a place for life

Tourism benefiting one and all Cornwall’s visitor economy strategy

2014 to 2020

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Visitor Economy Strategy for Cornwall 2014-20: strategy context The consultation draft has been produced by Cornwall Council and the Visit Cornwall Partnership following the 2012/13 Tourism Review. It seeks challenge and endorsement from partners and businesses involved in this complex sector. The framework seeks to confirm key priorities, areas for action and a shared responsibility for success. This consultation on priorities is the first step, to ensure a shared ambition. Subsequent stages will alight on how various resources may be maximised in delivery, together.

Executive Summary

Cornwall’s Visitor Economy Cornwall’s Visitor Economy is a success. Sector investment has transformed Cornwall from a high volume, low value mass market to a higher value, lower volume and multi niche market that is far less seasonal. Cornwall is ranked number one for visitor satisfaction, brand ranking, repeat business and loyalty. Our strengths lie in our landscape, coast, beaches, heritage and culture, built on our Cornish distinctiveness. Visitors see the Duchy as having a unique identity, as a distinct region in our own right, and ‘part of England, but not really England’. Our weaknesses are well versed; there is a productivity challenge to end the traditional low pay, low output sector, to end reliance on part time, seasonal employment; to cease affecting local housing affordability and the strain on public services due to the 4.5 million staying visitor trips. Our coastal towns and beaches get most of the visitor attention, the product elsewhere in Cornwall is less well developed and resourced. Our competitors are busy capturing new, high-spending customers and developing new and emerging niche markets, especially within cultural tourism, international visits and a year round offer, they must not beat us at our own game. Things are changing, not only in Cornwall. Reducing public sector budgets mean that future investment is more uncertain, making markets less reachable, unless we all work as one. Tourism in Cornwall Almost everyone tends to have a view on tourism and how it should be managed and developed, as most if not all have been on holiday! However, to deliver tourism successfully is far more complex than most initially think, as it is concerned with a wider concept called the visitor economy.

This term reflects the fact that tourism is not an industry in any standard economic definition. It is a wider and more inclusive concept than tourism, embracing the total visitor experience. It is not just about individual experiences and tourist businesses, like accommodation and attractions, but it is also about culture, sport, heritage and retail, as well as being concerned with creating and maintaining a sense of place, delivering good service and communicating clear messages about the destination. Source LGA

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There are a wealth of attributes and opportunities that bring visitors to Cornwall, such as:

• Cornwall’s excellent credentials to deliver a high quality, environmentally responsible tourism experience;

• Cornwall’s quality of life, and environment enhanced by a wealth of local produce, cultural assets, heritage and traditions, which, together, have the real potential to give visitors a high quality and fulfilling experience;

• The sheer variety of landscapes, coast and beaches – much greater than other destinations - provide opportunities for low and high-energy activities for people of all abilities and age groups.

Leisure tourism has been a feature of the Cornish economy for well over a century, and given the long trading nature of Cornwall, especially in relation to the Cornish mining industry, it could easily be argued that tourism and business tourism in Cornwall has existed for over two thousand years! But the last 50 years has seen the sector on a “roller coaster ride” in terms of its position and performance. In the 1960’s and 1970’s Cornwall was a very popular tourism destination based predominantly, on low value, high volume to meet the needs of the heyday of mass domestic tourism. At that time, businesses could make sufficient profits whilst closing from late September to Easter, with the majority of bookings and deposits being placed in January to March, with limited competition. Customers were willing to accept trading down their standard of living in order to have a holiday and predominantly bought on price not quality. Then as the 1980’s rolled out, cheaper package holidays were available, combined with increasingly affordable air travel impacted negatively on Cornish tourism. By the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the sector was in real trouble, with the hotels in the receivership of the banks, our holiday parks were suffering and B & B’s were dated and tired. At that time, the English Tourist Board identified Cornwall as a poor performing area and a destination in need of urgent attention and awarded special status and funding to create and action a Tourism Development Plan. Since that low point, the sector has concentrated on developing quality/market led “multiple niche” products. Holiday parks have invested in additional facilities, alongside a step change in the quality of accommodation and service. Many hotels have transformed themselves from “just places to sleep” to destination hotels with world-class

