The Suffolk and Norfolk Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) has published its Destination Management Plan (DMP), a route map to make the two counties a top-of-mind UK tourism destination by 2029.
The DMP has been produced by consultants Reith and involved an 8-month process including two online questionnaires to the wider tourism sector, five workshops and 48 one-to-one interviews.
The views of all the stakeholders were taken into account in developing the DMP.
‘This DMP doesn’t just belong to the Suffolk and Norfolk LVEP, it belongs to everyone involved in the visitor economy across the two counties,’ said Pete Waters, Executive Director of Visit East of England which manages the LVEP.
‘VEE’s fingerprints are not on the DMP – it’s been written by our stakeholders and it’s our job to implement it’.
The DMP has two main ambitions:
- To spread tourism demand seasonally and geographically to deliver a year-round visitor economy and change the narrative that the sector is ‘seasonal, low skilled and low paid’.
- Convert day trips to stay trips, because the value of a staying visitor will be significantly higher.
The DMP highlights the sector’s strengths, challenges and opportunities, and identifies ten Signature Projects that the LVEP will focus on:
- Out of Season campaigns to drive the year-round visitor economy.
- A Perceptions Study to understand what visitors and potential visitors think about Suffolk and Norfolk.
- Develop and promote Active Travel through cycling and walking and also sustainable transport using trains and buses.
- Implementing Regenerative Tourism in the Brecks, a National Character Area.
- Developing a cross border St Olaf Ways Pilgrimage Route.
- Build placemaking brand ‘Naturally – A Welcome for All’, focusing on accessibility and inclusivity.
- World Host training for the young and unemployed, and skills boot camps.
- Tourism mitigation for Sizewell C.
- New management and engagement approach through the LVEP.
- Digital infrastructure development, including a new Destination Content Management System and new website iterations for the Suffolk and Norfolk LVEP, Visit Suffolk and Visit Norfolk, as well as microsites for B2B and Travel Trade.
‘We’ve listened to stakeholders and businesses and they absolutely have to be our focus through the LVEP,’ Pete Waters added. ‘If anything is going to build the visitor economy in Suffolk and Norfolk it’s the thousands of SMEs that are at the coalface. Working with local authorities and the national tourism bodies, we want to help them achieve that.’
