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The Scottish Executive: Draft Budget 2004-05 Summary

Chapter 4 Tourism, Culture and Sport

To enhance everyone's quality of life in Scotland through widening participation in sport and culture and building on a successful and sustainable tourism sector to create jobs and opportunity across Scotland.

OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS

Objective 1: To ensure that everyone of all ages has the opportunity to take part in a variety of cultural and sporting activities.

• Target 1: By 2006, increase the numbers taking part in cultural events and activities supported by bodies funded by the Executive by 3% and the numbers taking part in sport to 70% of adults.

Objective 2: To support social inclusion by ensuring the widest possible involvement in cultural, social and sporting opportunities.

• Target 2: By 2006, increase the numbers of under-represented groups, especially children and young people, taking part in cultural and sporting activity by 5%.
• Target 3: By 2006, increase the number of cultural and sporting programmes in areas of economic and social disadvantage and the number of partners engaged in supporting these programmes by 10%.

Objective 3: To promote a high standard of conservation of historic buildings and to promote the highest standards of contemporary building.

• Target 4: To raise the standards of, and increase investment in, the conservation and sustainable development of historic buildings by completing condition surveys by 2005-06 for all properties looked after by Historic Scotland and using Historic Scotland funding to promote increased investment from other bodies in conserving historic buildings.

Objective 4: To generate jobs and wealth for Scotland by assisting young people to be creative and enterprising, and by promoting and developing the tourism, cultural and sporting sectors of the economy.

• Target 5: To establish a method by 2004 to assess the contribution of tourism and the creative and cultural industries to the Scottish economy, and to identify how this contribution could be increased.

Objective 5: To develop Scotland's tourism potential through Historic Scotland and VisitScotland, and in partnership with all relevant bodies.

• Target 6: To restore visitor numbers and spending to the levels before the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak and the September 11 terrorism attack by 2004; and to set new targets for subsequent years at that time.
• Target 7: By 2005, have 75% of accommodation bookable through the internet.

Objective 6: To promote excellence in sport and culture.

• Target 8: By 2006, increase the number of Scots achieving success in key sports and events from the position in 2000.
• Target 9: To develop by 2003-04 the means of identifying the number of Scottish world-class artists, companies and institutions, and to set targets for 2006 in light of this.

Spending plans 2003-06

Table 4.01 Spending plans (level 3)

What the budget does

The Tourism, Culture and Sport budget supports central government policies aimed at helping to fund national agencies and other bodies. These policies also help to develop or deliver a number of programmes or projects which help us to achieve our aim, objectives and targets. Tourism is one of Scotland's most important industries contributing approximately 4 billion per year to the Scottish economy. We will continue to provide strong support to this major employment sector. We are also determined to promote the widest possible participation in a vigorous and diverse cultural life in Scotland. Finally, we are committed to generating wider opportunities to participate in sport.

Tourism

We are providing support to this major employment sector by:

• continuing to invest in the quality of the Scottish tourist product, and in marketing it successfully to potential visitors, in order to make Scotland a "must visit/must return" destination;
• conserving Scotland's historic landmarks for both tourists and the Scottish people - generating and sustaining jobs and supporting local communities; and
• supporting and bidding for world-class sporting and cultural events, such as the successful bid for Ryder Cup 2014 - generating tourism and jobs for Scotland, and giving Scots the opportunity to take part in world-class events. EventScotland has been established to give central co-ordination and leadership to the drive to secure major events for Scotland.

We are also making a major commitment to improving the transport infrastructure of Scotland with the level of investment in transport rising to almost 1 billion per annum by 2005-06. The investment in the motorway and trunk road network and the development of rail links to Glasgow and Edinburgh airports will provide better links for tourists and business visitors to Scotland.

Culture

Culture and the arts have a key role in today's diverse Scotland. Our vision is for a Scotland where our cultural life is inclusive and accessible. We recognise our proud and distinctive heritage and want to embrace the diversity in our language and culture. We are:

• promoting cultural activities in disadvantaged communities in Scotland - generating self-confidence and economic benefits and the chance to learn new skills;
• supporting Gaelic language and culture - helping to strengthen and ensure the future of the Gaelic community. We will legislate to provide secure status for Gaelic through a Gaelic Language Bill; ¹
• supporting access to the widest possible range of cultural and heritage activities - giving everybody the opportunity of a better quality of life; and
• increasing the provision of cultural activity in schools - investing in the future self-confidence, skills and creativity of our children, by for example, funding 12 months' free music tuition by Primary 6.

Our National Cultural Strategy provides a framework for action which is underpinning the development of Scotland's cultural life. We have already achieved much:

• widening access to the arts in Social Inclusion Partnerships;
• removal of admission charges from The Royal Museum and Museum of Scotland;
• a continuing programme of support for excellence in Scotland's traditional arts;
• the opening of the Museum of Scottish Country Life at Kittochside, East Kilbride; and
• publication of a new architecture policy promoting good and sustainable architecture and building design, backed up by public awareness programme using the Lighthouse in Glasgow, and release of curricular material on architecture for schools use.