Visitor Economy

Where to Stay/Sleep

What To Do

Travel

Shopping

Eating and Drinking

Cornish Experience

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facilities and restaurants. Our reputation for poor quality food has been completely overturned with Cornwall now seen as having the strongest reputation for our restaurants and famous chefs. The key facts • 4.5 million staying visitors • 25 million bed nights • £1.86 billion visitors spend • 11% GVA • 17% employment • Visitor Economy supports circa 42,300 jobs • Best UK Holiday Region (British Travel Awards 2009 to 2013) • Highest brand ranking (Visit England Brand) • Visitor impact equivalent to 70,000 extra permanent residents • Average earnings £17,389 • Average earnings in Accommodation and Food Services £9,800 • Average house price £180,000 (11% above UK average)

Reasons to be Positive

The transformation of Cornish tourism has been a “combined effort” by hundreds of businesses, helped by targeted significant strategic investment in product development, such as the Eden Project, Tate St Ives, National Maritime Museum Cornwall and the World Heritage Mining Site, as well as Museums, Arts organisations and not for profit partners such as the National Trust and English Heritage to name but a few. This investment has transformed Cornwall from “high volume, low value mass market” to “higher value, relatively lower volume and multi niche market” that is far less seasonal with tremendous levels of customer loyalty and satisfaction. Our strengths lie in our landscape, coast, beaches, heritage and culture, built on our Cornish distinctiveness. Many of our visitors see the Duchy as having a unique identity and distinct region in our own right, whilst others see Cornwall as “part of England - but not really England”. Cornwall is also ranked number one for visitor satisfaction, brand ranking, repeat business and loyalty. The importance of tourism is widely recognised by the resident population of Cornwall, with 89% of people agreeing with the statement that tourism is “good for the area”, whereas only 4% stated it is “bad” for Cornwall. Similarly, 30% stated that tourism has a “positive impact” on their lives, with 13% saying it has a “negative effect” and 54% believing it has a “neutral” impact on their lives. Further evidence of the strengths and success of the sector can be found in the supporting evidence document.

Causes for Concern Although Cornwall has been very successful in its transformation from “lower-value mass market” to “higher value segments”, the rest of the world has also been rising to changes and challenges in the market. Our competitors, both within the UK, as well as overseas destinations, have also been improving their offer and will continue to do so. Cornwall must not be complacent, as although it is often the Country’s number one destination, we have real competition from destinations such as Devon, Dorset, Cotswolds, the Lake District and Yorkshire. Many of these, as

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well as other UK destinations, have been trying to win over our loyal customers, with limited success. Far more concerning has been their success in capturing the new customers and developing new and emerging niche markets, especially within “cultural tourism”. This has been linked to the significant growth in the city/short break/ markets. Destinations place the highest priority on raising the profile and promoting destinations to new visitors, as “head turning” destination marketing is beyond the scope and means of the thousands of small businesses operating in the sector. Cornwall has not been very successful over the last decade and has seen a reduction in new visitors each year as shown in the chart below.

New visitors are the key to our long term success, as for every 100 new visitors we attract, 80 will return (within 5 years) and 40 will become regular customers ( at least once a year) and therefore it is vital to increase the proportion of new visitors to Cornwall, by widening the appeal, combined with and effective promotion to new customers. The through-life value of a loyal and repeat customer is significant over the decades. Our Structural Weaknesses and Challenges

There are areas of weakness and challenges we must tackle most of which come from the characteristic of the sector, i.e. a massive sector delivered by, mostly, micro and small businesses and organisations. This is very different from a city visitor economy, where a significant number of large national and international operators handle a large proportion of the activity. However, the fragmented small business structure in Cornwall has significant positive impacts through local supply chains and professional services provided within the Duchy. As the sector that is largely made up of small and medium sized businesses; spread across a wide geographic area such as Cornwall, there is, almost inevitably, a lack of co-ordination, effective leadership and representation. It is therefore important to collaborate and create effective industry engagement to firstly, enable the sector to have a coherent voice to communicate their needs, but secondly to corral the sector into effective focused action. The sector also needs to address the competiveness and productivity challenge to improve its viability and profitability and this requires tailored packages of bite sized business support to increase the business skill competences of a significant number of businesses. Another frequently voiced complaint is that tourism is a low wage industry. Tourism has a fine track record of providing entrepreneurial opportunities and many people have used the experience of starter jobs in the industry to develop rewarding careers, as well as to gain the experience to set up their own tourism businesses. Nevertheless, more can and should be done to improve skills and progression routes within the sector. The low pay/skills challenge includes the need to establish/improve better career paths for staff, as well as increased work based and flexible skills development packages/programmes for all those working in the sector. Given the disparate nature of the visitor economy, the numbers of small businesses involved and the different ‘sub- 5

