Chichester District Council
Issue

Issue - meetings

Developing a New Strategy for the Visitor Economy

Meeting: 07/02/2017 - Cabinet (Item 330)

330 Developing a New Strategy for the Visitor Economy pdf icon PDF 100 KB

The Cabinet is requested to consider the agenda report and its appendix and to make the following resolutions:

 

(1)  That the support by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the proposed way forward as set out in this report and of the recommendations below be noted.

 

(2)  That it be agreed that Chichester District Council and Chichester BID open negotiations with the board of Visit Chichester (VC) with a view to redevelop VC to fulfil the functions and structure as set out in sections 6.1 and 6.2 of this report and if VC does not wish to take on these changes and fulfil these new functions, it is considered that Chichester District Council and the BID have the following options:

 

a)    To bring management of the visitor economy in-house to Chichester District Council or

 

b)    To establish a new destination management organisation (DMO) in line with the criteria set out in sections 6.1 and 6.2. If this option is to be followed then a report will be brought back to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and to the Cabinet setting out how these arrangements will work and the timetable for implementation

 

(3)  That the potential annual partnership funding from Chichester BID be noted and the £50,000 annual partnership funding for five years from April 2017 to assist development of the District’s visitor economy be approved.

 

(4)  That a strategic review as to how Chichester District Council can facilitate or encourage additional overnight accommodation to be developed in the District be sponsored.

Additional documents:

Decision:

RESOLVED

 

(1)  That the fact that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee was supportive of the proposal and the recommendations as set out in the agenda report for this meeting be noted.

 

(2)  That the establishment of a destination management organisation in line with the criteria set out in sections 6.1 and 6.2 of the agenda report be agreed.

 

(3)  That the opening by Chichester District Council and Chichester BID of negotiations with the board of Visit Chichester with a view to redevelop Visit Chichester to fulfil the functions and structure set out in sections 6.1 and 6.2 of the agenda report be agreed.

 

(4)  That if the negotiations in (3) above are unsuccessful then a report be brought back to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Cabinet setting out how the arrangements will work and the timetable for implementation.

 

(5)  That the annual partnership funding from Chichester BID be noted and £50,000 annual partnership funding for five years from April 2017 to assist the development of Chichester District’s visitor economy be agreed.

 

(6)  That the sponsoring of a strategic review as to how Chichester District Council can facilitate or encourage additional overnight accommodation to be developed in Chichester District be agreed. 

Minutes:

The Cabinet received and considered the agenda report and its appendix in the main agenda supplement and the fourth agenda supplement which circulated a written response by Visit Chichester to the proposals the subject of the report (copies attached to the official minutes).

 

The report was presented by Mrs Keegan.

 

Mr Oates was in attendance for this item.

 

Mrs Keegan explained that with so many outstanding tourist attractions in Chichester District there was a recognised need not only to attract more visitors to the area all year round but to identify ways of exploiting the substantial opportunities to encourage them to stay overnight or for short breaks. The report and its appendix summarised the research studies and surveys already undertaken, the anticipated outcomes of the visitor economy project via partnership working and how best to develop CDC’s strategic direction for tourism. Central to realising this objective was to establish a new Destination Management Organisation (DMO), preferably using Visit Chichester but if not the second of the two options set out in para 6.6 of the report. The next stage was to begin discussions on a service level agreement between the existing DMO, Visit Chichester, and CDC and Chichester BID. She drew attention to the fourth agenda supplement which contained Visit Chichester’s written response to the proposals.

 

Mr Oates said that Chichester District had the potential to become one of the leading tourist locations in the UK. The nature of tourism had changed and the research undertaken in the past year (section 4 of the report) revealed inter alia that areas in which tourism flourished had very strong DMOs. It was critical for CDC with its partner Chichester BID to work closely with Visit Chichester, the current DMO, to see how it could be reconfigured to meet the challenge to develop Chichester’s tourism potential. He alluded to the outcomes in section 5 of the report and how a revitalised visitor economy strategy was central to the growth of Chichester District’s economy as a whole.

 

Having conferred together, Mr Dignum and Mrs Shepherd announced a revised set of recommendations for this item, the text of which appears in the resolutions set out at the end of this minute.

 

At Mr Dignum’s invitation Mr C Hicks addressed the Cabinet in his capacity as the chairman elect of Chichester BID. Mr Hicks confirmed that BID would match the £50,000 pa as proposed to be allocated by CDC for five years.       

 

During the discussion Mrs Purnell said that it was important that the project was a district-wide and not a city-wide one. Mr Dignum assured her that this was the case, as para 5.1 (a), (f) and (h) of the report made clear. Mrs Keegan added that the vast majority of the tourist attractions were spread throughout the Chichester District area.

 

In reply to Mr Barrow, Mr Oates provided reassurance that a first rate digital platform was essential to the success of tourism marketing.

 

Mr Dignum concluded the debate by thanking Mr Hicks for his  ...  view the full minutes text for item 330


Meeting: 17/01/2017 - Overview & Scrutiny Committee (Item 133)

133 Developing a New Strategy for the Visitor Economy pdf icon PDF 113 KB

The committee is requested to consider the attached report and its proposed recommendations to Cabinet.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed Mr S Oates, Economic Development Manager, to the meeting. The committee considered the report circulated with the agenda (copy attached to the official minutes).

 

The committee made comments, including the following:

 

·        Statistics demonstrate that in spite of attractions in the district day visitors numbers are low .cannot be encouraged to become staying visitors. Queried whether the figures were skewed by Goodwood events. Research was carried out May to August through the core summer season and we have quarterly figures from Visit England going back a number of years. A joined up approach would help to attract more inward investment for bed spaces.

·        A shortage in overnight tourist accommodation is identified in the studies. We need to get the visitor economy working, to extend the season, continue web and social media activity, linking to other demographics and activities. The first task is to open negotiations with Visit Chichester.

·        Developers will consider accommodation more favourably once the tourism season is extended and there are better offers all year round; then major investment will come in.

·        Partnership working with other tourist organisations to attract people to the district.

·        The standard research sample size used by Visit England was 400-500 people. A number of questions were asked leading to the summary level information set out in the supporting papers.

·        Queried building an exhibition hall in Chichester. That sort of facility could come into the district through existing projects and may be outside of the city.

·        Queried the change required for Visit Chichester - There would be negotiations with Visit Chichester to establish whether they would be willing to change the shape of the organisation, taking into account the cost involved and investment required from the public sector to facilitate it with the two funding partners, Chichester BID and the council. Then it would need to go out to the market to encourage others to invest in the new destination management organisation (DMO).

·        Tourist based industry represents 7.2% of all business in the district with a revenue of £411m in 2015. Queried the overall value of business revenue in the district. Mr Oates undertook to provide a written response on this.

·        Car parking charges were not deterring visitors to the city. Research showed that visitors considered our car parking charges reasonable. Occupancy was also not an issue.

·        Queried figures for serviced accommodation. Mr Oates undertook to provide this information if available. Mr Potter suggested ward members could establish how many providers there were in each area.

 

Mr Ransley stated that this council needed to encourage development of overnight accommodation for visitors in the district and to ensure that land for hotel accommodation was included in the Local Plan going forward. He suggested a further recommendation be added to Cabinet as follows: “That Cabinet sponsors a strategic review as to how this council can facilitate or encourage additional overnight accommodation in the district.” This was seconded by Mr Potter.

 

On the recommendations being put to the vote they were declared carried.

 

RESOLVED

 

That  ...  view the full minutes text for item 133


 

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