Visitor Economy Strategy Update – September 2008

Strategic themes  Leadership and the Visitor Economy  Embrace ‘Blackpool As One’ philosophy  Blackpool and its enduring brand strength  Welcome, surprise and delight visitors  Investment in enterprise, infrastructure and people

Leadership and the Visitor Economy  New Business & Visitor Economy Strategy division  Strong and growing business leadership group  Delivering private sector input and support  Driving up business confidence  Visitor Economy Strategy now has clear ‘ownership’  Key objective of increasing visitor spend  Developing new indicators to measure spend  Co-ordinating commercial sponsorship opportunities

Embrace ‘Blackpool As One’ Philosophy  BBLG engaging key players in visitor economy  Shared passion and ambition for Blackpool  Established cross-sector media coverage group  Joint positive PR and marketing campaigns  Public sector/private sector joint working  Private sector involvement in 365 and quality agenda

Enduring Brand Strength  Raising the bar on quality  Phasing out of local accommodation grading scheme  Hotels pointed towards national ‘star rating’  Numbers risen by 15% in three months  Strong partnership approach to accreditation  Workshops, quality awareness days  Development of hotel ‘induction’ packs  Seeking national standards across visitor economy  Improved food/drink offer - breakfasts/fish and chips

Brand Development Programme  Brand repositioning involving 50+ stakeholders  New vision for Blackpool agreed by all partners  Establishment of nine thematic working groups  Cover everything from built environment to entertainment to people  Assessing current offer/aligning to new position  Identifying new opportunities across visitor economy  Action plans spanning 10 year timescale

Welcome, surprise and delight visitors  Development of Welcome To Blackpool programme  2000 participants over next two years  Designed to encourage civic pride  Development of 365 events volunteer force  Already used at Veterans' Day/beach volleyball  Code of conduct  Illuminations research

Investment in Enterprise, Infrastructure, People  Targeted business support via BlackpoolUnlimited.com  Bespoke services to help non-accredited hotels  Expansion of Invest In Best grant scheme  Start up grants for new businesses in visitor economy  Growth programmes for mature businesses eg, Coronation Rock  Roll out of customer service programmes  Resource efficiency programmes to enhance profits  Development of wi-fi zone (piloted at beach volleyball)

Future plans  Refinement and alignment of new brand vision  Re-align Visitor Economy Strategy (post-casino)  Staging of visitor economy ‘best practice’ conference  Establishment of Blackpool-wide wireless network  Development of tourism skills strategy  Development of media toolkit - words and images

Visitor Economy Strategy Thank You