destinations’ in Cornwall there is an important role in gathering and managing market information and intelligence on behalf of the whole sector. Information is not universally available and the smaller tourism businesses do not have the capacity to do their own research and gather their own intelligence to guide their activities. Cornwall-wide research and market intelligence activity is therefore necessary to guide and support the sector to improve competitiveness and productivity.

In an increasingly competitive market, exceptional customer service skills can differentiate a business from its competition. Successful tourism businesses offering exceptional customer service achieve higher numbers and greater diversity of customers, customer loyalty, increased sales, improved public image and greater job satisfaction for staff. Exceptional customer service encompasses good communication, problem solving and organisational skills, with individuals having high levels of observation and perception.

Finally, market forces inevitably focus consumer attention on the coastal towns and beaches. The product elsewhere in Cornwall is less well developed and resourced. It is important to spread the economic benefits to other parts of Cornwall to assist regeneration, relieve negative visitor impacts in the busier Cornish villages and towns and the improve visitor offer and experience across Cornwall as a whole.

Wider Impacts

Tourism, like many other economic activities, does have negative impacts including the challenge of affordable housing is a result of the attractiveness of Cornwall, combined with our regular loyal visitors and significant improvements in connectivity via the dueling of the A30, Newquay Airport and superfast broadband, has increased the number of second homes in certain areas and locations in Cornwall. There is also the issue of the strain on public services due to the 4.5 million staying visitor trips resulting in over 25+ million nights of stay. This equates to an equivalent increase in the resident population of Cornwall by around 70,000. Although the sector is one of the highest taxed visitor economies in the world with tax generating circa £600m for HM Treasury, by and large Cornwall has to pick up the cost of coping with, and managing the impact of, this scale visitation.

Further evidence regarding concerns, our weaknesses and our competitive position can be found in the supporting evidence documents.

A Public Sector view: Cornwall Council Tourism Review 2012/13

Tourism is a significant contributor to the economic activity and employment structure of Cornwall. The sector’s future competitiveness will impact on the overall performance of the Cornish economy, given the inter-relationship with other key sectors such as agri-food and drink. It is therefore crucial that Cornwall Council takes a strong and strategic leadership role in defining the future tourism strategy for Cornwall in partnership with the private sector. In 2010, a review and reprioritisation exercise was undertaken which resulted in the closure/transfer of the Council funded Tourist Information Centres (TICs) whilst increasing activities focused on digital PR/media relations. Tourism research and development was also improved in order to increase Cornwall’s brand position and knowledge of the sector, with the aim of raising competitiveness and stimulating product development. Given the ongoing pressures of Council funding, changes in marketing technologies and priorities and the need to consider the wider policy/strategic issues with regard to tourism, it was agreed to undertake a more fundamental review of tourism and Council support for tourism in Spring 2012. This also aligned with a wider Member-led ‘Economic Development Review’, focusing on roles and responsibilities between Cornwall Council Economic 6

Development Service, the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership and Cornwall Development Company. The Tourism Review was supported and informed by Cornwall Council’s Tourism Panel, supported by the Head of Tourism at Cornwall Development Company, with strong support from the VisitCornwall Partnership. The purpose of this Tourism Review was to reflect on the current and future priorities for tourism, marketing and development for the coming decade and to identify the strategic, policy and operational issues for: • Destination Marketing; • Destination Management; • Development, quality and business growth priorities; • Sustainable Tourism; • The respective roles and responsibilities of the private and public sectors in relation to the above; • The associated policy/strategic areas for Cornwall Council with regard to any funding/investment and

commissioning services. The review identified, in particular: • The key facts, characteristics of the sector and its competitive position, brand strength, weaknesses and

opportunities; • The factors that will influence the future performance and success of Cornish tourism, the core principles for

