£500,000 to support post-Covid regional tourism data hub

The English Riviera BID Company is working on a £500,000 project to to support tourism, leisure and hospitality businesses.

The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has announced £500,000 of funding for development of a tourism data hub working with the Great South West Tourism Partnership.

The new tourism data hub is a priority in the Great South West Tourism Partnership regional recovery plan to build a sustainable comprehensive data and research programme to support tourism, leisure and hospitality businesses, to help drive productivity across the region.

The hub will provide Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) and businesses with consistent, robust, and valuable data insights into consumer and business behaviours to enable more efficient market targeting and product development to drive recovery post-Covid.

The project will be led by Destination Plymouth as an accountable body working with Plymouth City Council, and supporting DMOs English Riviera BID Company, Visit Devon, Visit Somerset, Visit Exmoor, Visit Exeter, local authorities across the Heart of the South West and wider tourism partners in the Great South West.

Amanda Lumley, chief executive of Destination Plymouth and current chair of the Great South West Tourism Partnership, said: ‘We are delighted that the LEP has provided grant support for this project.

"Understanding our customers and gaining valuable insights and data is crucial to the success of tourism in the region going forwards. This project will enable us to identify and target visitors more effectively as well as helping drive demand at off peak periods to improve all year round attractiveness as a region."

Karl Tucker, chair of the Heart of the South West LEP, said: ‘The new tourism data hub will provide valuable insights and drive productivity across the region.

"We are delighted to help fund the project, and support tourism, leisure and hospitality businesses to grow."

Destination Plymouth are currently procuring an expert to scope out the new data hub; interested parties are invited to get in touch with Amanda Lumley at amanda.lumley@plymouth.gov.uk for more information.