Agenda item

To present the draft final Visitor Economy Vision and Destination Management Plan (DMP) and for the Future Oxfordshire Partnership to endorse the proposed future governance arrangements for DMP activity within the Partnership.

The Panel considered a report to the Future Oxfordshire Partnership as included in the Agenda which set out a final version of the Oxfordshire Visitor Economy and Destination Management Plan, (DMP) as approved by the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership Board at its meeting on 23 October 2023. The report asked that the Future Oxfordshire Partnership note the DMP as a shared statement of intent and endorse the proposed governance arrangements for DMP activity within the Partnership.

Helen Ryan-Wallis, Programme Manager Strategy at OxLEP introduced the report and responded to Panel member questions.

In discussion, members of the Panel raised the following issues and points:

·           There was a lack of ‘transport hubs’ at locations such as train stations that would enable visitors to change to other forms of transport to reach their destinations in a more sustainable and which encouraged them to stay longer and spend more in the county. The Panel was informed that OxLEP was working collectively with council and transport authority partners and more detail would be added, but it was accepted that the transport hubs in the right locations were needed.

·           There was a need to set out how the estimated annual economic benefit of £3.2.bn would be shared across the county in a way that supported the county’s inclusivity aspirations and not concentrated in a few high profile, usually foreign owned locations. The Panel was informed that a big element of the Visitor Economy Renaissance Programme underpinning the DMP was how smaller visitor economy business and attractions could be supported, particularly start-ups across the whole county.

·           Valuable research and work was being delivered at county level, but there was also a need for the approach to managing the visitor economy to be driven by a ‘bottom up’ approach, led and informed by the work that District councils were already doing.

·           There was a link between the visitor economy, Active Travel and transport hubs. There were further opportunities to look at sources of funding for these initiatives.

·           With regard to the evidence base for the DMP, the Panel was informed that although the volume and value data set used by Experience Oxfordshire did date back to 2019, they did commission other data on an annual basis and the wider evidence base itself was current.

·           The Panel was informed that consultants were currently looking as short, medium and long term funding options including a potential tourist charge to look at how the industry could be helped to be self-sustaining.

·           The Panel was informed that there was an aspiration within Oxfordshire to market to the UK domestic tourism market including residents of the county. The DMP and strategy would provide a mechanism for managing tourism within the county better.

·           It was suggested that where it was felt that a planning application might have an adverse impact on tourism within a locality that there be a tourism objection, but the Panel was informed this would be a matter for local authority planners.

After further discussion, it was:

RESOLVED:

1.     That the Future Oxfordshire Partnership be recommended to endorse the proposed future governance arrangements for Destination Management Plan, (DMP) activity within the Future Oxfordshire Partnership.

2.     That it agrees that the delivery of the DMP should be a process that includes and recognises the important insight of the district councils on their own local tourist economy in a ‘bottom up’ process.

3.     That the Future Oxfordshire Partnership request that OxLEP in developing the funding strategy for the DMP include consideration and exploration of a tourist tax.