Britain: An official handbook > 1993

BRITAIN 1993: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
million—a growth in revenues of just under
2 per cent since 1990. Research revenues
come from a large range of clients and
industries.
Exhibition and Conference Centres
Britain is one of the world’s three leading
countries for international conferences (the
others being the United States and France).
With the steady increase in new and
renovated facilities, some 95 towns and cities
now have facilities for conferences and
exhibitions.
Among the most modern purpose-built
conference and exhibition centres are the
International Conference Centre in
Birmingham and the Queen Elizabeth II and
Olympia Conference Centres, both in
London. Others are situated in Brighton
(East Sussex), Harrogate (North Yorkshire),
Bournemouth (Dorset), Cardiff, Birmingham,
Manchester, Nottingham and Torquay. In
Scotland, both Glasgow and Aberdeen have
exhibition and conference centres. Other
large exhibition facilities are situated in
London at the Barbican, Earls
Court/Olympia, Alexandra Palace and
Wembley Arena.
Many of the larger sites belong to a
marketing group, the British Conference and
Exhibition Centres Export Council.
Auction Houses
Britain’s chief auction houses are active in
the international auction markets for works of
art, trading on their acknowledged expertise
as well as that of British dealers. The two
largest houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, are
established worldwide. Sotheby’s handled
sales valued at nearly £639 million in 1991,
while Christie’s sales were valued at £103
million.
Tourism and Travel
Tourism is one of Britain’s most important
industries and is a major source of
employment. It is estimated that nearly L5
million people are employed in the tourism
industry in Britain.
In 1990 over 18 million overseas visitors
came to Britain and spent nearly £7,800
million. Total spending on tourism in Britain
amounted to over £25,000 million in 1990.
British residents made 31 million trips abroad
and spent £9,900 million, giving a deficit on
the travel account of £2,100 million. Fifty-
nine per cent of overseas visitors to Britain
came from Western Europe and 21 per cent
from North America. Eighty-three per cent
of trips abroad by British visitors were to
Western Europe.
Although the number of overseas visitors
to Britain fell by 8 per cent in 1991, to 16 7
million, due to the recession and the
aftermath of the Gulf War, it is thought that
earnings from tourism will continue to
increase. The number of overseas visitors to
Britain is forecast to rise by an average of
around 5 per cent each year to 1996.
Some 90 per cent of travel agencies belong
to the Association of British Travel Agents
(ABTA). Although most travel agents are
small businesses, there are a few large
firms—such as Lunn Poly and Thomas
Cook—which have hundreds of branches.
Computerised information and booking
systems are used extensively in travel
agencies. There are also 660 tour operator
members of ABTA; about half are both retail
agents and tour operators.
ABTA operates financial protection
schemes to safeguard its members’ customers,
maintains codes of conduct drawn up with
the Office of Fair Trading, and offers a free
consumer affairs service to help to resolve
complaints against members and an
independent arbitration scheme for tour
operators’ customers.
Tourist Authorities
Tourism falls under the remit of the
Department of National Heritage.
Government support is made available by the
British Tourist Authority (BTA) and the
tourist boards for England, Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland. The BTA promotes
overseas tourism to Britain and is represented
in 32 countries. The tourist boards improve
and promote facilities for tourism in each
area. The English Tourist Board (ETB)
274