Destination Coventry: collaboration set to boost tourism offer
A new collaboration between Coventry City Council and the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce is set to deliver the city’s destination management and marketing offer. As part of a two-year proof of concept trial, the new partnership will be established in order to manage the city’s growing tourism offer and boost Coventry’s reputation as a visitor destination.
Cllr Jim O’Boyle, Coventry City Council’s Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change said: “Coventry’s reputation as a fantastic place to visit and enjoy has been growing over the last few years, and we have even more exciting things to come as UK City of Culture and a host city for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
“That’s why it’s really important we make sure that our tourism offer is as good as it can be to deliver our Tourism Strategy as the city becomes more established as a destination of choice for visitors. Working in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce will open up new funding options, which will in turn enable the team to profile the city and all the amazing things we have to offer to an even wider audience.
“As we begin to emerge out of the pandemic it will feel important to people that they can get back to enjoying events and activities and tourism will begin to thrive again contributing positively to our city’s economy. We anticipate that the City of Culture programme, together with the other great city events that will complement it, will draw additional visitors to Coventry during our year in the spotlight. I’m sure the new Destination Coventry set-up will thrive and I look forward to seeing just what they can achieve.”
Cllr Jim O’Boyle
The collaboration will also ensure that responsibility for funding and delivering the city’s tourism and destination offer will be shared with contributions from Coventry City Council and Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, alongside income from commercial activities and access to funding from Central Government and Visit Britain.
Coventry’s visitor economy was worth £594 million in 2019 with over 10 million visitors. City of Culture will encourage more visitors and staycations and previous cities who have been City of culture experienced on-going visitor growth in the years after holding the title.
Louise Bennett, Chief Executive of Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said "The Chamber of Commerce is delighted to be working in partnership with our City Council on a new proof of concept Destination Management Organisation, one which delivers on both the City's Visitor and Business Tourism Strategy and one which is engaged with its local business community. Through this partnership, we will seek to bring more business and leisure tourism to experience everything our great City has to offer."
The Council will contribute £466k for 2021–22 activities, followed by a further contribution of £420k for 2022–23. The partnership is set to be approved at a meeting of Cabinet member jobs, regeneration and climate change on 30 July 2021.