shaping the future of Cornish tourism and the priority development opportunities; • The changing roles between the public, private, third and voluntary sectors. The review identified three key areas for action: 1. Strategic Issues To develop a detailed strategy for tourism for the period 2013 to 2020. This Strategy should be independently verified/tested. 2. Delivery Issues To confirm likely future delivery arrangements for tourism support, services and facilities. 3. The role of Cornwall Development Company/VisitCornwall To give focus and priority to those activities commissioned by Cornwall Council, for delivery by Cornwall Development Company’s tourism service – VisitCornwall. Cornwall is a world class brand/destination but it increasingly has serious competition from within the UK and overseas. Although this may have marginal impact on its loyal visitors’ intentions, competing destinations can “poach” less loyal customers and have a significant impact on Cornwall’s success at attracting new and lapsed visitors. The challenge is to attract the attentions of these potential new visitors to such a degree that they will desire to know more about what Cornwall can offer them. The most effective method, particularly with limited investment, is to maximise the use of PR and media relations, including being a top ‘TV/Film friendly’ location. In addition, targeted and effective ‘head turning’, PR and targeted campaigns will drive potential customers to explore and research Cornwall on the internet. It is therefore vital that Cornwall has an impactful, inspiring and informative website/portal to convert latent/potential interest from awareness into researching, booking and then visiting. Once we secure new visitors, half can be predicted to become loyal customers. It is critical that Cornwall secures its competitive strengths and position by protecting the key assets that attract and 7

interest its visitors, especially the distinctive landscape, heritage, cultural strengths, beaches and protected areas. These make up the unique ‘Cornwall Offer’. Equally important is to keep Cornwall’s reputation as a quality destination and to ensure the quality of the visitor experience within the private and public product (the public realm) is maintained and continuously improved. To achieve these goals it is important to work effectively across Cornwall as well as at the local town/parish level. Equally, the needs of the tourism sector must be integrated within the localism agenda as well as generic economic development and investment initiatives such as key transport infrastructure, superfast broadband, skills and staff development. Tourism impacts on, and contributes to, many aspects of Cornwall and it is important that the principles of effective destination management, marketing, planning and sustainable tourism are embedded. Tourism is much more than an economic sector as it impacts on many other aspects of Cornwall and Cornish life and therefore it should be used as a tool for: • Economic Development - growing a higher value, retaining more of the visitor spend within the Cornish

economy and developing a more productive industry which stimulates further private sector investment.

• Employment generation - both as a sector chosen as a first choice career, but also considerable

opportunities for those seeking a second chance/opportunity and career advancement or development. It is also a major contributor to the inclusion agendas for youth, disadvantaged and older workers and increasingly the early retired. It is important that skills and learning support a high quality labour market for the sector. Cornwall Council and the tourism industry have a key opportunity to enhance tourism skills reputation and influence training provision through the recently established Employment and Skills Board (part of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership).

• Culture, Well Being and Quality of Life - increasing the variety quality and quantity of cultural, leisure,

arts, heritage and sporting festivals and events for local people as well as visitors. • Environment - tourism acts as a driver to protect, maintain and improve the quality of the landscape

and environment. Promoting economic prosperity, jobs-led growth and dealing with the effects of the global economic downturn form a major part of the Council’s corporate objectives and Future Cornwall agenda. Local Government and its support and funding have been a feature of tourism marketing and development for over 50 years. However, it is important to regularly review the nature and scale of such intervention to ensure it is prioritised and represents good value. Tourism and the visitor economy have a major impact on Cornwall’s employment and economic performance, as well as contributing to the cultural, social and community offering. Tourism is also the dominant factor in the perception of Cornwall from the UK and abroad and although it has many positive aspects and benefits, it brings problems and challenges: • Productivity is lower than other sectors - from the more obvious sectors such as high tech engineering through

to agri-food production and processing. Estimates for 2009 show that the tourism sector had a lower

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productivity figure than the Cornish average, at 70% for all workers and 74% for Full-time equivalents. The focus of public sector investment should be improving this over time;

• Contributing significantly to congestion at certain times of the year; • Creating additional strains on maintaining and improving the quality of the public realm/facilities as well as the

wider provision of public services; • In many locations, contributing to shortages of affordable housing for local people; • Training and employment practices in parts of the sector need to be improved; • The need to develop better career paths and progression is required. However, there are further opportunities that should be exploited in increasing the economic, employment and social benefits for Cornwall residents and visitors alike, including:

