So we're the new Suffolk and Norfolk Local Visitor Economy Partnership. What next?

Visit East of England Executive Director Pete Waters on the next steps for the new Suffolk and Norfolk LVEP...

It’s been a long time in planning, preparation and bringing the relevant stakeholders together - Suffolk and Norfolk are now a VisitEngland accredited Local Visitor Economy Partnership, managed by Visit East of England (VEE).

This means we join the likes of Cornwall, the Cotswolds, Yorkshire, the Peak District, Lake District and cities such as Bath and Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, and London in a new England-wide framework of destination management organisations (DMOs) following the De Bois Review.

To read more about the Suffolk and Norfolk LVEP, take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions blog.

VEE’s successful application, supported by Suffolk and Norfolk County Councils, is the culmination of all the hard yards put in by DMOs and local authorities over the past four years to speak as a visitor economy collective.

Previously we were told by the national tourism bodies VisitEngland and VisitBritain that they only heard 'white noise' coming out of this area – a loud and competing clangour.

Now they hear one single, cohesive voice, which was the intention of VEE under the chairmanship of Dr Andy Wood OBE.

Does that mean it’s job done? Well, no. Quite the opposite. This has given us a foothold into the potential opportunities that LVEP accreditation will bring, not least being able to tap into national support for local businesses.

In time it might also mean the ability to bid for national funding, as VEE & Partners have done successfully in the past before the DMO Review, but we have a new Government that will take time to get its feet under the table and which has a whole host of other priorities.

We are used to being patient.

In the meantime, there is a lot of work to be done here by us. And by us, I mean the local DMOs, public sector authorities and private sector businesses.

Shortly we will be sending out a questionnaire to our 8000 business database asking what the new LVEP’s priorities should be. We are doing this because our strategy will be driven bottom-up, created by the stars in our tourism firmament – the businesses and destinations.

I have a favourite anecdote about this. A new Bishop of Norwich is coming into office and he asks his predecessor how to get the people of Norfolk to follow him. ‘Oh, that’s easy,’ says the outgoing church leader, ‘You just find out where they’re going and walk in front.’

This approach put me in good stead during my editorship of the Norfolk-Suffolk Eastern Daily Press when we were awarded the national Regional Newspaper of the Year accolade for the only time in the paper’s 150-year history.

It's also the right approach for our new LVEP.

That’s why we want your involvement with the questionnaire. We want to be in front but be directed by you.

In May we recruited nationally-renowned Reith Consultants to help produce a Destination Management Plan (DMP) and they have already laid strong foundations for that work by conducting more than 50 face-to-face interviews with sector leaders.

In September, they will be conducting four workshops – two in Ipswich and two in Norwich, to which stakeholders will be invited.

They will also collate the results of the upcoming questionnaire.

This will all be fed into a first draft of the DMP which will then be peer reviewed at the VEE & Partners Tourism Business Conference in October at the John Innes Centre, Norwich. Join us at the event.

We will also be establishing a new Visit East of England board, a DMP Group to ensure its implementation and a Naturally group to oversee the development of sustainable tourism, as well as continuing our DMO Coalition to oversee marketing activity, our Visitor Economy Network Initiative (VENI) Skills Group chaired by Andrew Wheeler of the Eastern Education Group, and reviving our Visitor Economy Group of local authorities and other key stakeholders.

So now we have the LVEP accreditation, this is where more collaborative work begins to achieve our collective ambitions. This is why we need your engagement to make the LVEP a success.

We look forward to working with and for you.

For more information about the LVEP programme visit: www.visitbritain.org/local-visitor-economy-partnership-lvep-programme

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