Music industry ‘hugely important’ for tourism

Tourism industry leaders emphasised the impact of the UK’s music industry on tourism during a Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee evidence session held last week (14 November).

During the session, which was a follow-up to the CMS Committee’s promoting Britain abroad inquiry completed last year, Kate Nicholls, Chief Executive at UKHospitality, told the committee the UK music industry and its venues are “hugely important” as an attraction to tourists.

“That day-to-day visiting for concerts often gets overlooked. We often overlook the fact that lots of people will travel great distances to go to a concert,” she said.

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“A lot of people travelled from Europe to come to London to the O2 when Madonna opened her world tour, as well as some of the local bands and areas that you go to, and the festivals.”

Chief Executive at Visit Britain/Visit England, Patricia Yates, said about half of international visitors associate the UK with music.

“I have talked about history and heritage being so strong but you need to get immediacy. Music does that for us.”

And Sarah Green, Chief Executive at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, added “music is brilliant because it allows differentiation between places and it brings places to life”.

“Lots of different cities have their own independent music scene, which differentiates what that city looks like,” she said.

“It is the cultural impact of being out there and touring and bringing people back and people wanting to be part of that.”

Supporting music tourism

The three witnesses were responding to questioning from Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Music, Labour MP Kevin Brennan. In his questioning, Brennan said Brexit had been “a disaster” for music touring.

He added that “we used to be the base for Europe for international touring, and now we are not”.

In response, Nicholls said it was “so important that we have action to make sure that touring musicians can come to the UK, that the UK doesn’t get missed out of international tour destinations, and that we reflect that strategically in the importance that we place on tourism at the centre of government”.

Nicholls added ensuring artists continue to come to the UK was “the crucially important bit, especially as you see artists restricting their tour activity and going for bigger centres and stadium tours”.

She added: “We need to build in at central government level an understanding and appreciation that tourism and your domestic hospitality infrastructure is critical to delivering on all of those opportunities, whether it is sport, theatre, creative industries or music.

“If we want to have those vibrant parts of the economy, we need to make sure we have a healthy domestic hospitality sector.”

Yates added another way music tourism can be supported is by extending touring seasons.

Although cultural venues hold music concerts all year round, the summer is considered high season with the inclusion of music festivals alongside arena, stadium and grassroots tours nationwide.

Yates said: “If we are thinking about extending the season, which we absolutely need to do, particularly given that the summer has been so poor, that means looking at the culture on offer and building up festivals and events that will attract people to go to places out of season”. 

“Getting that vibrancy all year round is an important part of making tourism more sustainable.”