Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL'S STRATEGIC PRIORITIES FOR THE VISITOR ECONOMY 2007-2012 - draft v1.3

C O N T E N T S

About this Report ... 2

Executive Summary ... 3

Part One - The Context ... 4

Background

The Strategic Context

The Market Context

Key issues and opportunities for Hampshire's Visitor Economy

Part Two - Strategic Priorities ... 13

Introduction

Strategic Priorities for Hampshire - initial recommendations

Strategic Priorities for Hampshire County Council

Next steps ... 19

ABOUT THIS REPORT

In 2006 Hampshire County Council (HCC), supported by destination consultants Strategy and Action, carried out strategic development work to:

· clarify what should be the actions at the county level to support and manage the visitor economy over the next 5 years

· decide what should be the County Council's own priorities and role when it comes to the visitor economy

· communicate this across the County Council and to HCC's external stakeholders.

We have:

· used the 2000-2005 Tourism Strategy for Hampshire as our starting point

· looked at other relevant strategies and plans

· taken into account the key changes since 2000 that impact on Hampshire's visitor economy - including market trends, infrastructure developments and changes in public-funded tourism

· involved key stakeholders, drawing on their expert knowledge to help make decisions about priorities and roles.

This draft report is deliberately brief. Its key purpose is to set out the recommended Strategic Priorities (Part Two of the report). Part One simply summarises the context. There is more detailed information, including a summary of the 2000-2005 Tourism Strategy, in the Working Papers, available on request.

This draft report will be considered by HCC councillors before being made publicly available for comments by publishing it on the HCC website and emailing it to key public sector and private sector stakeholders in the visitor economy. A final version will then be produced and formally adopted by HCC.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This draft report identifies the county-level Strategic Priorities for the development and management of the Hampshire visitor economy 2007-2012, and proposes specific Strategic Priorities for Hampshire County Council. Visitors are vital to Hampshire life: they support over 50,000 jobs, plus services and facilities that local people would not otherwise have. The County Council's services have a huge impact on the visitor experience and visitor economy - from its transport investment and spatial planning role to its economic development activities, countryside management, rights of way, parks, heritage, culture and events.

Some 89% of visitors are day visitors, and without careful management and development, the volume of visitors can have a negative impact on communities and the environment. The 11% of visitors who stay overnight account for 40% of the spend. We can't take them for granted: competition for higher-spending staying visitors is growing from better-resourced tourist areas - both in the UK and overseas. Consumers are becoming increasingly well-travelled and sophisticated, and new technology is having a huge impact on the way potential visitors source information and make their travel decisions. So Hampshire needs to take a sustainable approach if its visitor economy is to thrive: this means it needs an approach that focuses on value, not volume, and satisfies visitors, the industry and the community, and safeguards the environment.

The `visitor experience' is provided by a range of different organisations and calls for a significant level of partnership and cooperation between businesses large and small and the various public-funded agencies. Hampshire County Council is an essential part of this visitor `infrastructure', and all local authorities have a `place shaping' role which helps shape the visitor experience. It is essential that the various organisations and partners agree a common strategic approach, and this report is part of that process.

There is already a strong strategic context for this work: as well as Hampshire's Tourism Strategy 2000-2005, there is the regional Tourism Strategy, the sub-regional Statement of Priorities from the Hampshire Tourism Committee, and the Strategic Priorities of Hampshire Economic Partnership. Taking these and other strategies and plans into consideration, and looking at the issues and opportunities for Hampshire's visitor economy, the recommended Strategic Priorities for Hampshire and for HCC are:

The next steps are: to consult with stakeholders; for HCC to agree and adopt the HCC Strategic Priorities; and for Hampshire Tourism Committee to lead the process for the key partners to agree the Hampshire Strategic Priorities, including the implications for delivery and resource allocation.

PART ONE: THE CONTEXT

1. Background

The impact of visitors

Visitors make a significant contribution to Hampshire life. They spend an estimated £1.85 billion a year, supporting some 50,000 jobs in the visitor economy. Visitor spend helps to improve the quality of life for local people by supporting not only jobs but also local services and facilities they would not otherwise have. And the county's positive profile as an attractive place to visit helps to attract and maintain investment in other industries, supporting further jobs in other sectors and the economy overall.

