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Insights
Insights are fundamental to building successful, resilient destinations and thriving visitor economy businesses. At Visit Kent, we strongly believe that evidence-led decision making should underpin strategy, activity, planning and investment across the sector. Understanding impacts and performance, identifying opportunities, and responding to emerging industry and consumer trends are vital to creating destinations and businesses that can adapt, pivot and stand out in an increasingly dynamic landscape. As the destination management organisation for Kent, we are committed to supporting our visitor economy partners in making informed decisions and showing visitors why Kent is worth visiting time and time again.
Kent Tourism Economic Impact
The Cambridge Economic Impact Model is an industry respected tool for measuring the economic impact of tourism in a given area. Knowing the volume and value of tourism is an essential part of developing policies for managing tourism.
The Cambridge Model is a spreadsheet model that produces estimates from existing national and local information (e.g. accommodation stock and inbound trips) of the level of tourism activity within a given local area. The volume of visits is translated into economic terms by estimating the amount of spending by visitors based on their average spend per trip. In turn, the impact of that spending can be translated to estimate the effects in terms of business turnover and jobs.
The standard measures generated in this Model are the total amount spent by visitors, the amount of income for local residents and businesses created by this spending, and the number of jobs supported by visitor spending. This report focuses on total revenue raised from visitor spending across Kent and the estimated number of full-time equivalent and actual jobs.
Kent Destination Management Plan
Growing Kent's visitor economy together
A DMP helps stakeholders to agree on a set of priorities and actions to grow and benefit the local visitor economy. This plan sets out the current opportunities and challenges for Kent and Medway and sets out a shared vision for the destination over the next five years. It is a living document which has been designed to be flexible and position the county positively to capitalise on emerging opportunities.
This plan follows significant work with key stakeholders, including an interactive workshop undertaking a full SWOT of Kent’s assets and challenges, consideration of key industry trends and external factors, in addition to a detailed evidence base of current performance, perceptions, audiences and product.
This Destination Management Plan is shaped around four overarching objectives to address these challenges and grow Kent’s visitor economy together; Place; Prosperity; Product; and People and Planet.
Relevant regional and national tourism insights
Looking beyond Kent
Understanding the visitor economy requires both a local and a wider perspective. Alongside Visit Kent's own research and performance data, there are a number of regional and national organisations that provide valuable insights into tourism trends, visitor behaviour, market performance and consumer sentiment.
We encourage businesses and destination partners to make use of these resources to complement local intelligence, identify opportunities, benchmark performance and stay ahead of industry developments. By drawing on a range of trusted sources, organisations can make more informed decisions and better respond to an evolving visitor economy landscape.
VisitEngland/ VisitBritain Research and Insights Hub
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