Wednesday, 13 June 2007

VisitBritain launches tourist attraction Code Of Practice

VisitBritain is trying to get England's attractions to sign up to a new national Code of Practice.

From April 1 2008, only attractions signing up to the Code of Practice or those part of the Visitor Attractions Quality Assurance Service (VAQAS) will be promoted by VisitBritain, presumably on web sites and in brochures.

It costs £25 - but is this just another attempt to raise revenue from a new source , whatever VisitBritain does seems to cost !

If every attraction agreed to the code , a basic one with no inspection, it would raise about £150,000 for VisitBritain - a goverment funded organisation. So why the charge ?

Would signing up for the code give a visitor to the attraction an element of assurance ? - yet the attraction will not be inspected - even if the code may appear to the casual visitor to be some sort of official stamp of approval.

Why not have a compulsary registration scheme with standards relating to the size of the attraction ?

More importantly is there any problem with attractions anyway - they all have to pass health and safety and fire regulations.

So are the attractions are just paying for a listing - looks like it to me.

If the attraction was serious about quality, and can afford it, they would be in the VAQAS scheme anyway.

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