The new National Coastal Tourism Academy

Thanks to Colin Monckton, of Harbour Heights, who has pointed us at the relatively new National Coastal Tourism Academy in his recent comment which you can read in the left sidebar . This organisation was formed in 2013, the year our BID project started, and is focused on trying to reinvigorate our Coastal communities as tourist destinations. The NCTA was funded by the Coastal Communities Fund, which you may remember the Business Forum applied for in 2012.

Their website describes their mission as follows:

Coastal tourism has the potential to regenerate communities through economic growth and the creation of new jobs. The National Coastal Tourism Academy was created in 2013 with funding from the Government’s Coastal Communities Fund to stimulate that growth.

Until recently, seaside tourism was the largest sector of domestic tourism. While some resorts have continued to thrive, others have declined. Our remit is to work with coastal resorts to learn from their successes, boost tourism and to help stimulate economic growth.

Over a period of two years, using Bournemouth as a test-bed and working with the town’s tourism industry, we have trialled a number of visitor experience and training programmes to boost growth. We have undertaken industry-relevant research with the globally acclaimed School of Tourism at Bournemouth University and other leading institutions to get to grips with the nature of coastal tourism.

We have also assisted with the delivery of a new coastal attraction, the Coastal Activity Park at Boscombe, Bournemouth. We’ll be monitoring its success over time and its impact for tourism businesses.

Our projects and findings are stored in the Resource Hub on our website, for use by coastal resorts nationally.

In our second phase, we are working with other coastal resorts, their partners, Destination Management Organisations, Local Enterprise Partnerships and tourism bodies, learning and disseminating best practice to improve the visitor experience, providing business support and assisting coastal tourism innovation.

They have already carried out a lot of useful studies on the tourism characteristics of Coastal towns with a focus on Bournemouth, which has 2 BID’s in action. The resource hub of their website includes several fascinating reports on their activities to date. I recommend anyone involved in Dartmouths Tourism business to visit their website and study their research. Click on the resource hub image above to visit their site.

I also recommend that you read Colin’s comments on this site.

 

1 Comment on The new National Coastal Tourism Academy

  1. The vision and opportunity available to coastal towns that this report identifies is clear and unambiguous - furthermore whilst many towns have limited or no options to avoid decline, Dartmouth has strong assets in its local people and workforce, and it’s natural, retail, entertainment offer and evening restaurant offer.

    The vision showed by the CeO of visit Cornwall in his blog response below to the report is the kind of vision I expect from Dartmouth. What we get instead is arguments, a TIC that is closing and a BiD that has given up and a town council seems also to be on it’s own agenda too.

    Time for things to turn around - enough local bickering please. Step up and align goals in everyone’s interest.

    Tell me that the comments below aren’t what Dartmouth should be saying !

    Malcolm Bell from Visit Cornwall shares his views on our latest research

    19 Apr 2016

    This research on the views, attitudes and response from the under 35’s to the English Coastal tourism offer is a real insight and one that all those involved in destination marketing and management should both reflect on and more importantly take action.

    There is a wealth of information on the views and perception of this key market, not only of their holiday intentions now, but how destinations might help to convert them to a high value “through life customers” where a destination can gain decades of economic and social benefits.

    This research can have immediate benefit when applied to a destination’s marketing, and equally important, digital and social media activities, which could certainly yield results next year if not later this year. We will certainly be taking such action to ensure Cornwall stays a top, if not the top, destination.

    Equally important are key pointers for the overall development of the tourism offer and product, at destination level, but also for individual businesses.

    In summary, a cracking piece of research that answers questions that destinations have had in the back or front of their minds and more importantly they will prompt actions to improve the competitiveness of destinations and their businesses – a very big thank you to the National Coastal Tourism Academy and their excellent team –a cracking piece of work.

    Malcolm Bell

    CEO Visit Cornwall

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