The value of tourism to Bath could reach £400m by 2014 according to a new marketing strategy launched by Bath Tourism Plus (BTP) at its annual tourism forum today.
BTP has developed the strategy as a destination-wide plan and will collaborate with businesses in and around Bath to achieve its goals with BTP providing leadership, marketing tools and market intelligence.
The Strategy is being presented to around 200 Bath businesses today’s forum which also welcomes BTP’s new chief executive Nick Brooks-Sykes, and will hear from renowned travel writer Simon Calder.
The senior travel editor for The Independent will provide expert knowledge and insight into how Bath compares with other destinations.
The strategy sets out five crucial targets to increase the value of tourism to the city.
These are:
- Building on the destination’s success in the domestic market by boosting the value of overnight visitors by 12%
- Growing the value of high-spending international visitors by 12% (focusing on the US, European and selected emerging markets such as China)
- Increasing business tourism by 9%
- Growing the value of day visitors by 12%
- Increasing the number of visitor nights spent in Bath by 10%.
BTP has been identified by national tourism body Visit England as a leading destination marketing organisation and will benefit from additional funding from a new Regional Growth Fund.
Bath is one of a small number of destinations in England that will be allocated additional funds by Visit England to support new marketing campaigns designed to bring new visitor spending and associated jobs to the area.
This additional funding will help to achieve some of the objectives in the destination marketing strategy launched today.
Nick Brooks-Sykes said: “These are exciting times for Bath’s visitor economy – our new tourist information centre is about to open with the Bath Festivals box office also on site, we have a new marketing campaign ready to launch and we are forging new and strong partnerships with others, including the Business Improvement District, Bristol Airport and our universities.
“Although Bath is one of the UK’s world-class destinations, we cannot become complacent. We need to ensure that Bath maintains its appeal by using inspiring and imaginative ways to attract
