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EU Interreg Experience Project - Developing and marketing 'off season' tourism product

Antonia Stratford
18th August 2020

One of our destination management organisations - Visit Kent -  is a key partner in the Interreg France Channel England Experience Project which launched in 2019.  The project aims to develop and promote new tourism experiences between October – March throughout the Channel regions of France and England in order to attract more than 20 million additional visitors by the end of the four year scheme and approximately 44 million after a further five years.

In the context of the current pandemic, this project will (more than ever) be vital activity to help Kent re-build its tourism sector and the Channel regions in 2020-21. It is widely acknowledged that the tourism industry has been and will be hit harder than other industries because of its seasonality and one way of improving this resilience is by becoming less dependent on the traditional peak seasons for business.

Recently, the Visit Kent team organised a workshop with all key partners to share skills, expertise, and experience on product testing, marketing and distribution.  The team also talked about Covid-19 recovery plans and key points, insights and comments that were raised that will be of interest to the wider tourism community included:

  • Many tour operators and agents are now focusing on developing new revenue streams and are re-assessing itineraries and group sizes
  • The pandemic has had an astronomical impact on tourism industries all around the world with the perception of how the UK has handled the pandemic hit particularly hard. With people at the heart of the industry – everyone from the top to the bottom of organisations have been impacted.  Once we lose jobs and businesses – it will take a lot longer for destinations to recover (politicians take note….)
  • Travel is everyone’s escape but destinations now have the task (and challenge) of ‘inviting everyone back’
  • Consumer confidence is fluctuating with every piece of news that is published
  • Marketing campaigns need to be balanced – inspirational yet informative
  • No surprise that currently the majority of people right now are most comfortable taking short trips close to home and exploring what is on their doorstep
  • Destinations and businesses need to demonstrate safety and flexibility and the measures that have been taken to ensure visitor well being
  • Sustainability remains an important factor and should be included in recovery plans
  • Businesses and destinations need to tap into current trends for active, wellbeing, rural and local

A video of the workshop is available to view here and more information about the Experience project and how your tourism business can get involved can be found here.  

 

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