[20
SEP 00]
WARWICKSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL NEWS
Thousands To Be
Spent To Bring In Tourists
A new effort to boost
tourism in Warwickshire is set to take off, with up to £100,000 of
work to be considered at Shire Hall.
Warwickshire County
Council acknowledges the work of South Warwickshire Tourism and
Coventry and Warwickshire Promotions, but wants to push harder in the
north and east of the county and coordinate the efforts of others.
The council is also a
member of the Heart of England Tourism Board giving £11,000 a year
and another £7,500 to support a tourism officer for North
Warwickshire Borough Council.
There has been a wish
list of projects drawn up including: membership of South Warwickshire
Tourism and Coventry and Warwickshire Promotions, plus developing and
publishing a tourism strategy, working for Business Link and
appointing a tourism development officer.
District councils
look to build on their tourism with town centre generation, Britain in
Bloom Success and the Ryder Cup in North Warwickshire
The county has been
involved with projects such as the World of Rugby (to trade on the
town’s home of the game), The Compton Verney Opera Project, The
Edgehill Battlefield Museum and the National Museum of Food and
Farming. The county runs tourism information points in Nuneaton and
Kenilworth.
Much of the work is
left to South Warwickshire Tourism, marketing Leamington, Warwick,
Stratford and Kenilworth, plus Coventry and Warwickshire Promotions,
whose work is centred mainly on the city and to a lesser extent on the
Nuneaton area.
The county council is
looking at taking a more strategic role and working harder on the
Rugby, Nuneaton, Bedworth, Atherstone and Coleshill areas that do not
have such dedicated efforts.
John Deegan, director
of planning, transport and economic strategy for Warwickshire, said
tourism plays a ‘key role in the economy’ especially in the south
of the county.
He said it was time
to look away from the ‘honey pot areas’ around Warwick and
Stratford and develop tourism in other parts of Warwickshire. He said:
“Tourism is a key
contributor to the retail and other service industries throughout
the county.
“The tourism
industry in the county is characterised by the a few large operators
with an infrastructure of hotels, guest houses and small visitor
attractions which are in the main, micro business.
“Tourism has
potential for contributing to the achievement of our aims for social
and economic regeneration. It has the potential for the generation
of jobs with lower levels of skills and there is a particular
potential for tourism to be instrumental in the regeneration of our
market towns and rural areas.
“It offers
potential for activities to be geographically targeted so as to
assist social inclusion
“There are
weaknesses in the marketing of the north and east of Warwickshire
and any intervention to redress this would involved the council in
spending for which new allocations will be needed and would lead the
council into an area of activity which is particularly resource
hungry.”
County councillors on
the economic and social regeneration policy advisory group will be
looking to make a decision on the way forward at their meeting next
Tuesday.
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