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With the largest concentration of historic houses in England, nationally recognised theatre, world class motorsport and iconic venues such as Silverstone and Althorp, it’s perhaps not surprising that Northamptonshire currently attracts around 20 million visitors each year. For the local economy this is worth around £900 million.
At Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership we are committed to supporting and promoting the Northamptonshire visitor economy, and yesterday saw the latest example of our work to do just that, organising the latest quarterly Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership (NEP) Tourism Forum for over 100 delegates from a diverse range of businesses within this sector.
Held at The Hunting Lodge near Corby, the forum focused on food and drink initiatives in the county, 2012 campaigns at local and national level, green and sustainable tourism and the Northamptonshire Heritage Summit which takes in March; it also provided businesses with a great opportunity to share best practice and do business with other like-minded companies.
Adam Gray from The Red Lion in East Haddon spoke about his aspirations to bring a Michelin Star to Northamptonshire, and also promoted the Carlsberg UK Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards which enter their fourth year in 2012 and will be launched in the spring.
NEP’s Executive Director, Rob Purdie, and Michel Kerrou from the River Nene Regional Park updated delegates on the Nene Valley project, a scheme to raise the profile of the Nene Valley. The project will raise the profile of an important cluster of sustainable businesses within the Nene Valley and promote them as a visitor destination to local and national audiences. Later in the year phase two of the project will increase the business investment and skills focus, while also expanding the reach of the project to include more businesses such as food provision, and a larger geographical scope.
With the 2012 Olympics very much a priority for the tourism industry, Kate Dent from NEP spoke with Graham Callister from Northamptonshire County Council about how Northamptonshire could get involved in an exciting national project from Visit England called 20.12%, which is launching in March and will provide local businesses with an opportunity to get involved with a national discount campaign promoting tourism in the country.
With 2012 set to be an exciting year for tourism in Northamptonshire, we’re looking forward to more work in partnership with businesses in the sector.
