Market Town Welcome Destination Plan for Barnard Castle 2013 “Barnard Castle – the awe-inspiring market town in the heart of Teesdale” Report to Durham County Council and Visit County Durham By Alison Caffyn, with the support of tourism partners in Barnard Castle Alison Caffyn Tourism Consultant Wellside Livesey Road Ludlow SY8 1EZ www.alisoncaffyn.co.uk Contents 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background and rationale ........................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Strategic context ..................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Process and partnership.......................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Key contextual changes since 2009 ........................................................................................ 5 2. Vision and objectives ....................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Tourism statement for Barnard Castle ...................................................................................... 6 2.2 Overall objectives of the destination plan ................................................................................. 6 3. Visitors to Barnard Castle ................................................................................................ 7 3.1 Survey results .......................................................................................................................... 7 3.2 Current visitor profiles - segmentation information .................................................................... 9 3.3 Visitor of the Future ................................................................................................................ 11 4. The Tourism Offer ........................................................................................................... 13 4.1 What does Barnard Castle offer visitors? ............................................................................... 13 4.2 Recent developments ............................................................................................................. 14 4.3 SWOT Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 16 4.4 Meeting future visitor expectations ......................................................................................... 17 4.5 Potential new developments .................................................................................................. 18 5. Destination Management and Promotion ..................................................................... 21 5.1 The Strategy........................................................................................................................... 21 5.2 The future visitor experience .................................................................................................. 22 5.3 Destination priorities ............................................................................................................... 22 6. Action Plan ...................................................................................................................... 23 6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 23 6.2 Barnard Castle Destination Plan – Action Plan ....................................................................... 25 6.3 Key projects ........................................................................................................................... 33 6.4 Common themes to develop with other towns ........................................................................ 44 6.5 Taking the Plan forward ......................................................................................................... 44 7. Annex Partners contributing to the plan...................................................................... 44 1. Introduction This Destination Plan for Barnard Castle is an action plan for the partnership of organisations that are involved in tourism, town development and the visitor economy within Barnard Castle and its 1 hinterland. It is designed to be a working document that can be added to as the town and its partners identify new opportunities for development and is intended to steer a way forward over the next 5-10 years. This plan in 2013 is a reviewed and refreshed version based on the original document published in 2009. The purpose of the plan is to: • Develop the tourism potential of Barnard Castle and strengthen its identity for visitors • Provide a framework and rationale for investment and development planning in the tourism sector within the town • Identify priority actions • Clarify how partners and agencies can work together to deliver the destination plan The destination plan’s focus is Barnard Castle the town, within its wider setting of Teesdale and the Durham Dales. A visitor centred approach has been taken focusing on bringing more visitors to the town and wider area, encouraging those staying in the town to explore more of the countryside and persuading those staying in rural accommodation to spend more time and money in the town centre. In these economically challenging times, it is vital that tourism partners are able to work collaboratively and effectively together to deliver objectives which will, at least, sustain, but hopefully significantly improve, the economic viability of Barnard Castle. 1.1 Background and rationale Market Town Welcome The Market Town Welcome Programme involved developing destination plans for five market towns in County Durham in 2009 and 2010. The Programme aimed to complement other local and regional regeneration strategies and initiatives and to take a tourism perspective to each of the market towns – viewing them through a visitor’s eyes as a destination. The five towns are: Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland, Seaham, Stanhope and Chester-le-Street. The Objectives of the Programme were: • Developing the tourism potential of each town • Inputting to investment/development planning • Harnessing private sector potential • Using the destination plan to support funding bids • Encouraging collaboration and cross fertilisation of ideas • Strengthening the identity of each town for visitors • Boosting the visitor economy in each town Market Town Welcome originated in 2008 when One North East commissioned Miller Research and Alison Caffyn to produce destination plans for market towns in Northumberland. In total eight towns in Northumberland, plus Guisborough in Cleveland have been through the same process. Barnard Castle is the first town to review and refresh the plan, having implemented much of the 2009 plan. The Market Town Welcome process was developed to incorporate the principles of the ‘VICE model’ for local destination management. This model was developed by the national tourism agencies and Tourism Management Institute to encourage the sustainable development of tourism. It aims to 2 ensure positive outcomes for Visitors, the tourism Industry, local Communities and the built and natural Environment. So the destination plans aim to develop tourism which: Welcomes, involves and satisfies Visitors Achieves a prosperous and profitable Industry Engages and benefits host Communities Protects and enhances the local Environment Why welcome visitors? The visitor economy is particularly significant in rural areas where there are few alternatives and traditional industries such as agriculture or mining have declined. Tourism has increasingly been seen as a vital element in the regeneration of an area. Not only does the visitor economy support businesses, jobs and the suppliers to those businesses, but visitors’ spending also helps support local heritage, culture (e.g. festivals and events) and community services (buses, shops, pubs, post offices). Tourism is also a reason to conserve special buildings, historic buildings, beautiful landscapes and important wildlife sites. Figures for the Durham Dales in 2011 reveal that there were: • 2.27 million day visitors • 302,000 overnight visitors staying a total of 1.1 million nights • A total of 2.5 million people visiting the Durham Dales, spending £138 million • Supporting 1,892 jobs in the Durham Dales area and another 432 indirectly in other sectors Recent trends have included a decrease in annual staying visitors but increases in day visitors and a small overall increase in spending. 1.2 Strategic context With the demise of One North East in 2011/12 there are no current strategic tourism documents for the North East as a whole. Former policy documents identified market towns as key elements in the attraction of the North East for visitors and proposed that towns should develop plans to make improvements in facilities to meet the needs of increased visitors. Other priorities which are still very relevant across much of the former region include food and drink, improved shopping and public art as well as basics such as visitor information and signing, events and festivals and heritage tourism The key strategic document is the Durham Tourism Management Plan 2012-2016 prepared by Visit County Durham It identifies eight priorities for destination development in County Durham listed