Rising to the Challenge in Tourism

More than 200 delegates from the Staffordshire tourism industry met at Destination Staffordshire's annual tourism conference entitled ‘Rising to the Challenge', held at the Yarnfield Centre, Stone. Key spokespeople from the tourism industry met with local businesses to discuss how the challenges of 2009 were overcome, as well as outlining new campaigns and initiatives aimed at boosting visitor figures, tourism revenue and create new jobs in 2010.

Guest speaker, James Berresford, CEO Visit England announced the launch of a new strategy to start on 18 March, which will firmly establish England as a major destination on the world stage and aims to increase market share to secure year-on-year growth of 4%. Raised in Staffordshire, Berresford praised the county and the Destination Staffordshire Partnership for their united approach and talked about the opportunities presented by the predicted growth in the tourism sector.

Tourism is the largest and fastest growing industry in the world and in the UK alone is worth an estimated £94 billion, employing almost two million people. He expressed the importance of establishing a distinctive market proposition for England and the need to deliver exceptional and compelling destinations and experiences for visitors.

Graeme Whitehead, group manager for tourism and marketing said: "Tourism in Staffordshire is worth £903 million and employs more than 22,000. It now represents 9% of all employment in the county replacing manufacturing as a key employer. The tourism conference is an essential forum for members to learn about new initiatives, which will help attract new business in these challenging times and share information with other members."

Destination Staffordshire revealed new tourism initiatives for 2010 which included

two consumer magazines, Out & About - designed to help visitors plan their trip and navigate around the county and Taste of Staffordshire magazine, which will promote the wealth of fine food and local food heroes. A new consumer website designed for mobile devices is due to be launched after Easter and will feature the Enjoy Card offers and open up a world of possibilities for tourists on the move.

Specific new membership benefits for 2010 include an extranet and e-newsletter campaign providing members with business support, research results and regular communication on events and initiatives.