Law Commission Report on Weddings
The law commission has published a report on their review of wedding legislation which contains a series of recommendations that follow the submissions that that the Tourism Alliance made and will significantly help the UK tourism industry.
The key recommendation in the report is that the wedding system move from the registration of the premises to the registration of the officiant. This means that weddings would be able to be held at venues such as – outside in gardens, the grounds of historic houses or self-catering complexes, at outdoor attractions as well as on heritage railways or on passenger boats. This would significantly boost opportunities for a lot of tourism businesses
Another significant change is the recommendation to be able to hold civil weddings that include some religious components which would mean that civil weddings could be held be deconsecrated premises or venues that had some religious iconography which is currently a problem for many historic venues.
Consultation On Dormant Accounts
DCMS has launched a consultation to gather views on the broad social or environmental purposes of the English portion of dormant assets funding. This funding amounts to £738 million for England and the
While the consultation is focused on using these assets to fund youth, financial inclusion, social investment, and community wealth projects, it also invites suggestions of other broad social or environmental causes that could be considered for the Dormant Assets Scheme in England which means that there is to opportunity to make the case for causes that would support community/environment initiatives that would support tourism development. To read the consultation document – please click here.
EU Language School Debate
On Wednesday that was a very helpful Westminster Hall debate on the impact of passport requirements on English Language Schools sponsored by Dr Rupa Huq MP where MPs acknowledged the problems associated with the need for passports and were very supportive of finding a solution to this problem
Here is the Hansard record
2022 UKCAMS Survey
The UKCAMS (UK Conference and Meeting Survey) 2022 report provides an overview of conference venue performance and the estimated impact of conference and meeting spend in destinations in 2021. This year’s survey has identified and quantified the beginnings of a recovery following the catastrophic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-2021, while also providing some tentative timelines for the sector’s full recovery. It reveals that an estimated 440,000 conferences and meetings took place in the UK in 2021, compared with just 195,000 in 2020, but still representing only 31 per cent of 2019’s conference and meetings activity. These events generated an estimated £4.9 billion of direct expenditure in venues and destinations, compared to £1.7 billion in 2020 and £17.6 billion in 2019.
Looking forward, just under half of venues (45 per cent) indicated that they expect their conference and meetings business to recover to 2019 levels by 2023, with over a third somewhat less optimistic and anticipating that a full recovery would take longer.
In 2021 there was an average of 124 conferences and meetings held in primary conference venues, compared with 56 in 2020 and 405 in 2019. The average duration of events was 1.5 days, similar to previous years, although most conferences and meetings (69 per cent) lasted a day or less. Around a fifth (19 per cent) of business was residential at the event venue with an estimated further 12 per cent staying in the wider destination.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the levels of product investment by venues remained below pre-Covid levels, with over a third of venues (35 per cent) not investing anything in 2021, a result of cash flow pressures and trading uncertainties.