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Enhancing leadership, brand strength, visitor experience, and investment to boost Blackpool's tourism sector. Explore strategic initiatives and future plans for sustainable growth.
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Visitor Economy Strategy Update – September 2008
Strategic themes • Leadership and the Visitor Economy • Embrace ‘Blackpool As One’ philosophy • Blackpool and its enduring brand strength • Welcome, surprise and delight visitors • Investment in enterprise, infrastructure and people
Leadership and the Visitor Economy • New Business & Visitor Economy Strategy division • Strong and growing business leadership group • Delivering private sector input and support • Driving up business confidence • Visitor Economy Strategy now has clear ‘ownership’ • Key objective of increasing visitor spend • Developing new indicators to measure spend • Co-ordinating commercial sponsorship opportunities
Embrace ‘Blackpool As One’ Philosophy • BBLG engaging key players in visitor economy • Shared passion and ambition for Blackpool • Established cross-sector media coverage group • Joint positive PR and marketing campaigns • Public sector/private sector joint working • Private sector involvement in 365 and quality agenda
Enduring Brand Strength • Raising the bar on quality • Phasing out of local accommodation grading scheme • Hotels pointed towards national ‘star rating’ • Numbers risen by 15% in three months • Strong partnership approach to accreditation • Workshops, quality awareness days • Development of hotel ‘induction’ packs • Seeking national standards across visitor economy • Improved food/drink offer - breakfasts/fish and chips
Brand Development Programme • Brand repositioning involving 50+ stakeholders • New vision for Blackpool agreed by all partners • Establishment of nine thematic working groups • Cover everything from built environment to entertainment to people • Assessing current offer/aligning to new position • Identifying new opportunities across visitor economy • Action plans spanning 10 year timescale
Welcome, surprise and delight visitors • Development of Welcome To Blackpool programme • 2000 participants over next two years • Designed to encourage civic pride • Development of 365 events volunteer force • Already used at Veterans' Day/beach volleyball • Code of conduct • Illuminations research
Investment in Enterprise, Infrastructure, People • Targeted business support via BlackpoolUnlimited.com • Bespoke services to help non-accredited hotels • Expansion of Invest In Best grant scheme • Start up grants for new businesses in visitor economy • Growth programmes for mature businesses eg, Coronation Rock • Roll out of customer service programmes • Resource efficiency programmes to enhance profits • Development of wi-fi zone (piloted at beach volleyball)
Future plans • Refinement and alignment of new brand vision • Re-align Visitor Economy Strategy (post-casino) • Staging of visitor economy ‘best practice’ conference • Establishment of Blackpool-wide wireless network • Development of tourism skills strategy • Development of media toolkit - words and images
Visitor Economy Strategy Thank You