Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

The Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note and presentation of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) which detailed current activity in relation to destination and tourism research and the forthcoming development of a Destination Management Plan for Coventry.  Andrew Dixon, consultant for destination management strategy, was invited to the meeting.

The briefing note recognised that Tourism is important to the economy of Coventry.  The latest figures available from the Cambridge Model for 2015 showed that tourism injected £385 million to the local economy with total visitors of just under 8 million a year and 3.3 million overnight stays.  The sector employed some 6,921 Full Time Equivalent posts (FTEs) or around 5.9% of the city’s workforce. 

On 7 December 2017, Coventry was awarded the title of UK City of Culture 2021.  The city will also host Netball as part of Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games 2022 programme.  These events will raise the profile of the city and attract visitors to Coventry from across the UK and internationally. 

In the past 18 months, the city had been working in partnership with the City of Culture Trust and research expertise at the University of Warwick, and had completed a new 12-month visitor profile study and external perceptions research and mapped its box office attendance to show catchment for cultural events.  In 2017, the city further secured over £2 million in funding through the Great Place Scheme and Cultural Destinations funding, which would support a programme of activity to promote the city and re-present the city’s cultural and heritage offering. Through the Great Place and Cultural Destinations programme, Coventry had now commenced the process of developing a five-year Destination Management Plan for business and leisure tourism.  This would include work to analyse visitor survey, audience, resident and hotel occupancy data; consult with local stakeholders; review patterns of visitor activity and impact through the year; provide comparator data on similar scale destinations; and provide advice on the development of the local tourism and destination sector.

The resultant Destination Management Plan would outline priority actions and support that the destination and tourism sector require, with a particular emphasis on growth within the sector. It would also hopefully inform plans for growth in hotel capacity.

At a regional level, the West Midlands Growth Company had been created with a regional tourism remit from the West Midlands Mayor.  It was well placed to attract national investment from Visit Britain and had already secured resources for international tourism promotion.

The Scrutiny Board were delighted that Coventry had been awarded the title of UK City of Culture 2021 and they discussed the following with the Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration, officers and Andrew Dixon:

·  Attracting quality hotels to Coventry

·  Improving the cleanliness of the city through education as well as services

·  Promoting the ring road as a) a tourist attraction and b) underneath as a potential location for a skateboard park

·  Advertising events on a specific Coventry ‘What’s On’ website

·  Marketing with the Universities

·  Supply of hotel and non-hotel accommodation

·  Distribution of promotional leaflets

·  The next steps for the Plan and the Stakeholder event

RESOLVED that:

1.  A report back be considered by the Board in March/April, 2018

2.  A holistic approach to the cleanliness of the city, in relation to the   City of Culture, be discussed at Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee

3.  The Board be invited to the stakeholder event

4.  The slides of the presentation be circulated