Members from Great Yarmouth Chamber Council debated how the local business community can get involved in helping to support and promote Great Yarmouth’s cultural heritage strategy. The Cultural Heritage Strategy is a five year plan that sets out the strategy for Great Yarmouth. The document is currently under review by the Borough Council.
Laura Crossley, the Heritage and Audience Development Consultant, who has been responsible for reviewing and updating the Strategy, highlighted that for every £1 that a ‘heritage’ tourist spends, 32p is spent on the heritage attraction and the remaining 68p is spent in the wider economy. The latest figures for Great Yarmouth show that there are approximately 3,822,000 day visitors per year, and of those, the heritage visitors spend an average of £43 per day. Therefore if just 10% of the annual visitors were heritage tourists, they would spend nearly £16.5 million, with just over £11 million of that spend being spent in the wider economy. Great Yarmouth has some of the best and most diverse cultural heritage available in the East of England, from museums, such as the Time and Tide; to roman forts; to medieval town walls; not to mention Admiral Lord Nelson.
The members of Great Yarmouth Council were keen to hear how they could help support the Borough Council. Laura advised that support might include helping in terms of sponsorship; volunteering of expertise to help small heritage projects progress; or businesses could help promote the projects by displaying heritage project leaflets etc. If you are a local business who wants to help support the heritage strategy, please contact Nova Fairbank on email: [email protected].
John Morse, President of Great Yarmouth Chamber Council, said “Tourism is extremely important to our region and if the local business community can help to support our cultural heritage projects, this in turn will help attract a greater number of visitors to Great Yarmouth, thereby boosting the local economy. This is especially important, as the heritage tourist spend is an increasing trend that Great Yarmouth should take full advantage of.”
