Tourism workshops for promoting northeast Norfolk

The tourism industry in northeast Norfolk is being rallied to help devise a new approach to marketing their precious part of the world as a visitor destination.

The initiative is part of the £3 million North Norfolk Pathfinder Programme to find new ways of making communities more sustainable in the face of coastal erosion.

It begins with three workshops for tourism businesses early in September, where they can share ideas, challenge assumptions and learn about some of the early ideas for new target visitor markets being proposed for northeast Norfolk.

Destination marketing consultancy Blue Sail has been recruited to develop a new marketing strategy for the area, and they will be running the workshops and feeding the resulting views and ideas into their strategy.

The workshops will be held in three separate Local Area Partnership zones, though if a business can’t attend their nearest, they are welcome to attend a different one. One workshop will be in the morning, while two will be in the afternoon — again, to give businesses some flexibility about which they attend. The workshops are:

• Wednesday 8 September, 1.30pm for buffet lunch and registration, then 2-5pm
  Sea Marge Hotel, Overstrand
• Thursday 9 September, 9.30am for registration and coffee, then 10am-1pm followed by buffet lunch
  The Manor Hotel, Mundesley
• Thursday 16 September, 1.30pm for buffet lunch and registration, then 2-5pm
  Wayford Bridge Inn, nr Stalham

Businesses wanting to attend the workshops should call Carmel Casey-Morley on 01263 516009 or Jose Socao on 01263 516303.

The workshops are limited to 20 places each.

The North Norfolk Pathfinder Programme was designed to test a number of new approaches to helping communities adapt to coastal change, in areas where new sea defences are unlikely to be built. The Pathfinder projects range from environmental improvements along eroding stretches of coast, relocating community infrastructure like village halls and car parks, and helping businesses plan for the future in the face of coastal erosion.

North Norfolk District Council’s bid for Pathfinder funding from the Government last year, when the council won £3 million of the total £11 million available nationally, recognised that northeast Norfolk struggles to promote its appeal when faced by competition from the resort towns of Cromer and Sheringham and the wider attractions of the North Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to the west of Sheringham.

The new marketing strategy is meant to help develop the tourism ‘product’ in the east of the District, where evidence suggests that there has been a loss of business confidence, particularly among operators of serviced accommodation and some caravan and chalet park operators, caused by coastal erosion.

• For more information about the Pathfinder, visit www.northnorfolk.org/pathfinder

ENDS