Visit Nottinghamshire, the official tourist board for the region, hosted its annual Visitor Economy Summit to support local businesses and organisations in promoting Nottinghamshire as a world-class tourist destination on 10th June 2019.
Over 150 attendees from across the region’s tourism sector, including accommodation providers, visitor attractions, conference venues, restaurants, tour guides and more heard insights from some of the UK’s leading tourism professionals and updates from Nottinghamshire’s key tourist attractions. The Summit was held at Nottingham Lakeside Arts in a nod to the organisation’s history; this is the venue where Visit Nottinghamshire (previously Experience Nottinghamshire) was launched 15 years ago. Since its inception, it has evolved into a major organisation which partners with over 450 local businesses, takes part in national and international tourism campaigns and projects ran by VisitEngland and VisitBritain to put Nottinghamshire on the map, and manages a highly successful website which attracts up to 300,000 visitors a month.
Attendees learned about wider market trends and opportunities within the tourism sector, helping them to promote their own businesses and organisations. The packed programme included insights from VisitBritain on topics such as how tourism will be a key priority following Brexit, the latest STR data (which tracks supply and demand data for market sectors such as the hotel industry) and Nottingham’s position in the UK, updates from Visit Nottinghamshire about campaigns and activities ran in 2018 as well as news on the 2019 Nottinghamshire Hospitality STARS Awards, along with success stories from several local tourism organisations and businesses.
Speakers at this event included Anthony Pickles, Head of Tourism Affairs at VisitBritain, Kurt Janson, Director of the Tourism Alliance, Vicky Parr, Business Support Manager at VisitEngland, Scott McCabe, Professor of Marketing and Tourism at Nottingham University Business School, amongst other high-profile local businesses and organisations.
Visit Nottinghamshire are looking forward to next year’s Summit and will provide further information about it closer to the time.
This year’s Summit was sponsored by Nottingham City Council, Booking.com, Escapologic, Code Print, Hambleton Bakery, Ezekial Bone, Great Northern Inns, Hart’s Hotel & Kitchen, Nottingham Lakeside Arts and Alistair Webster Design.
Stephen Jackson, interim Chief Executive of Marketing NG, said: “The Visitor Economy Summit provided an invaluable opportunity for businesses in the tourism sector to engage with some of the most experienced professionals in the industry. They highlighted some of the fantastic work taking place nationally and internationally, sharing ideas and insight on how we can work together to continue to promote Nottinghamshire as a world-class destination.”
Full gallery of images from this year’s Summit is available here.
Posted on 27 June 2019
