have a beautiful product, but its market is now very small; the days of bucket and spade holidays are gone.

 

Much better would be to consolidate all the efforts of the various departments promoting the island off -island into one department who would professionally promote the IOM in all its guises (freedom to flourish, film, tourism, offshore financial centre, sports) to the outside world; from that I would hope that we would encourage visitors, not necesarily 'tourists', and feed the hospitalisty industry and probably a few others.

[bluemonday]

In the Mail a few weeks ago - weekend edition. Someone pointed out to me that in the small holiday ad coloumns , there were quite a few individual hotels on the Isle of Wight running their own adds, underneath was a solitary add consisting of a web address and phone number for a brochure fom the Isle of Man TB. So they don't seem to spending a lot there.

[spermann]

I usually try and give a positive reponse things however on this occasion i would have to say that they do seem to do sweet FA.

 

I am informed that a lot of the money is spent on PR agencies who fall short on Isle of Man requirements. Also, bringing journalists over and paying large sums of money to get them pissed doesnt always produce the results that our Island nation requires.

 

Should we be engaging someone with pink / purple hair (it could be gold this week?) to be running this department? I think image is important when trying to secure business, both in the Government and private sectors!

 

The tourist sector relies on repeat business, sporting groups, the TT and friends / family of locals. I bet if the dept of tourism, staff and budget was removed overnight, we would not see a significant drop in the low numbers already achieved.

 

Lets save some tax payers pounds and bring forward the closure of this department!

[John Wright]

Apart from grade hotels and run the leisure facilities what should it do.

 

The tourist industry is a private industry and has to stand on its own two feet

 

They shoulkd not expect any more funding for advertising than any other industry and certainly no discounts or subsidies.

[cheeky boy]

The Dept. of Tourism is responsible for IOM Transport which is the buses MER and steam railway, but not horse trams.

 

It would make sense to give control of all the historic stuff to Manx Heritage and allow the buses to be run by a director and given a fare subsidy, e.g. more passengers, more subsidy. After all, why do we need a government department to run a bus company ?

 

Dept. of Tourism could then be privatised and paid according to tourism generated revenue, say along the lines of what a company with a £120million PA turnover would spend on marketing & PR.

 

That way would mean that poor performance would terminate their contract, but more visitors would mean more pay, as happens in the private sector.

 

It's also worth pointing out that in the 1930s when we had nearly a million visitors a year there were three people in the IOM Board of Advertising as I think the Department of Tourism was then known.

[Amadeus]

It would make sense to give control of all the historic stuff to Manx Heritage and allow the buses to be run by a director

 

The island used to have a most excellent Director of Public Transport not too long ago - a well liked figure that was very good at the job. He left due to unsolvable differences with a certain exec at the DTL (so did a few more people, I believe...). Sadly, he passed away a few months ago and will be dearly missed as a person and good friend....

[Motivator]

Sorry Gladys I chose the wrong word. You're quite right. I did actually mean "visitors" rather than "tourists". Also, in response to what John says, I wasn't suggesting I want the Department of Tourism to get any more funding for advertising. Far from it. Neither was I suggesting the holiday/visitor/tourism industry should be entitled to any discounts or subsidies. All I want is for the Department of Tourism to actually do SOMETHING useful with their vast budget each year.

 

As to what the Department should do, well in my opinion it has a responsibility to promote the Isle of Man as a place for people to visit. Nothing more than that really. Yet it seems to be the one thing they're completely hopeless at doing. Worse than that, it wouldn't be as bad if they at least tried and failed. But it doesn't even seem to try!

 

Surely Isle of Man Transport should come under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transport? Then we really could disolve the Dep't of Tourism, and as someone else has said, I bet the number of visitors to the Island wouldn't even dip. Thereby saving millions of Pounds a year. I think a healthy chunk of a Dep't of Tourism's remit is to promote the place they are employed by. As for our own Dep't doing the annual inspection of properties, they don't even do that. They bring in a private company in from the UK to inspect all our hotels and guest houses each year.

 

I love the idea of disolving the Department and employing a company (employing local residents) who would be paid based on their performance. Now that would sort out the wheat from the chaff. I actually suggested to Geoff Le Page a few years ago that he should be paid based on the number of people who come over, but he didn't seem that interested... surprise surprise! Because that would mean he'd actually have to do something before he got paid.

 

Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting people/property owners in the tourist industry (or visitor industry) should get grants or anything. In fact even though I'm one of them, I would be against the idea. God knows our Government gives out far too many grants for unworthy causes as it is. All I'm saying is the Dep't of Tourism has a responsibility to let people out there know how beautiful the Island is, and what they're missing by staying away. Our job is to make sure they enjoy it once they arrive, and will want to come back again. But until someone in authority challenges the cost of visitors getting on and off the Island, everything else seems relatively pointless.

 

Richard

x

[Ean]

There are billboard adverts around liverpool advertising the IoM and I'm pretty sure there are still TV adverts for the island as well but i think they are both the same adverts as a couple of years ago so what this years budget was spent on I don't know.

[parchedpeas]

I saw a TV ad on Sky recently for the Isle of Man. Made it look very nice. Would love to visit one day.

[Major Chip Hazzard]

Not sure were all the money goes, but they do run a great photographic competition with great prize money. You have until noon tomorrow, Monday 2nd July to enter this year's competion !!

 

Edited to add image...