Museum directors fear that Britain may fall behind as a venue for cultural tourism. Mark Jones, chair of the National Museum Directors Conference, has written to Culture Minister Barbara Follett and to Christopher Rodriques, Chair of VisitBritain, welcoming the Government’s renewed focus on tourism and recognition of the contribution that culture makes to UK tourism.
But he adds that recent figures suggest that in 2007, for the third year in a row, visits to London’s major exhibitions declined in relation to those in Paris, Tokyo, New York and Washington. NMDC has also raised concerns about the ageing visitor profile and Britain’s failure to attract visitors from emerging market.
The NMDC has asked for government action to attract visitors from these markets, and wants Visit Britain to use marketing initiatives to bring in new audiences for museums.
In their letter, NMDC also calls for improvements in public transport links, particularly to museums outside central London, and the completion of the Exhibition Road project to improve visitor access to the Natural History Museum, Science Museum and V&A.

Managers at the Sage in Gateshead have agreed a pay freeze on staff this year in the light of the economic recession.
But the move, which was outlined in a letter to the venue’s 335 staff, comes after a successful close to 2008 at the box office. Takings were up on the same period in 2007, said Sage executive director Anthony Sargent.
But he added that, although box office had been good in 2008, takings were beginning to level off. In a normal recessionary cycle, discretionary spending on the arts tends to lag behind.
“We have to be prudent. This has only happened after a long consultation process with the staff and we have not ruled out reinstating it later in the year depending on actual recessionary impact, and staff know that.”
He added that a number of other arts organisations nationally and regionally were considering similar moves and others were even contemplating laying people off.
• The future of Newcastle’s historic Journal Tyne Theatre has been assured with a £100,000 grant from English Heritage to carry out urgent repairs to the roof. The theatre, a Grade I-listed building which is on English Heritage’s At Risk register, has also been handed over to a new trust, the Tyne Theatre and Opera House Preservation Trust. The trust will oversee a fundraising campaign to raise £7m by 2015 to fully restore and revamp the theatre which first opened in 1867.

Culture secretary Andy Burnham has warned arts organisations to brace themselves for possible cuts in 2010. Burnham said that the cultural industries were not immune from the government’s savings drives, and should start making contingency plans in case funding is cut next year.

His comments came after persistent rumours that the Comprehensive Spending Review of 2007, which had been surprisingly generous to the arts and heritage, could be revised because of the global financial crisis.

He said his message was not ‘telling people to put everything on hold’, but that ‘in the climate we’re in, rightly, the Treasury is saying for every pound of investment we receive we’re going to have to secure maximum return in terms of impact in the economy’.

However, he added: ‘While I am the person who has to relay that message to the arts world, I can also assure the arts world that I will relay an equally vociferous message back to government, that the relatively small amount of funding here produces a huge amount of benefit, not just socially, educationally, culturally, but also economically.’

The 2007 settlement gave the Arts Council a £20m boost over the following three years, but the main increase would be in the last fiscal year, 2010/11. A cut back in the ACE grant could mean a grant only keeping pace with inflation.

A DCMS spokesman added: ‘Our response to the economic downturn has to be realistic and we have to assess the situation as it develops. The Chancellor’s Pre Budget Report announced £5bn of efficiency savings to be delivered across government. We certainly cannot expect further cash from the Treasury during the current spending review period and we will need to look carefully at whether we are getting maximum benefit from our current expenditure plans. We are not there yet, but realistically government, and the cultural sector in general, may need to be ready to take some tough choices about priorities for funding.’