General Assembly

Mrs. Alison King, Leader of Norfolk County Council

NORTH SEA COMMISSION 11th ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY

9am, THURSDAY 20 JUNE 2002 DUNSTON HALL

Minister, Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen

My name is Alison King, and I am the Leader of Norfolk County Council.

It gives me very great pleasure to be able to welcome you this morning to the magnificent setting of Dunston Hall, in our beautiful County of Norfolk, on the occasion of the North Sea Commission's 11th General Assembly.

This afternoon you will have the opportunity to visit some different areas of Norfolk when you go on your study tours. For some of you there will be further opportunities to visit some of our most popular areas - the Norfolk Broads and the North Norfolk Coast - on the optional tours. We hope that these tours will whet your appetite to return and see more of this area.

Norfolk has been known for many years as a popular centre for visitors and tourists. There are many different things for visitors to do here:

• from the resort towns of Great Yarmouth, Cromer and Hunstanton, to the quieter coastal villages such as Blakeney and Cley;
  
• the great country houses including Blickling, Holkham and Felbrigg Halls, and of course the Royal residence at Sandringham House;
  
• the remnants of Norfolk history remaining such as the flint works at Grimes Graves;
  
• the bird reserves;
  
• the countryside and the great network of ancient peat diggings which have now filled with water and have become the 'Norfolk Broads', a great centre for boating and water-related activities.

And then, of course, there is the fine city of Norwich, with its shops, theatres, Castle, Cathedral and magnificent new library, its active nightlife, restaurants, galleries and museums.

We are keen to encourage visitors to come to Norfolk to share in these wonderful resources. And tourists have come for many years. The Norfolk economic development partnership, known as Shaping the Future (you may have noticed the exhibition about it in the foyer this morning) includes a tourism group where the private and public sectors come together to promote tourism in our economy. To give you an idea of the importance of the sector to us:

• Tourism in the UK employs 1.7 million people and is the country's fastest growing industry ;
  
• Cultural tourism accounts for 37% of world travel and is growing at 15% a year. ;
  
• Tourism is the second largest sector of the Norfolk economy ;
  
• Tourism accounts for over 40,000 jobs in Norfolk ;
  
• Earnings of over £1billion are generated every year.

However, it is only relatively recently that we have come to realise the value of the cultural industries in our economy. The Shaping the Future Cultural Industries Group has been examining just this issue. The Group aims to ;

• Prove the benefits offered by the cultural sector to Norfolk's economy ;
  
• Recognise & prove the value of the cultural industries in Norfolk ;
  
• Raise the profile of cultural activities in Norfolk, and their contribution to the quality of life in the County.

A 1999 study by the Cultural Industries Group revealed some interesting statistics about the sector as a whole: ;

• Total turnover in the cultural sector was £326 million in 1998/99 ;
  
• The sector accounted for more than 5,800 jobs in Norfolk in that year ;
  
• The sector attracted £17 million in funds from a range of bodies, of which nearly a quarter (£4.2 million) was inward investment from outside the County.

So as you can see, the cultural industries are very important to us here in Norfolk, and play a vital role in raising and maintaining quality of life for our own inhabitants, as well as attracting visitors.

The Chair of the East of England Cultural Consortium, Graham Creelman, has said that the cultural industries ' don't just bring money and visitors to the region - they create an environment where people want to live and work and bring up their children. Cultural industries are about quality of life. Not just for people with leisure to enjoy art and music, but to bring new life and hope to communities which have suffered for years from poverty and social deprivation.'

It is this combination of culture & tourism and their relationship to the wider economy that we will be focusing on this morning. Some of you will have attended the seminar on cultural assets and business development held here on Tuesday for people working in this field. This morning we aim to debate the issues at a more strategic and political level, and I am delighted to welcome our speakers today:

Dr Kim Howells is Minister for Tourism within the British Government Department of Culture, Media and Sport. It is he who has been fighting to repair the damage to visitor numbers to the UK, which fell so dramatically during the Foot & Mouth crisis last year. Norfolk too was affected by the absence of visitors to our countryside, although we were fortunate not to have any animals in our County infected by the foot & mouth disease itself. Dr Howells will highlight the importance of Great Britain as a destination for cultural tourism and the ways in which arts and cultural organisations can successfully reach out to more visitors.

Secondly we have the Dean of Norwich Cathedral, the Very Reverend Stephen Platten. Norwich Cathedral is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the East of England. The Dean will be offering us some reflections on the challenges of running the Cathedral and meeting the needs of very different types of visitors.

Finally we will hear from Peter Wilson, who is the Chief Executive of the principal theatre in Norwich, the Theatre Royal, and Chair of the Cultural Industries Group which I mentioned earlier. He will illustrate the importance of cultural tourism to local economies with some thoughts on the work of the strategic partnership, and also with an example of just how such strategies can be implemented.

After the coffee break there will be an opportunity to debate the issues raised during the morning's discussion, and we will be joined by Geoff Skipper, who heads up the Norwich Area Tourism Agency, which is the Agency promoting tourism, including to Norwich's cultural assets, in the City.

So, Minister, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it only remains for me to thank you for travelling to Norfolk for this General Assembly, and to wish you every success for your conference. Norfolk is one of the driest parts of the United Kingdom, and I hope that the weather will allow you to make best use of the marvellous facilities here at Dunston Hall, and to enjoy your study tours and other excursions to the full.

I look forward to joining you all for dinner this evening in St Andrew's Hall, in the centre of Norwich. In the meantime, enjoy your day.

Thank you.