Agenda item

Visitor Economy Action Plan: Promoting Tourism

(A report by Mary Powell, Tourism Manager, in connection with the visitor economy action plan which identified the need to invest in better promotion of the county to potential tourists)

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report which provided members with an opportunity to comment on the progress made against the priorities in the visitor economy action plan.  Members were advised that the visitor economy action plan had identified the need to invest in better promotion of the county to potential tourists.  Officers had been working with partners to modernise the www.visitlincolnshire.com website and to prepare good quality material in order to market the natural coast in Lincolnshire.  It was reported that www.visitlincolnshire.com had been re-launched and was working well and promotional material for the natural coast was close to publication.  All districts and the county council had contributed to the re-design of the website through the Tourism Officers' Group.

 

Members were informed that the design had been entirely driven by recently commissioned research whose over-arching message was that potential visitors did not know about Lincolnshire.  The website aimed to be inspirational and act as a gateway, passing interested visitors onto more detailed websites for further information.  As indicated by the research, messages were simple and used uncomplicated geographical areas of Coast, Countryside and City.  There was also the addition of Inspiration which covered themes such as walking, cycling and aviation heritage.

 

The Committee received a short presentation which highlighted some of the newly designed pages of the natural coast website.

 

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report, and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·       The visitor figures for 2017 had been very positive.

·       A Tourism Operators conference was being organised for March 2019

·       It was commented that Lincolnshire was a huge county to cover, but there were a lot of good things for people to see.  It was acknowledged that the service had a small budget to cover all the activities it needed to.

·       It was confirmed that the county worked with all districts and the city Council through the Tourism Officers Group, and it was now working better than it had done previously.

·       It was also highlighted that Lincolnshire Heritage Forum was developing a new website, and it was hoped that the County Council's website would signpost to it. 

·       It was noted that the new visit Lincolnshire website would only link to other quality websites.

·       There was a need for local groups, pubs and hotels to promote what they did so they could be included on the website.

·       It was noted that there would not be any advertising space on the new website as it was there to act as a gateway.

·       According to the survey, 81% of people were looking for a tourism offer that included what Lincolnshire's natural coast had to offer.  Therefore the growth in Lincolnshire's tourism would come from that sector. 

·       It was confirmed that Chambers of Commerce were involved in these conversations.

 

RESOLVED

 

1.    That the progress that had been made against the priorities in the visitor economy action plan be noted.

2.    That the publicity material for promoting the natural coast be noted and supported.

Supporting documents:

 

 
 
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