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Visitor Economy Action Plan

In this section you will find the following information:
In this section
Visitor Economy Action Plan
Page 2 of 7

Introduction

The Malverns is a popular visitor destination in Worcestershire, which is located in an easily accessible position in the heart of England; with the great outdoors and heritage being some of the main tourism assets for attracting visitors from the cosmopolitan cities of London, Birmingham, Bristol, and beyond.

The previous Visitor Economy Action Plan 2016-2020 helped form a stronger coalition between tourism industry stakeholders; set out to raise the profile of The Malverns and enhance the tourism product; whilst supporting successful businesses, along with ensuring there is enough finance to help support the tourism industry.

2016-2020 Key Achievements

In summary, there have been a number of key achievements developed from the direction of the

2016-2020 Action Plan including, Malvern Hills District Council creating a new dedicated role for tourism; taking the lead on the strategic direction for local tourism, marketing the destination effectively, managing tourist information provision and providing tourism business support.

There are several key activities to report on which will help shape the direction for the new Action

Plan over the next five years.

Marketing

  • A new brand for Visit The Malverns.
  • A new dedicated website for The Malverns  www.visitthemalverns.org, with a new blog introduced in October 2018 ensuring tourism business and event news can be easily shared via the Visit The Malverns online channels. In 2019 there were 297,441 sessions/visits with 1,03,799 page views. In 2020 there were 305,228 sessions/visits with 1,010,572 page views.
  •  A new inspirational guide for The Malverns distributed locally and regionally.
  •  New social media accounts across various platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. For example, Facebook posts have been seen by 882,724 people with over 50,000 people engaging in the content via ‘Likes’, Comments and Shares in 2020.
  • Increased the number of features in the national newspapers by responding to national newspaper requests and organising journalist visits.

Visitor Experience

  • Three Tourist Information Centre’s provide a warm welcome to visitors in Great Malvern, Tenbury Wells and Upton upon Severn.
  • New Tourist Information Boards – Great Malvern and Tenbury Wells.
  • New Malvern Walking App
  • New Route To The Hills Trail – Highly Commended in the 2019 Heritage Awards.
  • Relaunched the Elgar Route in partnership with the Elgar Society and the National Trust at The Firs: Elgar’s Birthplace.
  • New walking and cycling trails, including the Teme Valley Trail.
  • New Hidden Tenbury QR heritage trail.

Festival and Event Development

  • Malvern Well Dressing & Water Festival
  • Great Malvern Food Festival
  • Great Malvern Farmers’ Market
  •  Tenbury Wells Foodie Thursday Night Market
  • Grants for festival and event development
  • Marketing support for venues e.g. Three Counties Showground, Malvern Theatres, The Regal etc. as well as festivals and events – TIC’s, website, social media, print and distribution.

Tourism Business Support

  • Two Tourism Forums a year.
  • Tourism business e-newsletters sent out regularly.
  • Administration of grants for Covid-19.
  • Administration of flood recovery grants.
  • Support for funding and planning applications.