Destination Swansea Bay A Review of the Destination

‘Destination Swansea Bay’ A Review of the Destination Management Plan for Swansea Bay

A True Partnership: 2013 -2016 2013 • • 2014 • 2 Steering Group meetings • 2 Delivery Group Meetings • Annual Tourism Stakeholder Day 2015 • 2 Steering Group Meetings • 3 Delivery Group Meetings • Visitor Survey 2016 • • 1 Steering Group meeting 2 Delivery Group meetings Annual Tourism Stakeholder Day Cabinet Approval of the DMP 1 Steering Group Meeting Annual Tourism Stakeholder Day Tourism Trade Survey DMP Review Survey Over 100 attendees at Delivery Group Meetings Over 40 organisations and CCS departments involved

Key Partners

The Vision… “Create a world class tourism destination, which delivers a highquality visitor experience in a pleasant, clean and well-maintained environment. This will be achieved by establishing a sustainable working partnership that will, in turn, drive improved tourism provision, effective management and high-quality promotion of Swansea Bay, Mumbles and Gower as a destination”.

4 Strategic Themes • Working Together • Driving Quality • Tackling Seasonality • Ensuring Sustainability

Action Plan • Main focus of the DMP • Series of short & medium term, deliverable actions • Identifies who is responsible for each action • Monitored, reviewed & updated on a regular basis

Current Delivery Structure Destination Management Plan Steering Group Tourism Team City & County of Swansea Delivery Group Business Support, Infrastructure & Public Realm Delivery Group Marketing, PR and Events

Key Achievements – STEAM

Coverage Achieved

Key Achievements - Marketing • Established programme of major annual events e. g. Wales National Airshow, Waterfront Winterland Swansea International Festival • On-going implementation of successful major marketing campaigns focussed on the ‘Years Of’ themes: Watch our ‘Legendary Adventures’ video preview at https: //youtu. be/Mi. YJYi 6 v. Gsw

Key Achievements - Marketing • Successful major shift to digital marketing: 1. 9 M page views, 320 K Unique Visitors, 63 K Facebook ‘likes’, 12. 5 K Twitter followers. • Introduction of the Visitor Information Point (VIP) scheme - working in partnership with local operators to offer a complete visitor provision experience

Key Achievements – Digital Marketing • 73% increase in number of visits • 70% increase in number of unique visitors • 84% increase in page views • 63, 000 Facebook likes • 12, 500 Twitter followers • 1200 Instagram followers (doubled in the last year!)

Key Achievements – Infrastructure • Successful delivery of the RDP Rural Accommodation Grant Scheme – held up as an exemplar project in the RDP Business Plan 2 Review. • New Swansea City Centre Framework Review launched • ‘Quick win’ projects e. g. left luggage facilities, coach parking provision at Park & Ride sites

Key Achievements - Infrastructure • P 4 G funding secured to develop a Beaches Management Plan for Swansea Bay’s 4 Blue Flag beaches • Beaches Management Group established for the 4 Blue Flag Beaches • Road Signage audit of Gower and recommendation report completed

Key Achievements – Trade Engagement • Around 24 trade engagement events • Training and Development workshops covering areas such as: - event management - marketing - IT - grading / accreditation - customer service • Annual Stakeholder Day • Swansea Bay Tourism Awards • Swansea Bay Food Tourism Conference

Key Achievements – Trade Engagement Groups set up: • Swansea Bay Good Food Circle • Swansea Bay Festival & Events Group Trade working in partnership at: • Showcase Swansea Bay event for students • Travel Tradeshows

Key Achievements – Partnership • Improved working relationships with key internal CCS Departments (e. g. Highways, Planning, Cleansing, etc. ), external organisations and Tourism Swansea Bay. • Visit Wales funding secured to complete several DMP projects in 2014/15 and 2015/16 e. g. welcome panel at Swansea Bus Station, targeted marketing campaigns in Bristol and Reading, trade engagement, etc.

Moving forward… the evidence • Visitor Survey 2015 • Tourism Trade Survey 2016 • DMP Review Survey 2016

Visitor Survey 2015

Visitor Survey 2015 The main reasons for visiting continue to be: 1. Beaches 2. Landscape / Scenery 3. VFR 4. Events

Tourism Trade Survey 2016

Tourism Trade Survey 2016 Swansea Bay’s 10 most valuable assets: (from a tourism trade point of view) 2016 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Gower Landscape / scenery Beaches Walks Mumbles Food History / Heritage Friendliness / people City Location 2012 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Beaches Landscape / scenery Gower Premier League Dylan Thomas Mumbles History / Heritage Ease of access Walking Friendliness / people

DMP Review Survey 2016 • 75% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the existing delivery structure works well for the DMP • The most successful elements of the DMP were identified as: - Council Involvement - Achievable Action Plan - Private Sector Involvement • The elements that didn’t work so well were identified as: - Lack of financial commitment / funding to deliver some of the projects - Not enough people know about the DMP - Too much in the Action Plan

DMP Review Survey 2016 58% agreed that the Delivery Groups fostered a sense of partnership working BUT key areas of improvement were identified… There needs to be smaller focus groups (public & private) looking after individual elements then feeding back to the wider group The meeting I attended was poorly attended by private and third sector organisations – did they know? Have sector specific groups i. e. accommodation, attractions, etc. Actions need to be more partnership projects rather than ones being taken on by specific sections

DMP Review Survey 2016 2017 and beyond…our next DMP • 81% agreed that the next DMP should adopt the same structure i. e. ‘front end’ and Action Plan • Improved communication is required for all partners to fully endorse the DMP concept via email, social media and meetings/events • 76% strongly agreed or agreed that private sector businesses and non-public funded organisations should receive public funding to participate in and implement the aims and objectives of the DMP

Future Priorities • Develop Phase 2 to commence in 2017 • Continue to build on existing working relationships with internal partners so they take ownership of their own DMP actions / projects • Continue to ensure tourism is consulted on larger destination -wide projects, e. g. City Centre regeneration, Rural Development Plan, Tidal Lagoon, City Region Board • Identify external funding streams and develop projects for application

Key considerations for our future Destination Management Plan • • Structure Action Plan Delivery Funding