Visit East of England Executive Director Pete Waters outlines what the Suffolk and Norfolk Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) will be focusing on in 2026…
Placemaking brand ‘Naturally – A Welcome for All’ will look to attract new staying visitors to Suffolk and Norfolk.
Welcome to 2026 and a very Happy New Year to you all!
The Suffolk and Norfolk LVEP has a busy agenda this year as we look to working with you to raise the overall tide of our visitor economy towards the high-water mark of summer.
2024 provided record numbers of employment and value in our visitor economy – 80,000 employed and £5.9bn value.
It’s the largest sector and biggest employer in our two counties. We also know that right now, here in January 2026, we’re in choppy waters… we’re an SME ourselves, so understand some of the pressures businesses are under.
But we work in tourism, and if there’s one thing we have in this sector it’s optimism!
Here’s the LVEP’s key objectives:
Develop a year-round visitor economy. Overcome the narrative that the sector is ‘seasonal, low skilled and low paid’. If we can help put more money in businesses’ pockets by driving trade year-round then businesses can invest in FTEs, better pay and upskilling.
Spread demand seasonally and geographically. Attract new visitors into less touristed destinations during the peak months, support destinations with the greatest potential, particularly in our hinterland. Grow staying visitors outside the peak months across all destinations.
Increase the value of tourism. We have more visitors than the likes of Cornwall and Devon and the overall value of our sector is far higher. But their average spend per day per visitor is much higher – Cornwall’s average spend per day per visitor is £125, Norfolk’s is £65 and Suffolk’s £56. Imagine how much we could grow the sector if we could attract more staying visitors year-round?
Attract new staying visitors. Target domestic pre-nesters, aged 25-44, who have high segment spend per trip and can travel year-round. If we achieve that, we build habits that mean they could return when they become parents.
Embed ‘Naturally – A Welcome for All’. Our placemaking brand has as its USP our unique natural landscapes and the fact we have space – reasons why tired city-dwellers could be attracted here.
Progress DMP key Action Priorities. Continue developing the 10 Action Priorities in the Destination Management Plan. You’ll find them on page 20.
A new suite of logos give our websites a common brand look – they look like a family.
So, how are we going to work with you to achieve that? Let us give you a run-through on that busy agenda:
New digital infrastructure. We are creating new customer-facing websites for Visit Suffolk, Visit Norfolk and Visit East of England, as well as B2B and Travel Trade. These sites will be suffused with ‘Naturally’. These will be live in the spring.
Launch LVEP membership. We’ll no longer be just selling listings and adverts. Our new membership will include a sign-in to an LVEP members portal which will give access to unique toolkits and webinars from the national tourism bodies VisitBritain and VisitEngland as well as update listings. Membership will mean inclusion on blogs, campaigns, PR, social media and Travel Trade plus much more.
Use our owned channels. Promote our LVEP members through our social media and regular e-shots.
Paid promotions to grow our audience. We’ll be looking to do paid-for marketing to help grow our databases and put members in front of more people.
PR promotion. We’ll look to recruit a PR company to get earned coverage – organising familiarisation and press trips and dealing with press enquiries.
Marketing campaigns. When these foundations are solid, we’ll look to activate major campaigns to deliver more staying visitors, spending more money, throughout the year, across all of Suffolk and Norfolk.
That’s just a quick run-through of how we want to work with businesses in the visitor economy and hospitality this year.
2024 saw record numbers of employment and value in our visitor economy. We look forward to working with you to grow more jobs and more wealth in our biggest sector in the coming years.