The importance of sustainability

Of course, a sustainable approach to tourism is essential - especially in this highly populated region, where numbers of visitors can diminish the attractiveness of destinations and so need to be managed effectively. Sustainability means making sure that tourism development and management satisfies Visitors, the Industry, the Community and the Environment¹ as follows:

· Visitors - want a satisfying visit that meets their needs and expectations, so that they will repeat and recommend to others

· Industry - needs profitable customers so that businesses can thrive and invest, including investing in the workforce

· Community - need visitor spend that supports year-round local facilities, services and quality jobs, and visitors who respect and contribute to residents' quality of life

· Environment - must be protected from the potential negative impacts of visitors.

The need for partnership / role of public agencies

Of all industry sectors, the visitor economy has a particular need for partnership between public and private sectors because:

· The `product' that the visitor consumes - the `visitor experience' - is almost always provided by a number of different suppliers, a mix of public-funded agencies and the private sector (and many of the latter are micro and small businesses). Cooperation between suppliers is needed in order to develop and market the product in a highly competitive market place - and the facilitator or catalyst for that cooperation is often the public sector.

· Much of the visitor experience is actually provided, managed or funded by public-funded agencies - from historic houses, conference and cultural venues, events, museums, information centres and parks, to the transport infrastructure, town centre management, resort and countryside management, signs, lighting, car parks and public toilets.

· The public sector has a major impact on the visitor experience through the decisions it makes - for example planning, development, conservation, transport issues, and through its environmental health, trading standards and licensing roles, as well as policing and safety.

For these reasons there is a network of public-funded tourism support - from the tourism team at DCMS (Department of Culture, Media & Sport) and the national tourism body VisitBritain, to the Regional Development Agencies (with a strategic responsibility for tourism), regional tourist boards, sub-regional partnerships and local authority tourism services - all seeking to work together and with the private sector to protect and strengthen the positive impacts for local people.

It is essential that these various organisations agree their strategic direction and have clearly defined and agreed roles, to make sure that the visitor economy thrives and that public money is well spent.

Hampshire County Council's tourism role

Discussion of the County Council's tourism role often focuses exclusively on the Tourism Unit, which delivers direct tourism services and also coordinates/facilitates most countywide tourism initiatives and partnership work - both within the county council area and across the wider geographic county of Hampshire. But several other HCC services also have a far-reaching impact on the management and development of the visitor economy:

· Highways, Public Transport, Signs (see next section)

· Libraries, Museums and Archives, Arts

· Environment and Ecology

· Spatial Planning

· Trading Standards

· Countryside Service - including Rights of Way, Country Parks, Events, Long-distance trails

· Economic Development - including Business support, Market Towns Initiative, Hampshire Fare, Conference Hampshire, Film Hampshire.

The importance of HCC's transport role

The County Council's transport policy, investment and management has a pivotal role in encouring or discouraging visitors.

It can have a significant positive impact on the visitor experience - both in improving the visitors' experience of travelling to and around the destination, and in improving the quality of the environment. HCC's Local Transport Plan 2006-2011 includes a number of commitments that should improve the visitor experience:

· Reducing congestion

· Improving rural accessibility

· Improving the pedestrian environment in urban areas (through 20 town-centre action plans)

· Better public transport and public transport links

· Better information and signs - including real-time and variable signs

· Walking & cycling improvements

· Pioneering car-free tourism initiatives in the New Forest.

2. The Strategic Context

There has been a significant amount of strategy development in recent years that directly impacts on the development and management of Hampshire's visitor economy. We have used the following as the starting point for this current work:

Hampshire's Tourism Strategy 2000-2005

Published by HCC in 2000, its broad principles and recommendations are still valid today. It proposes a Vision for tourism in Hampshire as an activity which:

· Generates jobs and creates business opportunities

· Diversifies and supports the local economy

· Adds to the variety of local life and widens opportunities for culture and recreation

· Offers a rewarding experience for the visitor and creates a positive image of Hampshire

· Draws on the environmental quality of Hampshire and celebrates its distinctive character.

The Strategy 2000-2005 says this Vision is only achievable if tourism is properly managed and channelled, and with the active co-operation of all the agencies and organisations involved in tourism. It proposes five themes or principles which should form the basis for county-level initiatives and policies on tourism:

·

· Safeguard Hampshire's environment and community interests

· Increase economic benefit

· Provide a quality product and experience

· Work together to create marketing impact

· Develop a better understanding of tourism.

·

Tourism ExSEllence - the Regional Tourism Strategy

Published by the regional tourist board Tourism South East (TSE) in 2004, Tourism ExSEllence proposes a vision for the region as one that:

·

· Competes with the best

· Exceeds visitors' expectations

· Invests in products and service quality

· Fosters profitable tourism businesses

· Welcomes visitors and embraces tourism.

