Plymouth’s new ten-year Visitor Plan sets out ambitious targets for the local visitor economy to achieve by 2030 and will play an important role in helping the industry to recover after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The plan, created by Destination Plymouth and key partners, lays out the city’s strategic goals to help drive visitor numbers and increase visitor spend.
This includes nine ‘star projects’, such as developing the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park, growing Plymouth’s night time economy and improving transport infrastructure.
Tourism, hospitality and the wider visitor economy has been a great success story for Plymouth over the last 10 years. The sector employs nearly 8,000 people locally and pulls in over 5.2 million visitors annually, who spend more than £337 million with our local hotels, restaurants, pubs, attractions, museums, theatres and activity providers.
The sector also supports an extensive supply chain of local producers including dairy and meat farmers, fruit and vegetable growers and the local fishing community.
Chair of Destination Plymouth, Adrian Vinken OBE, said: “Destination Plymouth was formally incorporated in 2010 and launched the city’s first strategic Visitor Plan the following year. Now, in our tenth anniversary year, it is time to update and share our vision for Plymouth’s visitor economy up to 2030.
“The plan was developed and consulted on before March 2020 and the global pandemic. Obviously, since then, the world has changed significantly and we need to adapt to the new landscape and explore the opportunities it offers. Nevertheless, our vision and long-term trajectory remain unchanged and, although the visitor economy has been particularly hard hit in 2020-21, we remain confident that the solid groundwork done to date will allow the sector to bounce back to even greater success in the years ahead.”
In the past 12 months, tourism has been hit very hard by COVID-19 and it is estimated that from the start of the pandemic to January 2021, up to 64 per cent of spend in the city will have been lost, equating to around £203 million.
Leader of Plymouth City Council, Councillor Tudor Evans OBE, said: “It has been an incredibly difficult year for businesses and the Council has worked hard to support as much as we can by administering business grants, promoting our ‘shop local’ campaign and implementing our economic recovery plan, Resurgam.
“Destination Plymouth has achieved a huge amount during the last ten years and, together with the Council and key city partners, has grown the visitor economy to make Plymouth one of the top destinations within the South West. It’s vital that this work continues so that our businesses are able to bounce back post-Covid, and the new Visitor Plan will play a crucial role in supporting them.”
During the pandemic, Destination Plymouth has continued to work with international and cruise travel agents and tour operators, as well as conference and meeting organisers, to develop a pipeline of potential visitors for late 2021 and 2022. There are already 10 cruise ships booked to visit Plymouth this year, as well as a further 10 in 2022.
The final ten-year Visitor Plan for 2020-2030 is available to view online now, and you can find out more on the Destination Plymouth website.