• Potential growth projections for tourism of 2-3% per annum over the coming decade, with Cornwall benefitting from this growth through attracting more first time visitors (both domestic and overseas) to Cornwall;

• Increased focus on cultural heritage and the arts to support the cultural and heritage sectors, (which would assist in specifically growing out of season visitors) and other growth opportunities in the health and well being services;

• The further development and delivery of quality festivals and events for both local people and visitors as a key tool in generating new and repeat visits at the times of year when we need additional business;

• Further development of local supply chains i.e. food and drink, business services and products/produce; • Supporting the development of local area promotions and information provision to support businesses

stimulating Cornish local economies. Cornwall’s Competitive Position - The Brand Cornwall is a leading top five UK tourism brand, winning many awards and accolades and this is a significant improvement on its position 10 years ago. Investment by the private and public sectors has placed it as a premium, high quality, higher price destination for the UK and increasingly overseas visitors. Cornwall competes against other leading destinations such as The Lake District, Wales, Jersey/Guernsey, Yorkshire and most importantly Devon (as 95% of our visitors pass through to come to Cornwall). Many of our target markets are shared by our competitor destinations, most of which have a geographical advantage. With the rising cost of fuel, these are growing competitive issues facing Cornwall. However, Cornwall has a major strength in that it does attract considerable repeat visits. In 2012, the annual visitor survey showed an impressive 91% of visitors chose Cornwall without serious consideration of any other destinations. Of the 9% who did consider other destinations, two thirds considered other UK competitor destinations with the remaining third considering overseas destinations. Although this level of repeat business is a significant sign of the quality of the experience, it also shows low levels of new customers. This should give a clear rationale for future focus of marketing activity. No destination can hold all its existing customer base and replacement new visitors are a high priority for any destination. In summary, 49% of Cornwall’s customer base is ‘loyal’; up to 51% of its customer base could be ‘open’ to being persuaded to go to competitor destinations; between 10% and 20% have no ‘brand loyalty’. Key messages from the ‘Cornwall Brand’ Evidence Review:

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• Cornwall’s priority and focus must be to market Cornwall to new/potential visitors by building on our high profile in the UK to attract new markets - UK and targeted and overseas markets - using PR and media relations and attracting and supporting film and television production. With regard to overseas visitors Cornwall’s main source and target market is the German speaking segment, mainly attracted by our coast, arts and heritage. This is further supported by the Rosamund Pilcher coverage of Cornwall. We should focus our overseas marketing on expanding this market.

• Must keep the Cornwall and the Isles of Scillies differentiation, unique profile in the market place, quality and distinctive ‘product’.

• Cornwall must build on digital marketing, content development and distribution, its award winning destination website/portal and social media activities.

• Individual businesses can and do market themselves to existing customers and returning customers to their location but only a few, and mostly large companies, have the resources to market Cornwall to potential visitors.

• Cornwall needs to increase its knowledge of the potential visitor and of what assets and product would convert them into new visitors to Cornwall. Communicate the results and knowledge to the private sector and local partners to assist in increasing competitiveness.

• A more holistic approach to Cornwall Brand is required – a better use of funding = a better result. • Build more on major, high profile festivals and events as well as the cultural offer, i.e. identity, heritage,

historic and modern assets. • Deliver a more integrated approach within tourism, i.e. Rural Development Programme /World Heritage

Site projects, in order to add value and demonstrate synergy. • Investigate the potential of product development in regard to culture, heritage, health and well-being.

Cornwall’s Competitive Position - The Product and Experience Cornwall has world-class tourism assets, including:

• Two wonderful coasts, rivers and estuaries • The coastal path • Beaches • Heritage - especially the World Heritage Site and AONB • Culture - Celtic and contemporary • Remarkable landscape, protected areas and countryside/moors.