There are three strategic objectives for the region's tourism:

· Promote a `must visit' region

· Provide an unrivalled experience for visitors

· Establish effective management and organisation.

Hampshire Tourism Committee - Statement of Priorities

Taking the regional objectives and looking at the issues and opportunities for the sub-region of Hampshire, Hampshire Tourism Committee² has published its Statement of Priorities (and is delivering an Action Plan) under three headings:

· Effective Marketing

· Improving Product Development/Quality

· Developing Strong Partnerships.

Hampshire Economic Partnership - Strategic Priorities

Taking the South East Regional Economic Strategy as its framework, and with the objective of increasing the county's relatively low rate GVA (Gross Value Added - a key indicator of wealth), Hampshire Economic Partnership (HEP) has developed the following strategic priorities to achieve economic growth:

· Meeting the workforce needs of business

· Providing appropriate land use and availability - for employment and for housing

· Delivering effective transport & infrastructure solutions

· Driving sustainability

· Delivering effective support for business

· Driving growth through 6 key trade sectors (including tourism)

· Promoting innovation & enterprise.

HEP says that, to drive growth, the key issues for tourism are:

· Sustainability

· The quality of the tourism product

· Making the best use of existing resources.

We have also taken into account these strategies and plans, as part of this strategic development work:

· `Looking after Hampshire, Looking out for you' - Hampshire County Council's Corporate Strategy

· Hampshire Local Transport Plan 2006-2011

· Hampshire County Council's Cultural Strategy

· PUSH (Partnership for Urban South Hampshire) Economic Drivers & Growth Phase 3 Report

· Tourism South East Regional and Sub-Regional Tourism Skills Strategies

· South East England Development Agency's (SEEDA) Regional Economic Strategy 2006

· South East England Regional Assembly's (SEERA) Regional Plan 2007

· Tomorrow's Tourism Today - DCMS 2004; Welcome Legacy - DCMS (in draft).

3. The Market Context

When planning how to support the visitor economy from now to 2012, we need to take into account the following market conditions and trends:

Social and market trends

· The UK population is ageing: 25% of the population is now 55+; 31% will be 55+ by 2021.

· Baby boomers are now empty nesters, in their 50s and 60s - this huge bulge in the population are also the people with the time and the inclination to take domestic short breaks. The `new seniors' are better travelled than previous generations and are more active (`60 is the new 40'). The Henley Centre for Forecasting says 20% of over 60s take 3 or more holidays a year.³

· People are having children later: families with small children are another key market for domestic leisure trips - albeit more tied to peak times. The trend towards older parents again means they have more money, are better travelled and have higher quality expectations than previous generations of parents with young children.

· People in the UK are increasingly `middle-class', with higher quality expectations than in the past. According to Henley, increasing affluence means `People can afford to look beyond material necessities and consider what experiences they want out of their lives'. Travel can fulfill this need and this impacts on the way that travel is marketed.

· People are increasingly conscious of the environmental impact of their consumer choices: `green' is becoming mainstream, and `green credentials' could be a significant selling point for domestic destinations.

· There is increasing competition for leisure spend: shopping has become a leisure pastime, with increasing opportunities (as well as encouragement) to shop, in-home entertainment (from satellite/cable TV to home cinemas, computer games and online activities) has become big business, eating out is now a regular leisure activity for many more people.

· And there is increasing competition in the travel world: cheap flights and the strong pound continue to fuel outbound tourism, while the emergence of the UK metropolitan cities as successful destinations has impacted on historic cities, towns and rural destinations.

· While numbers of inbound tourists continue to increase, average spend per trip has dropped significantly. Increasing numbers come from lower-spending markets such as Eastern Europe, while numbers from the much-higher-spending USA have dropped since 2001.

· Conferences are getting shorter, but delegate numbers and conference budgets are increasing.

Buying behaviour trends

· The increase in short breaks and decline of longer domestic holiday continues: two out of three domestic holidays are now short breaks

· The internet is now a mainstream way to find travel information - over 60% of people in the UK are online. Only 10% of travel bookings are currently made online, but that is expected to grow to 50% within the next 10 years. 86% of British internet users over 50 have visited a travel site in the last year

· Lead times continue to shorten - online travel info and booking is helping this trend towards last minute and impulse buys

· Empowered by access to comparative prices and great deals on the internet, consumers now believe that low prices are `a right, not a privilege'

· The internet is helping to fuel the trend towards independent and special interest travel

· Within the next 5 years, we will see `convergence' technology revolutionise information provision (convergence of voice, text and moving images on PCs, mobiles and TVs).

