Projects

Dorset Culture and Tourism Strategy Implementation

It was clear at the start of our work programme that both the cultural and tourism sectors would benefit from improved personal networks in Dorset, harnessing their collective power to improve the visitor economy. We therefore kicked off our activity on the project with a ‘Cultural Canape’ event, where we invited tourism businesses from across the county to come and sample snippets of the culture on offer.

Post event networking created a wealth of activity and resulted in a number of cultural providers gaining contracts with tourism business as diverse as the local cruise industry and a conference venue. Further networking opportunities brought additional cultural and tourism businesses together.

Our programme of work moved on to complete a product audit that mapped the cultural activity across the county and created a calendar of cultural events (shared with tourism organisations). A regular newsletter created greater awareness about the many cultural happenings across the County.

Additional activities included the development of training materials for inclusion in the Tourism Ambassador online training programme used by many of the larger hotel companies in the county to familiarise employees with the range of cultural activities on offer, analysis of market segments, training activities and initiatives to engage tourism and cultural organisations in working collectively to attract new and different types of visitors.