July Newsletter!

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In this issue:
Domestic visits rocket / N ew loan fund for SMEs / C oastal tourism boost /
C oping with cranky customers / Dementia friendly tourism

Welcome to our July newsletter!

Domestic visits rocket!

2015 first quarter figures from VisitEngland show the highest number of trips taken in England since 2008 with the biggest increase in trips to the coast, up a massive 32 per cent.

Some 19.7 million trips were taken between January and March 2015, a 12 per cent hike on 2014. Visits to friends and relatives grew by 21 per cent while business trips shot up by 32 per cent.

To get the full picture click here.

New loan fund for SMEs

A new £40m loan fund has been opened for all SME businesses by Enterprise Ventures. If you’re looking to expand, refurbish or acquire a new property, you can apply for a loan from £15,000 up to £1 million, covering a period of up to five years and tailored to your requirements. The loans can be offered where banks and other lenders are unable to offer the full requirement.

For more details click here.

Coastal tourism boost

The government’s Coastal Communities Fund (which finances the NCTA) is to receive a further £90m to unlock coastal destination’s economic potential. Demonstrating its commitment to regenerating coastal areas and announced in this month’s budget, the Fund will be extended to 2020-2021. The NCTA is one of only two CCF projects mentioned in the announcement. Click here to read more.

As a further boost to the industry, this month the Prime Minister also announced a five-point plan to help tourism growth, focusing on better co-ordination and regulation, skills and jobs and an improved welcome – which lies at the heart of our visitor experience programme.

For more on our visitor experience projects, click here.

Coping with cranky customers

With school summer holidays upon us, the heat is on to deliver great customer service. But dealing with awkward guests is an art. To ensure you and your staff are well equipped to guarantee negative situations end with a positive outcome, book onto our Handling Conflict, Complaints and Customers course on Tuesday 13 October.

Contact Jacky Thorne for further information.

Dementia Friendly Tourism

We would value your help in an important study on dementia that will help direct the work of the Prime Minister’s Challenge Group on dementia. More than 11 million people have the disease in the UK and the number’s growing. Working with BU and Exeter University, we are undertaking a survey of tourism and leisure businesses to assess awareness and the demand for advice and training to develop dementia-friendly tourism. Your views will count.

To take the survey, click here.

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