Visitors to Hampshire⁴

· Only 11% of visitors are staying visitors, but they account for 40% of the visitor spend

· Some 12% of staying visitors are from overseas, but they account for nearly 25% of staying visitor spend

· 35% of staying visitors are business visitors - the percentage is particurlarly high in North Hampshire and Southampton (79% and 52%)

· Hotel occupancy in the county has remained fairly stable since 2000, despite a significant increase in supply

· Attractions have seen a 20% increase in visits since 2000

· The destinations with highest awareness and positive recognition among UK consumers (i.e. the `destination brands') are: the New Forest, Winchester, Portsmouth, Southampton, the South Downs and Hampshire - in that order.

4. Key issues and opportunities for Hampshire's visitor economy

These are the key issues or opportunities for Hampshire's visitor economy over the next 5 years; some of the following are both an issue and an opportunity. See `Working Paper 3 - Implications of Change' for more information:

General

· Increasing competition from better-resourced destinations

· More demanding, better-travelled and more `marketing-savvy' consumers

· The explosion in the use of the internet for information and booking travel

· More UK consumers making `green' choices - from the distance and way they travel, to the experiences they look for and the businesses they buy from

· Growth in watersports and other outdoor pursuits

· London 2012 boosting international tourism in the years before and after the event

· The growth in the Cruise industry

In Hampshire

· One new National Park, and another likely to be designated

· The boom in hotel investment in Hampshire - with a growth in corporate hotels

· Substantial investment in Hampshire attractions and culture since 2000

· Significant growth in passenger numbers at Southampton and Bournemouth Airports

· South Hampshire has been earmarked for significant economic growth and urban development over the next 20 years

Tourism support

· New regional and sub-regional tourism structures set up in recent years (SEEDA's tourism role, TSE and HTC)

· Local authority budgets for tourism services are increasingly under pressure.

PART TWO: STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

5. Introduction

To arrive at these Strategic Priorities for (1) Hampshire's visitor economy and (2) Hampshire County Council, we have:

Reviewed Hampshire's Tourism Strategy 2000-2005, identifying the elements that are still relevant for 2007-2012

Concluded that the Strategy's Vision (see page 6) holds true today

Looked at the data and statistics we have about tourism business performance since 2000

Assessed the implications of changes and trends since the year 2000 and those forecast to happen between now and 2012

Listened to key stakeholders' views on what is needed

Identified where Hampshire County Council should focus its resources

Applied the V.I.C.E. model of sustainable tourism as an overarching principle.

We have also discussed with stakeholders the difficulties of setting SMART Objectives (specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and time-limited) for the visitor economy at this stage, due to the unreliability of current tourism statistics and difficulties of measuring impacts on the visitor economy, especially measuring quality-of-life impacts. For this reason, Hampshire Strategy Priority 1 is to `establish a strong evidence cullture for the visitor economy', and the setting of SMART Objectives will be part of the next stage of work for HCC and its partners.

The Strategic Priorities for Hampshire's visitor economy will be delivered in partnership by a number of organisations, so we must get Hampshire Strategic Priority 4 (Ensure effective, joined-up and properly resourced delivery) and HCC Strategic Priority 3 (Building Partnerships) right if the rest of these priorities are to be achieved.

6. Strategic Priorities for Hampshire - initial recommendations

These county-level Strategic Priorities - to be delivered by a range of organisations - are to be refined and agreed in discussion with stakeholders across the county, but are included here as a first step in that process, and to enable us to develop the Strategic Priorities for HCC.

Hampshire Strategic Priority 1: Establish a strong `evidence culture' for the visitor economy

This means

· Making sure we have a good sense of how the Hampshire visitor economy is performing, so that we can understand where intervention and investment is needed

· Measuring ourselves against the competition

· Making sure that we share the evidence with our stakeholders across the county

· Using the evidence to ensure better product development, better marketing, guidance for investors and planners, to support our advocacy and partnership work and to enable us to set SMART targets for our work

· Making sure we understand our visitors and potential visitors - niche as well as mainstream markets - and how to reach them

· Keeping track of market and consumer trends.

