RHS Garden, Wisley, Surrey
new regulations
regeneration in coastal Towns
Businesses are facing an increasing burden of new regulations. again
Part of Tourism South East’s drive to regenerate the region’s
in 2008/09 dedicated resources were deployed to examine proposed
seaside resorts has focused on support for local authority partners
regulation, consult the industry, lobby for change and advise operators
to take advantage of the Sea change programme. Importantly, this
on compliance. Of particular note, was work with the Tourism
included hastings which was awarded a grant of £2m towards the
alliance to influence new regulations on consumer protection, holiday
essential public realm works associated with the planned Jerwood
entitlement and the sale of alcohol.
art Gallery. a further £7m was awarded to projects in dover, Bexhill,
Littlehampton, Margate and Leysdown.
Specialist Business advice
closer working arrangements with Business Links were explored
In hayling Island, Tourism South East worked with havant Borough
to create more joined-up advisory services tailored to the tourism
council on a seafront improvement plan, which included detailed
sector. To this end progress was made in Sussex and Surrey, where a
designs for an extreme sports centre with accommodation. an area
specialist tourism advisor was retained to offer one-to-one guidance
action Plan for herne Bay was also a significant achievement.
to businesses.
In October, Tourism South East organised and hosted a very
Market Intelligence and research Services
successful ‘wavelength’ conference, held at the azur Pavilion in
Up to date market intelligence was as important as ever in helping
hastings. Over 100 delegates including MPs, council Leaders and
Tourism South East and the industry to understand changes in the
chief Executives attended.
operating climate and shape responses to it. core elements were
the regional Occupancy Survey and Business confidence Survey.
Encouraging Sustainability
additional monitoring of the impacts of the economic situation helped
advice, in the form of ‘Green advantage’ workshops, was a core
plan the components of the Winning in recession programme.
component of Tourism South East’s efforts to encourage business
to adopt more sustainable practices. Eight workshops were held
Tourism South East’s expertise continued to be offered through paid-
with excellent feedback. Tourism South East also continued to play a
for research services to local authorities, tourism businesses and
leading role on the climate change Partnership for the South East.
other organisations. a total of 34 research contacts were completed in
2008/09 covering projects of all kinds, from a commission to research
accessibility
the economic impact of Tourist Information centres for VisitBritain, to
SEEda funding was secured to deliver a wide ranging programme
visitor surveys for major attraction operators.
of initiatives to further the accessibility agenda. aspects include
upgrading Tourism South East’s consumer site and destinations’
accommodation Future Studies
websites, to display comprehensive searchable access information,
The objective of this programme is to identify, with local authority
partnering with local authorities to produce online business advice
partners, gaps in current accommodation provision and find ways to
toolkits, video and text case studies, tailored high profile marketing
fill them. In 2008/09 the focus was on hotel investment and three local
utilising paralympians such as Peter norfolk and ade adepitan and a
authority partnerships collaborated on supply and demand studies.
destination access audit of Winchester.
These covered coastal West Sussex, East Sussex and hampshire. all
are being used to inform planning policy and potential investors. In
attracting Sports Events
the case of hampshire the study led to a seminar for planners, jointly
a wide range of high profile events were attracted to the South East
chaired by Tourism South East and hampshire county council.
through the efforts of Tourism South East’s Major Sports Events
coordinator, a post sponsored by SEEda. These included the Tour
Support for rural Businesses
of Britain cycle race between Milton Keynes and newbury, the
a potential source of funding for projects supporting rural businesses
corus Elite Triathlon in reading, and the World Beach Volleyball
is the rural development Programme for England. during 2008/09
championships in Brighton.
Tourism South East led and supported a number of bids some of which
are yet to come to fruition. however, a partnership bid with ‘hidden
Britain’ was successful, securing £140,000 for projects promoting the
region’s unheralded local heritage.
www.visitsoutheastengland.com
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