Strategy and action plan which will enable Liverpool to grow the value of the visitor economy in the city.
Liverpool is undoubtedly one of the UK’s most significant tourism success stories. In 2004, it was 10th most visited destination for staying visitors in England. Ten years on, it had risen to 4th place, with much of the growth coming from domestic and international leisure tourists.
We were commissioned to develop a Vision and Development Strategy for Liverpool Vision and the newly formed Liverpool Visitor Economy Network (LVEN). Whilst acknowledging the success of the last decade, stakeholders on the LVEN were aware that the city needs to support many more hotel bed spaces than it did previously and that the decline in public funding, from most sources, is putting increasing pressure on key areas such as the city centre regeneration plan, cultural institutions and the events programme.
Our work included a critical analysis of the current offer using an extensive range of secondary sources such as social media, overlaid onto national and local data, to understand what visitors perceive to be the strengths and weaknesses of the current offer and what stimulates them to visit. A key aspect of the work was to review the range of existing policies and strategies which will have a significant impact on the visitor economy and to identify specifically where actions need to be developed and strengthened to support growth. Through a series of workshops, we then worked with key stakeholders to develop a truly ‘Liverpuddlian’ vision for the City. In developing specific actions, our work was able to provide a clear structure with a rationale which was based on evidence of where growth will come from. Our work was praised for bringing clarity and focus to a process which could otherwise either have been overwhelmingly vast, or too small scale to make a step change difference.