Development of a Visitor Strategy

Closing date: 30th November 2012

St Albans City and District Council have set up a project team to create a visitor strategy for 2013-2018 to improve the management and promotion of all that the district has to offer visitors. The visitor economy is an important contributor to the overall economy and attracting and developing business and tourism is a key priority in the council’s corporate plan.

The main objectives for the visitor economy strategy are:

• to set out the council's vision for the visitor economy, balancing the needs of the tourism industry, the community and visitors 
• provide a framework and action plans to increase the visitor economy and promote St Albans City and District as a quality visitor destination 
• raise the profile and understanding of the importance of the visitor economy in the District with key decision makers 
• generate baseline visitor information on which to plan for future growth 
• provide a mechanism for the council to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency and value for money of city council activity in the promotion, management and development of the visitor economy

The work plan drawn up to develop this strategy involves five stages:

Stage 1: Project Initiation
Stage 2: Fact-finding and data gathering
Stage 3: Development of initial proposal
Stage 4: Development of detailed proposals
Stage 5: Implementation

Underscoring these stages is ongoing project management and communication.

The council is consulting with key stakeholders in the visitor economy including attraction managers, vendors, hoteliers, and councillors. It is also engaging in a number of research activities to build a robust evidence base about current visitor trends and best practice elsewhere.

If you are a resident or a business in the district and you wish to give us your feed your views in to the development of a visitor strategy for the district, please contact:

Charles Baker
Tourism and Cultural Hub Manager
Tel: 01727 819275
Email: charles.baker@stalbans.gov.uk

Evidence Base Report

This Visitor Evidence Base report summarises the findings of three strands of research: 

The report analyses the implications of the findings for the development of a visitor strategy in St Albans City and District.  

• Visitor Evidence Base Report Executive Summary (DOC - 88 kb)
• Visitor Evidence Base Report Final 1.0 (DOC - 4 mb)
• Appendices A, B, C Interview questionnaires (DOC - 443 kb)
• Appendix D TSE St Albans research report - Final (DOC - 6 mb)
• Appendix F Qns to ask benchmarking destinations (DOC - 42 kb)
• Appendix G leisure activities in day visit definition (DOC - 20 kb)