ISLE OF WIGHT

TOURISM DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Progress Report to Select Committee

Background

The Head of Tourism started on 10^th May 2004, and, as a priority, was tasked to produce a Tourism Development Plan (TDP) within six months. This report updates the Select Committee on the progress made so far on the construction of the Plan.

· Value of Tourism

The TDP will identify the current value of tourism to the island and the associated economic, social and environmental benefits.

It will also identify the key concerns about issues within the industry at the moment and the negative impacts of tourism on the island.

· Regional Context

It is important that the Plan fits into a regional hierarchy. The diagram above shows how it will relate to the Regional Economic Strategy and the recent Tourism South East Tourism Strategy (Tourism ExSellence). The latter has also identified the Isle of Wight as a discrete sub – region which has been re-enforced by the establishment of the Isle of Wight Tourist Board.

(The Board is made up of representatives from TSE, IWC and the private sector and is currently Chaired by Simon Dabell. It is envisaged that the Board replaces the Tourism Partnership – also see Co-ordination of Delivery later in report)

TSE has also laid out Sub Regional Priorities for the island which are being used as ‘umbrella’ criteria for the TDP.

It is proposed that the TDP has a long term vision to 2020 to be consistent with the wider Island Futures but will need to contain short term costed actions.

· Related IOW Plans and Strategies – the plan will also take into account existing and emerging plans and strategies that will have a direct bearing on tourism. These include :-

• The Local Transport Plan
• The Unitary Development Plan and Local Development Framework
• IWC Corporate Objectives
• The Local Strategic Partnership and Area Investment Framework
• Current initiatives such as Cowes Waterfront, Sandown Bay Regeneration and Ryde Regeneration
• Tourism Skills Partnership for IOW and Hampshire
• Rural Development Plan
• AONB Management Plan
• IWC Cultural and Arts Strategies
• IOW Branding

2020 Vision of Tourism on the Island

The TDP will identify key objectives that tourism should seek to achieve by 2020 :-

o A better employer – better paid, skilled and satisfied workforce

o Radically less seasonal – longer, flatter patterns of business

o Increased wealth creation – higher spend from visitors, more profitable businesses

o Higher quality – across the whole spectrum of visitor experience

o Higher levels of repeat business – more satisfied and motivated customers

o More acceptable locally – tourism seen as a credible part of the economy and positive contributor to the quality of life on the island

o Enhancing and protecting the environment – ensuring that key assets are not spoiled by over development or excessive use.

Framework for the TDP

It is proposed that the TDP has two key horizontal themes of Sustainability and Quality. However, the catalyst to help drive and implement effective change should be the public and private sectors working in a smarter way :-

• Sustainable Island – with tourism growth comes responsibility and the TDP will seek to ensure that the recommended actions address economic, social and environmental sustainability issues.

• Quality Island – the island should aspire to provide a world-class visitor experience at all levels. This needs to be both managed and marketed. Critical to this will be an overarching Quality Development Plan that deals with the whole Visitor Experience Chain. This has been created already.

• Smarter Island – the TDP will identify ways of providing targeted and collective improvement opportunities for the private sector to improve skills and professionalism ; to have the public sector responsive, aligned and committed to its role in infrastructure and development investment; and to have greater partnership working at local and regional levels.

• Key Customer Groups – in order to identify the priorities for the marketing and management of the island it is necessary to identify those growth markets that will bring the maximum economic, social and environmental benefits. The subsequent development and promotion of the island will then be focused on fulfilling the needs of those particular priority groups. Five key groups have been identified.

• Destination Management - the visitor experience is affected by a multitude of services, products and infrastructures .These are influenced by a few key public agencies as well as the many private sector providers. The TDP will identify actions that will need to take place to facilitate improvements and give guidance on suitable public and private sector investments.

• Destination Marketing – the TDP will identify the themes that the island will need to concentrate on in order to appeal to and attract the Key Customer Groups. Key actions for marketing will be :-

• Build a compelling brand – themes consistent with Key Customer Groups and IOW Branding . Suggestions could be :-

• Healthy Island – physical/mental well being – outdoor activities, stress relief, learn to…
• Vibrant Island – cultural activities – Festivals, Events, Arts, Crafts, Music
• Green Island – natural beauty, local products, car free
• Fun Island – adventure, safe, welcoming

• Improve level and effectiveness of public/private marketing spend – to maximise the impact in the day and staying visitors markets both domestically and overseas. This could involve more opportunities for joint IOW Tourism/private sector activity, joint promotions with New Forest, Southampton and Portsmouth and participation in TSE/Visit Britain campaigns.

• Use technology to improve effectiveness and consistency in message – the investment by IWC in the Destination Management System and its impending connection to the national Englandnet system will place the IOW at the forefront of world wide e-marketing for destinations. However, support will be required to enable individual operators to keep pace with IT skills.

• Optimise yield and seasonality – the innovation and flexibility of private operators will be vital in attracting the Key Customer Groups. The TDP will identify specific packaging opportunities and potential clusters that could attract higher spending customers in the off-season.

Co-ordination of Delivery

The long term success of the TDP will be dependent on the comprehensive ‘buy in’ and subsequent actions of key partners.

It will also need to be monitored, evaluated and updated on a regular basis in order to retain its validity.

The sub regional structure and IOW Tourist Board would appear to be the logical ‘umbrella’ under which this could most effectively take place. It links with the regional agencies through TSE increasing the potential influence on matters such as project funding and support. However, the current structure of the Board is not fully representative of the agencies on the island that would be controlling change and development in the key areas identified under ‘Destination Management’.

The TDP will make recommendations as to what that representation should be and how the IOW Tourist Board could develop its role.

Next Steps

The Head of Tourism is continuing on a round of presentations and discussions with public agencies and private sector bodies and individuals. TSE and the IOW Tourist Board has given its broad approval to the framework and a further meeting is planned for early November to review the specific Action Plans. Following approval a final draft will go forward to the IWC Executive with a public launch before Christmas to co-ordinate with the launch of new marketing initiatives for 2005.