Tom Wright Interview
Rob Savage meets Tom Wright, Chief Executive of Visit Britain.
Just to get warmed up how would you sum up your time line with Visit Britain and how did you fit into the scheme of things here?
I've been Chief Exec for going on six years now. I come from a travel background before this I was running Saga Holidays and before that I was the Sales and Marketing Director of Centre Parcs. So I'm a consumer marketer by background but I've very much moved across to the leisure and travel side of it.
Our readership is made up predominantly of backpackers, flash-packers and grey-gappers. Which specific Visit Britain campaigns do you think would appeal to this demographic?
For our overseas visitors one of our key points of reference are our global websites. We look to offer visitors all the pre-booking information and content they would want for their trip so they can plan and use their time better. On our website they can buy their Oyster Cards before they arrive which makes it half the normal price to travel around London.
I recently interviewed Louise Alexander from Visit London and we discussed some of the off the beaten track attractions in London - like The Horniman Museum and Dennis Severs' House. In a wider context, what little known attractions would you recommend - across the United Kingdom?
We do a lot of work with Hidden Britain and I think particularly for backpackers, there's a big focus on city culture but it's not just about London. There are a lot of great cities in this country for example I would hugely recommend Liverpool. It's so rich - with the contrast of the traditional and the modern. Also for backpackers, I often feel that we have the most fantastic coastline and countryside. There's great rail network coverage and if you travel off peak it's hugely affordable.
If you could do absolutely any job, anywhere in the world, just for a day what would it be and why?
As a passionate supporter of Arsenal - I'd quite like to be the manager for a match day.
In less than fifteen words what do you think the 2012 Olympics will do for London?
It will energise the city and the country into years of celebration and enjoyment.
And now in as many words as you like, how do you predict the games will change the face of London and Britain?
I think it will change the perceptions of Britain globally. One of our challenges as a nation is that we're often seen as quite reserved and formal but sport is something that this nation hugely enjoys and gets excited about. If you go to any great sporting event, around the world you'll see that Brits are the best travellers.
Bearing in mind China's appalling human rights record, do you think there will be a stigma attached to the hand over and the beginning of the cultural Olympiad?
No I don't think that there should be. There is always noise coming into the games, at varying degrees. I think that by all accounts we are preparing well and are in good shape leading up to 2012, and I think that we've got some very professional people leading and fronting 2012, and how we'll put those games on.
Do you think that the current economic downturn and rising fuel prices are a serious threat to the tourism industry an industry that's never failed to grow from year to year?
I think in the long term travel is a way of global life. You can trace it back hundreds of years and you have shocks and crises, but fundamentally travel makes the world go round. It you look at the history of it, people's desire to broaden their horizons, to learn more about the world, to experience different cultures and different languages is insatiable. So although you will get these troughs, fundamentally there will be long term growth in travel. I do think we are entering an era of better resource management where people will be considerate about how they consume resources. Tourism is the world's biggest economy and clearly it will continue, but it'll adapt.
And finally what big projects and initiatives can visitors to the United Kingdom expect to see rolled out over the next twelve months?
Clearly the handover in Beijing is a big deal for us and getting ready to start delivering a multi billion pound legacy, to what surrounds the world's biggest event in 2012.
But it's not just the Olympics and Paralympics. It's generally events that drive the world and Britain has a lot of events coming up. We've got Homecoming 2009, this year has Liverpool as the capital of culture, we've got the Darwin anniversary coming up next year and there's the Ryder Cup.
We've got a whole stack of exciting events from the World Lifesaving event in Newquay in 2009 to a huge growth in our culture, arts and music festivals. So all of these are big draws that will bring people to Britain.
- Rob Savage
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