Our aim is to ensure that everyone of all ages has the opportunity to take part in, and have access to, cultural events and activity. The challenge is to put excellence and the achievement of excellence within reach of all. We need to provide everyone with the opportunity to participate so that talent can be identified and nurtured to world-class level. Everyone should also have the opportunity to experience the best, whether it is art, music, dance, film, literature or drama.

Sport

We are committed to generating wider opportunities to participate in sport - particularly in schools, amongst under-represented communities and in disadvantaged areas. Wider participation in sport and physical activity has been demonstrated to improve health, develop self-confidence and skills, and improve quality of life. Sporting excellence can inspire - successful Scots on a world stage can have a major impact on sport promotion and participation at a domestic level. Recognising those benefits, we will:

• implement the targets in the second stage of our sports strategy including the development of six indoor multi-sport facilities across Scotland, including a national indoor arena of competitive standard and two municipal stadia. The resources earmarked in the central reserve for the unsuccessful Euro 2008 football championship bid (1/1/14 million) have been allocated to sportscotland in the TCS budget to assist in the costs of taking forward the indoor multi-sport facilities initiative;
• develop the sporting champions scheme in our schools;
• work with sportscotland and the New Opportunities Fund to complete the physical education and sports programme of new and refurbished sports facilities, including swimming pools;
• improve support for clubs and groups that provide coaching for sports, and encourage them to provide coaching facilities for school children; and
• promote local community sports strategies.

Portfolio priorities

In 2004-05 we will focus our resources on:

• increasing awareness of Scotland as a tourist destination by making full use of the British Tourist Authority and working with tourism businesses to improve tourism marketing and infrastructure;
• promoting our cities' many attractions and the natural resources of our countryside to turn Scotland into a year-round destination;
• working with the tourism sector to introduce an industry-led national tourism registration scheme to guarantee quality service and facilities across Scotland;
• developing a new focus for Scotland's languages recognising both our heritage and our diversity;
• developing new partnerships in the arts and in our cultural society to develop national and local programmes aimed at achieving excellence;
• maximising the contribution that sport, culture and the arts can play in the promotion of Scotland and in the attraction of international events; and
• promoting a Scotland where everyone can participate in sport, excelling at their own level.

New resources

Since "Building a Better Scotland" and the 2003-04 Draft Budget were published, 1/1/14 million has been allocated from the central reserve to the TCS budget. These resources were initially earmarked for Euro 2008, but after the bid was unsuccessful these resources were allocated to sportscotland to assist in the costs of providing new indoor multi-sport facilities.

We are allocating 3.5 million in 2004-05 and 4 million in 2005-06 to establishing a national theatre in Scotland.

Closing the opportunity gap

Culture and sport can be powerful tools in helping people marginalised by society for whom other approaches have failed. They can provide bridges for people who face disadvantage to develop new opportunities for themselves and the communities they live in. We are helping to close the opportunity gap in the following ways:

• tourism plays a vital role in the local economy of many rural communities, providing employment and drawing visitors to the area;
• a key priority of the National Cultural Strategy is to maximise the social benefit of culture, through widening access, promoting diversity and addressing equality issues. The strategy includes promoting culture and the arts to help regenerate communities and to assist individuals to develop personal self-confidence, new skills, team working, good health and employability;
• more than 30 Social Inclusion Partnerships now have arts projects supported under the Scottish Arts Council's Social Inclusion Scheme;
• funding for the school cultural co-ordinators programme will bring significant benefits to children from disadvantaged backgrounds;
• the sport strategy for Scotland, Sport 21, has targets for increasing the number of women and girls, people with disabilities, people who live in areas of economic and social disadvantage, rural communities and people from minority ethnic communities who participate in sport;
• Historic Scotland has an ongoing programme of investment in improving physical and intellectual access at its sites and in encouraging wider access to the historic environment through initiatives such as Doors Open Day; and
• Historic Scotland provides free access to all its sites for one weekend of the year to encourage visits by groups who might otherwise feel excluded. The agency also operates a free school visit service. Its programme of events has been developed to encourage greater participation by local people.

Sustainable development

Sustainable development is being actively promoted across the tourism, culture and sports fields. All the bodies for which the Executive is responsible in these fields are being actively encouraged to promote sustainable development in their plans and funded activities. By 2003-04, all of these bodies will be required to complete an environmental audit and to implement its findings. For example, sportscotland was recently environmentally audited and now recycles paper, meters water use and offers loans to staff to cycle or use public transport. Historic Scotland's policy for the repair and re-use of historic buildings regenerates the urban and rural environment for the benefit of current and future generations, and makes the best use of existing resources.

Eco-tourism is becoming an increasingly important sector of the economy. It is currently the biggest employer in most rural areas and plays a major part in sustaining rural communities. Increasing numbers of tourism businesses are signing up to VisitScotland's Green Tourism Business Scheme to differentiate their products as eco-friendly and mark their commitment to Scotland's environment. Historic Scotland has won a number of awards under the Green Tourism Business Scheme. VisitScotland is also planning the promotion of the Scottish Executive's Clean Energy Demonstration Scheme and Loan Action Scotland scheme across the sector - these give grants and interest-free loans to small businesses to help them to invest in sustainable technologies such as energy efficient heating systems or waste recycling.

¹ Although Gaelic is a commitment that falls within the TCS portfolio and is met from within the TCS budget, the Minister for Education and Young People is leading on this commitment.

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