09/07/13

LEP secures £2.1m EU funds for visitor economy

Liverpool City Region’s LEP has secured an additional £2.15m of EU funds to boost the Visitor Economy.

The money is from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and is part of the current Liverpool City Region EU Programmes. The extra grant follows the LEP’s bid prepared and submitted on behalf of tourism partners across the City Region.

The money will be allocated between now (July 2013) and June 2015 enabling the following activities:

  • · Overseas and domestic leisure visitor marketing
  • · England’s Golf Coast campaign
  • · Business tourism marketing and Liverpool Convention Bureau services
  • · Place Marketing – promoting Liverpool City Region as a place to live, study, work and invest as well as to visit

There is also a contribution to the promotion/delivery of selected* Major Events including:

  • · Liverpool International Music Festival
  • · Cultural Programme around the International Festival For Business
  • · Open Golf Championship, Wirral
  • · 1WW commemorative event, St Helens
  • · Modern Icons, Tate Liverpool
  • · Modern Masters, NML
  • · Wirral Food and Drink Festival
  • · Summer Camp, Camp and Furnace

Liverpool City Region LEP Head of Visitor Economy Development Pam Wilsher said:

“Our Visitor Economy already supports more than 43,000 local jobs and attracts 55m visitors annually, generating an economic impact of more than £3bn. This extra financial support announced today represents the successful outcome to an important bid by the LEP on behalf of some of its Members and Partners. The new Programme will deliver growth across the sector. We estimate an additional 870,000 overnight visitors and 1.68m day visitors generating additional visitor spend of £203m during the course of the Programme.”

Cllr Phil Davies, Merseyside Representative on the ERDF Local Management Committee said:

"ERDF funding is geared towards boosting economic growth, supporting local businesses and creating local jobs - this place marketing project will deliver on all three of these fronts. The Liverpool City Region has a world class tourism product and we are pleased to be working with our partners at the local LEP to attract additional visitors to the area."

Part of the allocation will assist in the development of a Place \Marketing Strategy to enable a new approach to the global marketing of the City Region’s assets to be led by Marketing Liverpool, a new Team within Liverpool Vision.

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