These core assets draw millions of visitors every year and bring back millions to visitor to return frequently over many decades. Cornwall has many superb private sector products, from award winning restaurants, cafes, hotels, B&Bs, cottages, attractions and activity providers to match these natural, cultural and built assets, as well as niche markets for luxury/specialist food and drink (such as Camel Valley, Cornish Blue and the Pasty). This combined with a good public realm (cleanliness, car parks, lifeguards, toilets and visitor services) is the combination that makes Cornwall a premier destination. To remain competitive and secure its place as a/the leading destination, it is important to protect the assets, maintain and improve the visitor experience for the four million plus staying visitors as well as the half a million residents of Cornwall. However, given the current and future funding constraints, the maintenance and potential improvement of the visitor experience is an increasing challenge for the coming years. Showing the intrinsic link between the tourism

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offer and these assets may encourage different ways of investment. Key Messages from Customer Experience Evidence Review:

• “It’s the landscape/environment/heritage/culture” combined with competitive private sector that makes Cornwall the number one UK destination

• Respect, protect, maintain and improve our tourist assets • Quality public realm and visitor services crucial to Cornwall’s competitive position • Customers are looking for higher standards and better value • Must be innovative and inventive in securing above objective • Improve customer service and welcome

Sustainable Tourism To be consistent with Cornwall Council’s environmental aims, it would be the intention to move to a truly sustainable tourism offer. In doing so, the priority would be to significantly increase the sustainability of tourism using the “VERB” principles to underpin future policy and major decisions such as planning. These are: • Visitors - i.e. satisfied and delighted customers who act as advocates and ambassadors to assist in gaining new

and repeat customers • Environment - i.e. one that is protected and enhanced locally and contributes to assisting global issues (carbon) • Residents - i.e. that are generally understanding, accepting and welcoming • Business - i.e. that are profitable, competitive and able to invest in their future development and growth, whilst

being engaged and participating in the wider management and development of tourism in their area and Cornwall as a whole.

Sustainable tourism can only truly be delivered by having effective joint planning and delivery of destination management including: • Measuring tourism and its impacts • Managing and steering its development • Minimising/negating the negative aspects of tourism • Maximising the positive aspects of tourism. The changing roles and responsibilities between the public and private sector Tourism in Cornwall is a successful and mature sector and therefore does not require the same support and intervention that is needed in new, emerging, developing or even stagnating sectors. Whilst our brand is ‘Cornwall’, visitors travel to various destinations within the area and the public, third party and private sectors deliver the experience at local level. Therefore, local effective destination management and local marketing is essential to ensure all key stakeholders from the private and public sectors plan and work together to deliver quality visitor service, facilities and customer experience. With the reductions in public funding, it is important that new, innovative and lateral solutions are developed at local level to enable the ongoing competiveness of Cornwall to be maintained. The role of the private sector is to ensure that their customers have a high quality good value experience and to invest/reinvest in their businesses, managers and staff development. Businesses are involved in local and sector

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collaborative promotional activity and increasingly in aspects of destination development and management through Business improvement Districts (BIDs). At present, several destinations across England are in various stages of the development of Tourism BIDs. Cornwall will continue to work with the National Development Group to evaluate their potential role in Cornwall. There are further opportunities for greater involvement in such activities but there must be a win – win in the arrangement so that the businesses can afford the engagement, management and investment/funding of local alternative service delivery. The greater involvement of both the private sector and delivery of the Government’s localism agenda may result in different delivery and governance arrangements for tourism services but this is subject to the completion of further work as set out in this report. Conclusions Cornwall is a top brand/destination, but it does have serious competition from within the UK and, although this may have a marginal impact on the intentions of loyal visitors, competing destinations can “poach” less loyal customers and have a significant impact on Cornwall’s success at attracting new and long lapsed visitors. This is particularly relevant if Cornwall is not active in modern day marketing to these prospective visitors. The challenge is to attract the attentions of these potential new visitors to such a degree that they will desire to know more about what Cornwall can offer them. The most effective method with limited investment is to maximise the use of PR and media relations, including being a top ‘TV/Film friendly’ location. In addition, targeted and effective ‘head turning’ PR and targeted campaigns will drive potential customers to explore and research Cornwall on the internet. It is therefore vital that Cornwall has an impactful, inspiring and informative website/portal to convert latent/potential interest from awareness into researching, booking and then visiting. Once new visitors are secured, half can be predicted to become loyal customers. It is critical that we secure our competitive strengths and position by protecting the key assets that attract and interest Cornwall’s visitors, especially the distinctive landscape, heritage, cultural strengths, beaches and protected areas. Equally important is to keep Cornwall’s reputation as a quality destination and to ensure the quality of the visitor experience within that private and public product (realm) is continuously maintained and improved. To achieve these goals it is important to have effective working at a Cornwall-wide as well at local town/parish level. The needs of the tourism sector should be integrated within the localism agenda, as well as generic economic development and investment initiatives such as key transport infrastructure, superfast broadband, skills and staff development. In summary the key issues for the future are: • To protect and maintain our tourism-related assets; • To ensure the visitor experience, customer service, facilities and public realm is maintained and improved; • To promote Cornwall effectively in the digital age to gain new visitors; • To deepen and broaden the brand to attract new and long lapsed visitors.

