To facilitate greater engagement between the visitor and the experience
Visitors must have a warm welcome and great service, easy access to information, improved accessibility to tourism facilities and services and a world-class transport infrastructure.
Well-informed visitors will stay longer in destinations, potentially move on to other English destinations and most importantly will want to return. The tourism industry must ensure that information provision is modernised, integrated nationally, and keeps apace with advances in technology.
The welcome at key ‘gateways’, notably England’s airports and seaports needs further improvement through public and private sector collaboration. First impressions count and research shows that England’s great destinations are frequently let down at the point of arrival. The national Welcome to Britain steering group, with public and private partners from the tourism industry, has introduced teams to deliver activity ‘Out of Country’, at ‘Ports of Entry’ and ‘Within Country’.
Welcome to England activities will be delivered by partners across the industry, led by VisitEngland and the South West of England RDA on behalf of England’s Regional Development Agencies. In addition, a review of the key gateway points and key stages of the visitor experience will be undertaken. Activities will span across the four objectives of this Framework and range from best practice sharing to consideration and development of new programmes.
One of the greatest opportunities to improve the visitor experience is to improve England’s transport provision. Some changes may take longer than others to implement but in the short term the industry should use the same language and methodology as transport planners when making the economic case for tourism-related transport investment. The role of coaches, local bus services and the need for car travel to many destinations must be recognised as well as identifying where transport capacity is not in line with the capacity of the destination itself. The industry should also campaign for the 7-day railway and changes to maintenance regimes.
Access for people with disabilities must be improved throughout England’s tourism offer. Much has been achieved in recent years to coordinate better information about visitor accessibility but there is a long way to go in developing visitor and transport infrastructure. This work should be prioritised for 2012 and beyond. People with accessibility needs represent a growth sector of the market and England should take the opportunity to lead in this field.
