EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Tourism spend in the Royal Borough is valued at £301M per annum. It provides over 9,000 jobs and represents 12% of the Borough’s GDP. Of the 7M visitors who come, approximately 10% stay overnight in the local area, with a £47M spend in the accommodation sector. Visitors overall spend £83M shopping; £83M eating out; £33M on transport and services and £55M on attractions, events and entertainment.

The Royal Borough recognises the economic importance of tourism to its economy and maintains a strong visitor management and marketing focus.

This Visitor Management Strategy runs from 2001-2006, building on the successes of its predecessor, published in 1996. This new document looks at national, regional and local trends in tourism and in the five sectors of the industry- attractions; accommodation; shops & restaurants; visitor management/tourism organisations; and the infrastructure sector.

It also has a very local focus, in seeking to inform, guide and influence local tourism organisations and their decision-making processes. Two key lessons from the first five-year strategy have informed all of the objectives and actions of this document:

The development and achievement of the objectives and actions can only be done in partnership with the industry

Visitor management is only achieved by “joined up” working within the council, and keeping tourism in the decision-making loop

The purpose of the Visitor Management Strategy, through public and private sector partnership, is

• to manage visitors in order to achieve and

• sustain maximum economic and environmental benefit

• to all within the Royal Borough

Six core objectives then feed into 67 actions, defined by sector and monitored by the Visitor Management Forum, the strategy steering group.