Government response to the independent review of destination management organisations in England
A response by the government to the independent review of destination management organisations (DMOs) in England.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
This is the government’s response to the independent review of destination management organisations in England (DMOs), published in September 2021.
The review was commissioned in March 2021 by the then Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the Rt Hon Oliver Dowden CBE MP, and the current Minister for Sport, Tourism, Heritage and Civil Society, Nigel Huddleston MP. The review is an important component of the UK government’s post-COVID Tourism Recovery Plan.
England’s DMOs have an important role to play both in the recovery of the sector from COVID-19 and achieving the government’s Levelling Up objectives.
The review was tasked with surveying the DMO landscape in England, evaluating its current funding, structure and performance, with a view to making recommendations on whether there may be a more efficient and effective model for supporting English tourism at a local and regional level and delivering the government’s tourism policy agenda.
As tourism is a devolved responsibility within the UK, the review was asked to look at DMOs in England only, but it also looked closely at the approaches taken in both the devolved administrations as well as overseas.
The review makes 12 recommendations in total, six of which are directed at the government, four at DMOs themselves and one each for local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and local authorities. This document sets out the government’s response to the recommendations.