Hampshire Strategic Priority 2: Develop a strategic, market-focused approach to product⁵ development, `place shaping'⁶ and destination management

This means

· Making sure that we put our resources into developing the sort of places, products and experiences that our target markets want

· Using market information to shape and inform workforce development and training, so that our visitor-facing people and businesses reach the high standards of quality and customer service that people expect

· Finding ways to differentiate us from the competition, by making sure that our places/products/experiences have a distinct essence or edge - events, culture and local food & drink are examples of this

· Investing in our rural tourism so that we can attract higher-spending staying visitors, year-round, to our countryside, villages and market towns

· Providing the evidence and support to attract investment in the right things for our strategic, sustainable growth - across all sectors and for niche markets as well as mainstream markets

· Managing visitors well: taking a planned approach to visitor management - from the design of urban areas and public spaces to good signs, interpretation, information and facilities (loos, parking etc) for visitors

· Supporting businesses and other suppliers of the visitor experience through: investment advice, marketing support, quality initiatives, green tourism business schemes, workforce development and help to source products locally.

Hampshire Strategic Priority 3: Plan and deliver `smart' marketing

This means

· Planning and delivering more sophisticated, market-focused destination marketing

· Focusing resources on attracting key target market segments

· Communicating and keeping in touch with visitors at every stage of the `Visitor Journey'⁷ - from dreaming then planning and booking, to travel and the visit itself, to returning home, reminiscing, recommending and repeating

· Developing a strategic approach to e-marketing: this means developing new expertise and skills, and finding ways to provide `rich' visitor information online

· Strengthening and leading with the `destination brands' identified in TSE's branding research, and adopting strategies to ensure that `the rest of Hampshire' benefits from this market-led approach

· Finding opportunities for joint marketing with transport operators and other partners, including market-relevant destinations and themes/product clusters beyond the administrative boundaries.

Hampshire Strategic Priority 4: Ensure effective, joined-up and properly resourced delivery

This means

· Working closely with the organisations and professionals responsible for economic development, inward investment and regeneration, to make sure that tourism objectives are part of the mainstream economic agenda, and that they are built into and support plans for future economic growth

· Pooling resources to achieve more for our money

· Being clear about roles & responsibilities - i.e. who does what - particularly the respective roles of HCC and Hampshire Tourism Committee

· Re-focusing Hampshire Tourism Committee and making sure the key destination partners are committed to building the partnership

· Making sure that local authorities recognise the value of tourism and their key role in the visitor economy - especially as part of their place shaping role

· Encouraging public-funded bodies to be market-focused when planning and supporting the visitor economy

· Developing the links between the major destination brands and `the rest of Hampshire'.

7. Strategic Priorities for Hampshire County Council

As its contribution towards the Hampshire-wide Strategic Priorities, the three Strategic Priorities for HCC to support and develop the visitor economy in 2007-2012 are Advocacy, Sustainable Development, and Building Partnerships:

HCC Strategic Priority 1: Advocacy

This means:

· `Mainstreaming' tourism within the County Council, so that services across the council recognise the importance of visitors and take into account visitor economy priorities in their plans, resource allocation and delivery

· Building evidence and making the case for tourism externally among other local authorities and influential bodies, including influencing regional and national agendas re planning, transport, rural policies, skills and workforce development etc

· Promoting (eg through best practice seminars, online information etc for stakeholders) the principles of sustainable tourism - that is, the principles of managing tourism and tourism development so that it meet the needs of Visitors, Industry, the Community and the Environment - and leading by example (see Priority 2 below for specific actions).

HCC Strategic Priority 2: Sustainable Development

This means:

· Taking a lead on tourism development studies, making the links between planners, transport, investors and the visitor markets, and helping to create a positive environment for investment

· Supporting rural tourism development, especially the Market Towns Initiative

· Managing and developing HCC-owned rural assets and the Rights of Way network with visitors in mind

· Coordinating a strategic approach to visitor management and support for major events, working across administrative borders with unitaries and districts, and with the transport authorities

· Championing differentiated tourism `product' that will appeal to our key target markets

· Supporting local supply chains and local produce.

HCC Strategic Priority 3: Building Partnerships

This means:

· Enabling and facilitating partnerships among local authorities and other public-funded agencies

· Working with the districts to achieve market-focused economies of scale and maximum effectiveness, for example the current collaborative work on the Visit Destination Management System

· Representing the districts' interests when the destination brands meet

· Making the links across between strategies and groups - internally within the HCC and externally across the (geographic) county.

NEXT STEPS

This draft to HCC members for agreement

Action plans and delivery