It looks like Diamonds are NOT forever!

The summary of proposals from the VisitBritain strategy is copied below.

The time is ripe

A number of very positive factors coincide to make this an exciting and timely moment at which to launch a new Quality Strategy:

Marketing

For the first time, the domestic marketing of England, the international marketing of Britain, and the management of the England Quality schemes are under the same roof; and

VisitBritain has committed to the progressive introduction from 2006 of an assessed-only promotion policy.  

• enabling VisitBritain to ensure that our Quality work is driven by customer needs and is
• fully promoted to customers.

A clear proposition

England, Scotland and Wales have agreed on common accommodation standards, and the implementation of these is going well:

•  enabling the three countries to put a clear, unambiguous Star-rating message to the customer, the media and the industry for the first time.

Skills as the driver for Quality

Industry and the government have agreed that Quality and Skills are key drivers for the success of tourism, as demonstrated in the DCMS prospectus 'Tomorrow's Tourism Today', published this year. People First has been created as the new Sector Skills Council for tourism; and The Regional Development Agencies, with their remit for both Quality and Skills, have assumed strategic responsibility for tourism, and have created strong Destination tourist boards to deliver on both quality and skills; 

• enabling Quality and Skills work to be fully joined together

Critical mass

Thanks to the work of the Britain Quality Review Group and the commitment of the industry, participation in the common Star ratings is forecast by the Group to rise from under 50% at present to over 80% by 2010.

Our Vision

World-beating Quality that anticipates customer needs

Our Mission

• To support and stimulate continuous improvement in the quality of the tourism offer.
• To stimulate investment in service and facilities.
• To build a long-term national and international position as a quality brand.
• And thus to contribute to improved profitability in the industry.

Our Objective

Our objective is to make our visitors want to:

• Recommend their experiences of tourism in England to their friends and family.
• Make more repeat purchases
• Respond to our cross-sell and up-sell activities.

The proposed Key Actions

Action 1  Align Star ratings to the lifestyles of our customers

• Provide quality assurance that is in tune with the lifestyle of our customers and that meets and satisfies their needs.
• To be customer-driven, through ongoing consumer and industry research into customer needs and aspirations, and how our competitors are addressing their needs.

Action 2 Energetic marketing of the Stars

• Make Stars the clear, easily understood symbol of Britain's new common
  accommodation standards - and make Star-rated businesses their first
  choice of accommodation.
• Offer an 'umbrella' branding for quality in England covering all relevant
  assessment bodies.
• Promote the Stars strongly in everything the industry does.
• Make full use of EnglandNet's ability to extend distribution of quality assured products.
• Enable customers to make informed decisions that best suit their taste and pocket, by improving:
  the breadth, depth and quality of the information available the consistency of the branding of it, and the signalling of our quality ratings the means of access to the information.

Action 3: Support the Total Destination Experience

• Improve the total destination experience by closely integrating the work at national level with the work of regional and sub-regional boards and local authorities.
• Encourage local distinctiveness and authenticity, and the 'sense of place'.
• Introduce core common service standards that can be adopted by Destinations across all sectors (accommodation, leisure, retail, transport) to improve the basic customer welcome.

Action 4 Achieve critical mass

Use the Britain-wide accommodation standards to help drive up participation levels.

• Introduce new 'Entry level' standard in England
• Extend the scope of the national schemes to include, for example, sustainability, food and drink, and conference facilities.
• Reward businesses that achieve high performance, and that have high real relevance in the marketplace, with our marketing backing.

Action 5 Assist businesses with the continuous improvement of their business strategies

• Foster continuous improvement in Skills inputs in order to achieve higher Quality outputs:
• Work with People 1st to identify the skills inputs that businesses need in order to deliver a quality experience; use assessment visits to identify training and development needs.
• Further develop our benchmarking and best practice advice.
• Provide marketing advice.
• Action this on the ground by developing the VisitBritain Assessor team as Business Advisors.

Action 6 Improve accessibility and information about it

• Promote the new-launched National Accessible Scheme to the industry and to the customer.

Action 7 Develop a 'Green' Star rating that meets customer needs

• Introduce in England a new Sustainable Tourism standard that meets customer needs.

If you would like to comment on this proposal feel free to contact:

Peter Varlow
Special Projects Director
VisitBritain
tel 020 8563 3127
mobile 07971 497011
[email protected]

David Stanbridge
Head of Quality Standards
VisitBritain
tel 020 8563 3180
mobile 07971 497063
[email protected]

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