|
Dear ?????????
Welcome to the Summer 2009 Edition of the Hidden Britain South East Newsletter
Hidden Britain offers support to rural communities to help them uncover the fascinating wealth of landscape, history and culture within Britain's countryside. What's really special is that the local communities themselves, develop truly unique and distinctive experiences for people who visit their towns and villages.
Hidden Britain has been working in the South East since 2004 to encourage
tourism at a locally managed level. The project aims to
facilitate rural regeneration and community development where
it is needed most.
New surveys show mixed messages for tourism in the recession
Despite the recession, the first 4 months of 2009 have seen an increase in UK residents holidaying at home.
The United Kingdom Tourism Survey for May 2009 showed that although business travel had dropped by 11% and numbers travelling abroad were down by 18% on 2008, 13% more domestic trips were made in the first quarter of 2009 than in the previous year. VisitEngland chief executive James Berresford said “Time will tell if the trend for holidaying at home continues throughout the summer, but these early indications that people are rediscovering holidays in England is welcome news to the leisure tourism sector.”
Meanwhile, the Association of Independent Tour Operators released a survey showing that 77% of people expected to travel at least as much as last year. Half of the people questioned were planning a one or two week trip in the UK, but few planned a longer trip at home. Price was not the main priority for travellers, who were focussed on the destination and keen on operators offering responsible tourism products. AITO members said bookings were down but picking up and that travellers were booking holidays with less notice than in past years.
These surveys suggest an increase in short to medium term domestic trips and the need to keep promoting destinations to potential visitors who have not already booked their holidays.
Visit the Visit England Site for more >>
Cottages4you plan a ‘Best of rural Britain’ Map
Have you ever rented a holiday cottage and ended up buying most of your provisions in the local supermarket, or even bringing food from home? Most visitors to rural areas see buying local produce and tasting local recipes as an important part of the holiday experience, but may not always know where to find the best local products.
The Championing Rural Britain campaign, launched by holiday rentals company ‘cottages4you’, is calling on holidaymakers to support local shops and businesses and to nominate their favourites. These nominations will help to create a downloadable map of special local shops recommended by holidaymakers, helping others to find the best of rural Britain.
The company has carried out a survey that found almost half of visitors to self-catering cottages spend over £50 a week in specialist local food shops. They also calculate that over 26,100 people are employed to support the 100,000 cottages the company offers.
Holiday cottages and second homes often get bad press because they can lie empty for much of the year, hike up local house prices and because the people using them are not seen to be contributing to the local economy. By helping visitors in self-catering accommodation to find local produce, businesses and attractions, this campaign could help to increase visitors’ spend in local independent shops.
Communities in rural towns and villages can work to ensure that good information is available and distributed to visitors about where to buy local produce and what to do locally, ensuring more of the time and money from self-catering holidays is spent locally. Hidden Britain can help you to interpret and promote the things that make your town or village special and attractive to visitors.
Visit the Cottages4you Site for more >>
The Summer season is in full swing and despite the weather there is plenty going on with Hidden Britain South East.
The Hidden Britain Project Guidance Steps
We have been working on the the project steps section for the website, which provides guidance and signposting of every aspect of project development and implementation. This has been designed for community tourism initiaitives but is also applicable to almost any kind of project.
The first part, steps 1-6 which cover developing your idea, engaging wiht you stakeholders and planning the project is available now. We will be following up with steps on gaining funding, implementing a project, marketing and evaluation shortly. The guide is free to use and we hope you find it useful!
Click here to visit the Project Steps section >>
Botley Evaluated!
We have just finsihed piloting the HBSE evaluation guide on the project in Botley (Hampshire). Thanks to some excellent and sterling work by the Botley MTI group members, the full report is now available.
Download the Botley Evaluation as PDF ( 2.4mb) >>
The Hidden Britain Evaluation & Marketing Toolkits
Speaking of which if you haven't taken a look at our Evaluation & Marketing toolkits yet, then why not download a copy now?
Download the HBSE Marketing Toolkit as PDF ( 1.4mb) >> Download the HBSE Evaluation Toolkit as PDF ( 1.2mb) >>
Hidden Britain at Bleriot 2009
The 25th and 26th July saw the centenary celebrations of Louis Bleriot's historic first channel crossing down in Dover. Some 30,000 people came to see a series of flying demonstrations and the arrival of a restored original Bleriot XI plane from France.
