The session also covered how action plans have been refined to make progress reporting more relevant to the needs of the sector.

Aligning with the plan’s four priorities of Data, Infrastructure, Profile and Development, key achievements hailed since the plan’s launch include:

• The profiling of sustainability as a priority for all in the industry to reinforce the county’s responsible tourism credentials.
  
  
• Regular industry data gathering to shift emphasis from reactive data reporting to proactive data collection.
  
  
• Capital investment programme improvements to car parking, public toilets, recreation areas, coastal footpaths and provision of 243 county-wide EV charging points to improve visitor experience.
  
  
• Measures to ensure Northumberland is promoted as a destination that welcomes responsible visitors.
  
  
• New thematic products developed to address market failure and meet consumer demand, development opportunities to over 100 businesses to improve their visitor offer and provision of training to better inform visitor facing staff across the county.

Co-ordinated by Visit Northumberland, the VisitEngland-accredited Local Visitor Economy Partnership for the county, the Northumberland Destination Management Plan is widely regarded as the blueprint for the sustainable development of the visitor economy and has been crafted in collaboration with the tourism sector.

Sonya Galloway, communications manager at the Vindolanda Charitable Trust and chair of the Northumberland Destination Management Plan Board, said, “We are pleased so many representatives of the tourism sector remain fully engaged in the delivery of this plan, and that the streamlined priorities will ensure it is firmly embedded as the call to action for change in the sector. The defining point of our discussions was the overwhelming desire to pinpoint activity, identify opportunities and the partners required to take our delivery plans forward, and efficiencies in areas where priorities cross over.”

Following the action planning forum, priorities to be addressed at the next quarterly meeting include tactics to influence visitor management via the reconvening of a Tactical Visitor Management Group, broader promotion of thematic tourism products and events, measures to attract more businesses to actively engage in the sector, and the creation of a sustainability advisory group.

All progress will be overseen by a Destination Management Plan Board who will meet to facilitate the process and ensure that the momentum in driving actions forward continues.