SPOTLIGHT ON WILTSHIRE’ S TOURIST ECONOMY
Tourism sector take heart- Wiltshire finally has its own Local Visitor Economy Partnership By Fiona Scott, Features Editor
After months of work and lobbying, VisitWiltshire has been officially named as Wiltshire’ s Local Visitor Economy Partnership( LVEP).
This means the county has joined the new national framework of VisitEngland-accredited LVEPs to champion tourism and destination development across the county. This also means when funding pots for tourism become available at a national level, Wiltshire will be in the mix for some of that money, and the Government is currently only working with LVEPs as the enabling bodies around any such investment.
Given that our visitor economy, worth £ 1.5billion a year, supports 28,000 jobs and contributes 9 % of Wiltshire’ s total GDP, anything we can do to secure more national investment into that economy has to be applauded.
David Andrews, Chief Executive of VisitWiltshire, said,“ This is a major achievement with the potential to unlock new investment, grow tourism spend throughout the year, extend our reach in domestic and international markets, and better support our tourism and hospitality businesses.”
I’ ve known David for some time, and I know how hard he works with this team to ensure Wiltshire is on the map, nationally and internationally, so that people come here to have a great time and spend their cash with often local businesses, hotels, restaurants, cafes, gift shops.
We have well-known tourist attractions including Stonehenge, Lacock and Avebury to name a few. David knows better than most of us how many other wonderful attractions there are across the county, from our smaller market towns to museums, stately homes, parks, sweeping landscapes, white horses and the like.
Wiltshire does not have the sea, does not have beaches, does not have those elements where people naturally think‘ holiday destination’, therefore the tourism sector has to work very hard to be seen and heard.
To succeed in becoming an LVEP, VisitWiltshire had to demonstrate a minimum level of core public sector funding support, which was achieved thanks to help from local councils in Bradford on Avon, Chippenham, Corsham, Devizes, Malmesbury, Pewsey and Trowbridge. In the last few weeks, Warminster has come on board and David is in talks with Salisbury City Council too.
Wiltshire is thrilled A key player in this success was Wiltshire Council which initially was sceptical and decided not to support the bid by VisitWiltshire. However, its position then shifted. This announcement is music to the ears of those in Wiltshire relying on visitors and tourists for their income.
Dawn Wilson, Chair of the Pewsey Vale Tourism Partnership said,“ This is fantastic news for our local businesses. With tourism businesses facing real challenges right now, this accreditation is very welcome, and we’ re pleased to have been able to support it.”
Cllr Stephen James is the recently elected mayor of Malmesbury and has been a Town Councillor for over two years. He came to the town ten years ago and feels lucky to have found such a wonderful place to live.
He said,“ Malmesbury is a real highlight to visit in Wiltshire but it is not as well known as Stonehenge, Avebury or Salisbury Cathedral so it’ s important to raise our profile both within Wiltshire itself and beyond and we wouldn’ t want to miss out on any opportunity like this.
“ We are a beautiful historic hilltop town with an 11th Century Abbey and we have much to offer – we want to be a very visible part of the tourist and visitor landscape in our county.”
What about Swindon? In achieving this success there is one big omission – Swindon.
Our county’ s biggest and most economically active area is not included or even mentioned. I asked David about this and why Swindon is not part of the vision for tourism and the answer came back loud and clear – the town has not engaged.
Swindon Borough Council has not been involved in this national‘ framework’ and the effect of that inactivity may not help some of the town’ s major attractions, such as Lydiard House & Park, Coate Water Country Park, The McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Village, Faringdon Park, The Railway Village … and so on.
David added,“ As part of our application we have reached out to Swindon councillors a number of times to see if they’ d like Swindon to be involved and to make sure Swindon benefits. We’ re still waiting for a response but since VisitWiltshire’ s accreditation as the LVEP was announced, Warminster has joined the Advisory Board, and we’ re currently in discussions with Salisbury and other towns.
“ We are keen to see Swindon benefit from our LVEP accreditation too so would love to hear from Swindon Council about this, the door is still open.” I approached Swindon Borough Council to ask why. The answer is that Swindon is looking east. Cllr Marina Strinkovsky, Cabinet Member for Placemaking and Planning, said,“ We’ re really pleased VisitWiltshire has secured this new status, which will hopefully give the whole county’ s visitor economy a great boost.
“ As the gateway into Wiltshire, Swindon plays an important role in the region’ s tourism industry due to its fantastic
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