It is these areas which will form the basis for content of a future Strategy.

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Public Funding Analysis of 2012 benchmarking information shows that Cornwall is delivering significant outputs and for the amount of public sector investment and represents good value for money. See analysis below;

Cornwall Key Facts Public Funding

£1.17M Core funding

Population 537,400 Staying visitors 4,548,000 Bed nights 23,954,000 Spend £1,252,000,000 % Employment 14.40% % GVA 11.00%

Devon (Including districts and unitaries) Key Facts Public Funding

Population 749,900

Circa £1.6M Staying visitors 5,591,000 Bed nights 24,782,000 Spend £1,190,000,000 % Employment 10.50% % GVA 5.00% Yorkshire Key Facts Public Funding Population 5,301,300

Circa £9.9M Staying visitors 12,740,000 Bed nights 40,746,000 Spend £482,000,000 % Employment 8.50% % GVA 3.00% Cumbria Key Facts Public Funding Population 494,400

Circa £1.2M Staying visitors 4,015,000 Bed nights 14,505,000 Spend £871,000,000 % Employment 12.70% % GVA 5.00% Wales Key Facts Public Funding Population 3,006,400

Circa £15M Staying visitors 10,576,000 Bed nights 41,243,000 Spend £2,062,000,000 % Employment 9.40% % GVA 4.00%

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Public Sector Investment in Tourism Marketing The following table summarises the benchmarks of spend by Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) on the activities covered by this research and identifies where Cornwall sits within this: Activity Range % Average Cornwall position

% DMO gross spend per staying visitor bednight

8.3 - 96.7p UK – 31p England – 13p

8.3p

DMO public sector investment per staying visitor bednight

4.5p – 77.9p UK – 25p England – 10p

5.7p

DMO gross spend per staying visitor trip

32.2p - £3.91 UK - £1.21 England – 49p

42.1p

DMO public sector investment per staying visitor trip

15.5p - £3.15 UK - £1 England – 36p

28.9p

Ratio of £1 DMO gross spend to staying visitor spend

£48.73 to £842.61 UK - £364.58 England - £500.09

£707.73

Ratio of £1 DMO public sector revenue spend to staying visitor spend

£60.51 to £1,261.27 UK - £593.70 England - £840.08

£1,033.99

DMO gross spend per day visitor 4.7p – 46p UK – 16p England – 6p

13.7p

DMO public sector investment per day visitor

2.3p – 37p UK – 13p England – 6p

9.8p

Ratio of £1 DMO gross spend to day visitor spend

£99.87 to £735.06 UK - £322.98 England - £424.17

£246.81

Ratio of £1 DMO public sector investment to day visitor spend

£124.03 to £1,525.95 UK - £536.53 England - £723.46

£360.44

2013/14 Cornwall Council commissioned tourism activity (via Cornwall Development Company: Visit Cornwall) Activity commissioned through CDC for 2013-14 followed recommendations from the tourism review. Activity includes: • Destination Marketing primarily aimed at attracting first time visitors to Cornwall through appropriate

promotions, PR etc. • Digital marketing, social media, content production and sharing • Targeted research and market intelligence activities to drive Cornwall’s marketing and product development,

communicating this to private sector/local delivery partners • Increase engagement and involvement of the private sector • Managed exit within 6 months from local tourism services and TIC support • Review how culture and heritage can be mainstreamed and aligned into VC approach to marketing Cornwall and

implement review findings and recommendations 14

Strategy development Timeline

What When Cornwall Council Economy and Culture Portfolio Advisory Committee (PAC) strategy ‘kick off’ and development

October 2013-February 2014

Visit Cornwall Partnership ‘strategy development’ December 2013 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) review 05 March 2014

Consultation March – April 2014

Visit Cornwall (Cornwall Development Company) 2014/15 commission commences

April 2014

Review and endorsement of Visitor Economy Strategy, agree resources May 2014

Delivery, monitoring and development May 2014 - onwards

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