Join us for our first Destination Lincolnshire event - Levelling Up through the visitor economy
Booking is now open for Destination Lincolnshire’s ‘Levelling Up through the Visitor Economy’. A trailblazing event talking about Lincolnshire’s £131m regeneration journey through a series of unscripted conversations with local and national experts who will bring the projects to life and tell businesses how they can be part of this transformation.
It is an incredible opportunity to learn all about the millions in funding that is being invested across Greater Lincolnshire and how it will support the visitor economy, this event promises to paint the bigger picture in a way that all visitor economy businesses can understand and share research and insights that has never been available before.
A huge role Destination Lincolnshire has to play moving forward is to look strategically across Greater Lincolnshire and identify where focused visitor economy activities need to be, so that a cohesive approach for the visitors and businesses/owners/operators can be achieved.
Having looked into the emerging UK Shared Prosperity (UKSP) policy and funding and having already had experience of bidding and winning a £1.5m Town Deal programme for the visitor economy, Destination Lincolnshire knows that engagement with the visitor economy business community has to happen now. Starting with this ‘Levelling Up Lincolnshire through the Visitor Economy’ event.
Hosted by Destination Lincolnshire and delivered in partnership with District Councils, this inaugural event will be taking place on July 19th, 9am – 3pm, at Market Rasen Racecourse in the Altiors Restaurant.
Change is coming to Greater Lincolnshire from the Levelling Up agenda, it is vital that businesses are given the chance to be kept up-to-date as their surroundings begin to change."
Open to all businesses across Greater Lincolnshire, this event promises to throw the doors to the future of the county’s visitor economy wide open, with the day actively looking at how, as a whole, visitor economy businesses can contribute to the Lincolnshire place agenda, driving the county as an unrivalled destination.
Following a welcome from Destination Lincolnshire’s Chief Executive, Charlotte Goy, the keynote speech will be delivered by Professor Cathy Parker, Chair of the Institute of Place Management. Highlighting the importance of place and how every business in the room has a role to play in that agenda, Cathy will also be offering examples of the best practices that Lincolnshire can adopt.
As compere, Richard Askam will also host an ‘In conversation with’ panel with the Assistant Directors from all the Councils that are Levelling Up or participating in a Town Deal project.
Ian Thomas, Destination Director from Newcastle Gateshead Initiative (NGI) will be the final speaker, providing a first look at the 12-month visitor economy research that NGI Solutions has undertaken on behalf of Lincolnshire. Following lunch, an afternoon Visitor Economy research workshop will be hosted by NGI solutions.
This will be a truly immersive and interactive event, with lively discussions around emerging themes and joined up thinking across Lincolnshire as a whole – giving businesses the chance to feed in their thoughts, ideas, and visitor insights into the plans.
Charlotte Goy said: “Change is coming to Greater Lincolnshire from the Levelling Up agenda, it is vital that businesses are given the chance to be kept up-to-date as their surroundings begin to change. We want everyone working within the visitor economy sector to know what is going on and when, to allow for strong, forward-thinking, innovative, and collaborative plans for the future to be put in place.
“From the outside, things may seem as though they are back to normal but working from within the destination management world, we are painfully aware that for many the next few years will still very much be about strategic recovery. Many are still struggling, and while at the moment it is understandable that businesses may not want to look ahead, for fear of what the future may bring, it is so important to lift our gaze and understand how our place is growing as a visitor destination and how we could use that in our own business development and recovery. Looking ahead now to the bigger picture will allow businesses to plan a future that is achievable and sustainable.
“We are thrilled to be hosting this event, the first of many we have planned at Destination Lincolnshire. We are looking to provide our partners, as well as those we are yet to work with, with a higher level of transparency in our processes and the work that goes on behind the scenes to market Greater Lincolnshire.
“From the get-go Destination Lincolnshire is flying the flag for a joined-up approach across the entire visitor economy. We want to continue to build a genuine level of trust and buy in from the very beginning among the visitor economy business community.”
The Background...
The Government has recently announced the full details of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which makes £400m (2022-23) available for local activities which specifically build local pride in place, empowering local leaders and communities, boosting jobs, living standards and improving public services.
Crucially, 90% of the funding can be spent on activities which support place making, meaning that it can pay for things which other place-based schemes haven’t been able to do in the past, such as Future High Street Funds, Towns Funds and Levelling Up Funds. Councils have now been notified about what funding they will receive from UK Shared Prosperity which means it's now time to write Investment Plans which set out how they intend to use the funding by August 1st, 2022.
The Challenge...
The whole ethos of Levelling Up and Shared Prosperity Funding is to show a ‘bottom up’ approach to identifying challenges and creating solutions. This means grass root engagement with communities who work at the coal face of key sectors across our destination – this includes leaders and operators in the Greater Lincolnshire visitor economy.
People Power...
The success of Levelling Up and Shared Prosperity in Lincolnshire will be determined by how well local communities embrace this amazing opportunity - including the visitor economy business community.
We have the most amazing visitor economy business community across Greater Lincolnshire. They - you - are passionate, savvy and smart operators who, at the moment, don’t know about the UK Shared Prosperity Funding opportunities. Through our Levelling Up Lincolnshire event, we want to start to the process of bringing you on this journey with us, start a dialogue and continue to build this community which empowers the businesses within our visitor economy to be our advocates and champions.
Trust will play a huge part in building the engaged community we want to develop, to help us identify challenges and also offer solutions and drive change.
The Way Forward...
The Institute of Place Management has identified that success relies on “empowering local leadership to identify and serve the needs of their places” (April 2022). Professor Cathy Parker points out that “money alone cannot empower place leaders”, we need engagement from grassroots upwards with a code of conduct developed, agreed and adopted across the board which serves a local need. The Investment Plans developed need to be influenced by local organisations from the get-go. Which is where our event comes in.
The Shared Prosperity Fund sets out four objectives that any investment case should address. And while further details on monitoring of these outcomes will be published in the Summer, the most significant ones are:
- Boost productivity, pay, jobs and living standards by growing the private sector, especially in those places where they are lagging.
- Restore a sense of community, local pride and belonging, especially in those places where they have been lost.
- Empower local leaders and communities, especially in those places lacking local agency.
These three objectives bring into focus a whole range of objectives that feed into the Destination Lincolnshire visitor economy agenda for Greater Lincolnshire. From business support to markets, attractions, experiences, place branding and destination marketing, the Shared Prosperity Fund has the potential to bring real, tangible, impact across Lincolnshire’s visitor economy – but ONLY if they are underpinned by meaningful partnerships that can deliver.
Register to join us on July 19th, 9am – 3pm, at Market Rasen Racecourse in the Altiors Restaurant to contribute to the foundation of this exciting agenda.
Booking for this event is essential and places are limited. Maximum of two tickets per organisation. For all the information and ticket, click here.