Agenda item

A report of the recommendations of the tourism and marketing working party (20 mins)

The Assistant Director Wellbeing and Culture introduced the report as circulated with the agenda. 

She explained that the 2009/10 Business Plan had included a milestone to develop a Tourism and Marketing Strategy.  At that time, a working group was established and included Councillors Rawson, Ryder and a co-optee Karl Hemming from the Social and Community Committee and Councillors Cooper and Stennett from the Economy and Business Improvement O&S Committee. 

The Strategy had come before both committees, prior to consultation with stakeholders and had been due to come before the committee again in September 2010. 

However, during this time, there were a number of Government announcements and it was felt appropriate to await further announcements and decisions and she hoped that members understood and accepted the reasons for the delay. 

Section 2 of the report detailed the progress made to date.

Councillor Rawson introduced himself as the Chair of the working group and advised members that he was speaking in his capacity as the Chair of the working group and a former member of the committee, rather than in his current role as a Cabinet Member. 

He too hoped that Members understood the reasons for the delay but stressed that work had continued.  The strategy had helped populate the Corporate Plan and improvements had been made to the website, which could in part explain the increase from 500,000 hits last year to 1 million at this time.

During their research the working group had reviewed a policy from 2005 which was nothing more than a list of growth bids, clearly the position had changed and the strategy had to be more than simply a ‘shopping list’.  The working group had also tried to look at sponsorship and the potential for tapping into both regional and national sources of funding.

The strategy sought growth within current resources and took consideration of announcements that Visit Britain would have funds made available to them to promote tourism and the fact that Civic Pride was being taken forward in the town. The delay in strategy had also not stopped work on other projects such as investing in improvements to the Town Hall.

Previous comments made by members of this committee were about the action plan, which members felt was unconvincing given it was not linked to the Corporate Plans. 

The key had been identifying things that could be slotted into current resources and budgets and taking account of the current economic situation. The action plan was now linked to corporate objectives and set out success measures, allocated responsibilities and timescales.

The Social and Community O&S committee had received this report at their meeting on 10 January 2011. They had endorsed the strategy and requested no changes to it and they proposed that the action plan should be reviewed by their committee in September 2011.

Councillor Rawson invited questions and comments from members of the committee.

As a member of the working group, the chair considered it was a very good report and invited comments from the Economic Development Manager and the Town Centre Manager who were present.

The Town Centre Manager was pleased that there had been consultation with businesses at the start but would have liked to have seen their involvement throughout the course of the review. This would have ensured that current business trends were included in the final report.

The Economic Development Manager emphasised the role of the council in place shaping. Although branding was important she felt that the report could have acknowledged the council’s role more in providing direction on future economic trends. She felt it was a very positive move to get something written down in terms of a strategy which could then be developed going forward.

As another member of the working group, Councillor Cooper commented that he had had no input to the revised action plan. He felt the town needed improved signage and a good What’s On guide and should be encouraging businesses and hoteliers to help themselves. He felt it was not good enough to just put the action plan on the shelf and see what happens with the economy.

Other members thought the strategy was well researched and well written but felt it was incomplete and lacking a real business case. The action plan contained no projections for increased business revenues and this was essential information before the report went to Cabinet for approval. They questioned how much of the action plan could be achieved given the current budgetary challenges and pressures on existing resources.

Another member suggested the action plan too wide in its coverage and overall the document did not provide a clear direction for the council for the next 3-5 years which a good strategy should provide.

There was also some discussion regarding how commissioning could affect the strategy. For example the report talked about a consolidated marketing team but made an assumption that this would be an in house team. There was little point in implementing this now if it was later revisited as part of the commissioning approach.

In response, Councillor Rawson said that the strategy made no assumptions about service providers. In the case of the marketing team, this service could be solely within the council or could be part of a joint shared service or have some external support. He confirmed that there was nothing in the action plan which was inconsistent with the budget proposals. 

In his summing up, the chairman said it appeared that members were happy to support the strategy document but felt that the action plan should be reviewed in the light of the commissioning activities that were taking place across the council. In addition further work was required to identify the financial implications of the action plan so that this could be considered by Cabinet.

In response to a question from the Assistant Director Well Being and Culture, the chair advised that it would not be necessary for the revised action plan to come back to this committee before it was forwarded to Cabinet.

RESOLVED that

1. The Marketing and Tourism Strategy Action Plan 2011/13 be revisited in the light of the commissioning activities that were taking place across the council
2. The Action Plan be supported by a breakdown of the financial implications
3. The resulting Marketing and Tourism Strategy be forwarded to Cabinet for their consideration.