Hidden Britain was there too, alongside several committed volunteers , helping showcase the great village and rural town destinations across Kent. The Seeda and Kent Rural Towns sponsored stand featured the villages of Chilham, Elham and St. Margaret's, alongside the larger destinations of; Hawkhurst, Edenbridge, Westerham, Sandwich and Tenterden.
HBSE Longlisted for Responsible Tourisml Award
We are delighted to have been long listed for the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2009. We are one of 14 destinations long listed in the Best for conservation of cultural heritage category.
The Responsible Tourism Awards are the most prestigious of their kind in the world. Founded and organised by online travel directory responsibletravel.com, in association with The Daily Telegraph, World Travel Market, Geographical Magazine and BBC World News, this year the Awards have attracted nominations for a record number of almost 600 tourism organisations, destinations and individuals.
We still have a way to go yet, but fingers crossed!
Click here to visit the Responsible Touriism Awards website >>
HBSE - A case Study for Rural Tourism
Hidden Britain South East was invited to talk about their work at a recent Tourism Society seminar on the "Challenges of Rural Tourism" held at the Royal Geographical Society in London. The panel of speakers and a lively audience of delegates considered the domestic and international issues relating to rural tourism. How does rural tourism affect the local area and how does the changing environment affect rural tourism?
Click here to visit the Tourism Society website >>
Destination Developments
Updates from just some of the destinations we are currently working with across the region:
Steyning (W.Sussex) are still working hard on a series of self-guided walks interpreting the heritage and environment around the town, the maps are almost complete and all the copy drafted.
The Steyning Community partnership is also working on the development of a new tourism project in conjunction with HBSE and the South Downs Interreg project, Collabor8.
Hawkhurst (Kent) succesfully held their first event "Flix & Pix", a film and arts festival showcasing the very best of the town and area from 20th to 28th June. They are now hard at work on developing next years Food themed event "Beefing it up" which will celebrate local produce and the Hawkhurst origins of the humble Oxo Cube.
HBSE are also working with the Hawkhurst partnership in the redevelopment of the Hawkhurst website, so watch this space!
Chilham (Kent) have been succesful in their bid to the Kent Downs & Marshes Leader fund, which along with grants from Ashford Borough Council, Chilham Parish Council and contributions from the local businesses, allows them to embark on a redevelopment of the Chilham promotional brochure.
Chilham were also recently featured in the Summer Issue of the Flora Pro-Activ magazine with a full double page spread and a promotional competition with prizes kindly donated by local businesses.
Click here to see the article (.pdf file 256kb) >>
Hassocks (W.Sussex) Hassocks are making good progress in planning their new cycle hire facility. The tourism group are discussing a partnership with a local cycle hire company to run the new facility to be based at Hassocks railway station.
Visitors from London, Brighton and further afield will be able to travel to Hassocks by train, pick up a high quality bike and visit the South Downs, following one of the new cycle trail routes.
Westerham (Kent)have developed the key message behind their new tourism branding exercise and are now working with local designers to create the first stage of visuals.
There has also been a phenomenal amount of work from several volunteers been put into creating and developing the new Westerham website.
Click here to visit the Westerham website >>
St. Margaret's (Kent) have recently self funded a reprint of their First Light leaflet, detailing everything to see and do around the village. The funds were raised collectively by the local businesses and the group continues to go from strength to strength
Download the new First Light brochure as PDF >>
We are continuing the development work with all our destinations. We will update the news page with our most recent progress, so keep checking back!
However we're still interested in finding several new destinations. So if you know or live somewhere that would like advice and guidance from Hidden Britain, then please contact us!
The Hidden Britain South East Project is supported and managed by:
- SEEDA - the South East England Regional Development Agency, is responsible for the sustainable economic development and regeneration of the South East of England - the driving force of the UK's economy.
Further
Information…
- SERCC - the association of the eight Rural
Community Councils in the South East of England. It provides
the regional voice and champions the needs of rural
communities across the region.
Further
Information…
- Tourism South East - the regional body
dedicated to fostering tourism growth and innovation in the
region; a partnership of industry with regional and local
government.
Further
information...
- Natural Discovery - Natural Discovery is a company selling short breaks and home products intended to inspire positive long-term environmental benefit
Further
information...
| 
