Visit East of England (VEE) has had its first full year of operating the VisitEngland-accredited Suffolk and Norfolk Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP).
Here we list some of the key milestones of the year:
January: East Anglia is one of thirty locations Lonely Planet revealed as the must-visit places around the world to see in 2025 – and the only one in the UK. The global travel authority’s Best in Travel Hotlist of Trending Destinations is always an eagerly-anticipated moment for the industry, with Suffolk and Norfolk highlighted as one of ten of the world’s best regions to visit in the New Year, alongside ten cities and ten countries.
VEE and the Suffolk and Norfolk LVEP represent East Anglian tourism businesses at the Vakantiebeurs travel trade fair in Utrecht, Netherlands.
February: LVEP board established and met for the first time. Chaired by Andy Wood OBE, the board signed off the new five-year Destination Management Plan that Reith Consultants had been working on in 2024.
March: The Destination Management Plan (DMP) was published online and in print. The 88-page document was the result of two online questionnaires with more than 200 responses, 48 face-to-face interviews and five workshops with stakeholders across the two counties.
‘The views of the stakeholders were what directed the consultants’ work,’ said Visit East of England Executive Director Pete Waters. ‘The DMP doesn’t belong to Visit East of England, it belongs to everyone involved in the visitor economy across Suffolk and Norfolk’.
The DMP has Signature Projects including promoting Active Travel, a target of 200 trained on World Host, helping develop a cross-border St Olav Ways Pilgrimage Route, developing a regenerative tourism project and the ‘Naturally – A Welcome for All’ placemaking brand.
VEE and the LVEP hosted a Suffolk and Norfolk Tourism Awards ceremony at Norwich Castle. The culmination of five months of businesses entering and being judged, VEE had revitalised the awards following the withdrawal of publisher Newsquest and ensured they were aligned with the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence to ensure finalists went through to the national finals.
April: Ipswich-based Destination Core contracted to build a new Digital Infrastructure for the LVEP including a content management system and new websites for Visit Suffolk, Visit Norfolk and VEE and Travel Trade and B2B sites.
Consultant Bird Global engaged to develop the ‘Naturally – A Welcome for All’ placemaking brand with stakeholders.
May: The second LVEP board meeting sign off investment in a Regenerative Tourism project in the county-straddling Brecks.
July: Visit East of England partnered with Greater Anglia on their £1m+ UNLONDON campaign to encourage stay visits to the region by rail from the capital. The campaign included a TV commercial, digital and Out of Home poster campaign, encouraging staying visitors to travel by rail to Norfolk destinations including Norwich, Salhouse, Wroxham, Great Yarmouth, Cromer and Sheringham.
August: VEE announced the Tourism Volume and Value figures for 2024, revealing that the sector had reached new records for both size and employment – £5.9bn and 120,000 jobs, equating to 21% of all employment in Norfolk and 15% in Suffolk.
September: VEE and the LVEP launched the Suffolk and Norfolk Tourism Awards for 2025-26.
October: VEE and the LVEP host a Tourism Business conference at the John Innes Centre, Norwich with VisitEngland representatives hosting workshops on accessible tourism, regenerative tourism and research and market intelligence.
November: Bird Global host five more workshops, engaging with around 60 stakeholders, to build the pillars of ‘Naturally – A Welcome for All’: Immersive, Nourishing, Storied, Regenerative and Inspiring.
December: The final LVEP board meeting of the year was updated on the Brecks Regenerative Tourism project which has now engaged with more than 100 businesses, the ‘Naturally – A Welcome for All’ placemaking project, and the Digital Infrastructure and content management system which will launch before March 2026.
All LVEP board papers can be found on the VEE website here.
