First steps for Sussex tourism brand

On Friday (November 3), county council leader Keith Glazier signed off on in-principle proposals to establish Experience Sussex — a new tourism brand and promotional body intended to attract visitors to the area, both nationally and internationally.

The new organisation is set to run as a partnership between ESCC and West Sussex County Council (WSCC). WSCC is to be the accountable body, with ESCC providing financial support.

Council leader Keith Glazier said: “An awful lot of work has gone into this to get this far and there is still a lot more to do, but I can only thank everybody that has contributed so far.

“If we pull this off, the benefit, not just for us as an upper tier authority, but for visitors and the rest of the community must be enormous.”

During the same meeting, Cllr Glazier also gave his backing to the formation of a new Sussex Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP).

This new body — set to consist of ESCC, WSCC and Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) — would have a similar but separate role to the UK’s Local Enterprise Partnerships.

In short, it will act as an organising body for area-wide tourism planning and marketing.

In a report to Cllr Glaizer, officers said the body is intended to help Sussex as a whole realise its ‘unmet growth potential’ in tourism. According to the report, a focus on this area could result in a £2.5 billion economic impact and an additional 35,000 jobs.

Officers went on to say the Experience Sussex is not intended to replace existing tourism bodies, but instead act as a ‘gateway’ to amplify their messages.

James Harris, the county council’s head of economic development, said: “We know we’ve got loads of really good local tourism brands within East Sussex — 1066 [Country] is one of the ones which is more known than others.

“[But] when we look to go to the Lake District, we don’t look at all the individual district and borough websites; we go to Visit Lake District and its an epicentre and hub through which everything else links.

“This is like our kind of equivalent, the gateway through to Sussex. But all of those constituent brands — which are really important to us and … have their own place in localities — will all be given that extra platform.

“The hope is that by having this much grander scale, instead of x-thousand people visiting 1066 Country it will be double that, triple that over time.”