Bath Tourism Plus (BTP) will launch a new Destination Marketing Strategy at the company’s annual Tourism Forum on 31 January, which will be attended by around 200 local businesses.  The Strategy outlines plans for growing the value of tourism to £400m by 2014.

BTP has developed the Strategy as a destination-wide plan.  The company will provide leadership, marketing tools and market intelligence to deliver the Strategy but will work in partnership and collaboration with businesses in and around Bath to achieve the agreed goals.

The Strategy will be launched and presented to Bath businesses at BTP’s Tourism Forum which this year will welcome new chief executive, Nick Brooks-Sykes, who started with the company on 3 January 2012.  It will also feature renowned senior travel editor for The Independent, Simon Calder, who will provide expert knowledge and insight into how Bath compares with other destinations.

Five crucial targets have been set out in the Strategy that will provide the key to increasing the value of tourism.  These are: building on the destination’s success in the domestic market by boosting the value of overnight visitors by 12%; growing the value of high spending international visitors by 12% (focusing on the US, European and selected emerging markets such as China); increasing business tourism by 9%; growing the value of day visitors by 12%; and increasing the number of visitor nights spent in Bath by 10%.

BTP has been identified by national tourism body, Visit England, as a leading destination marketing organisation and will benefit from additional funding from a new Regional Growth Fund.  Bath is one of a small number of destinations in England that will be allocated additional funds by Visit England to support new marketing campaigns designed to bring new visitor spending and associated jobs to the area.  This additional funding will help to achieve some of the objectives in the Destination Marketing Strategy.

Nick Brooks-Sykes, chief executive at Bath Tourism Plus, says: “We are very much looking forward to launching the new Destination Marketing Strategy at our Tourism Forum and working with businesses in and around Bath to achieve the planned targets.  These are exciting times for Bath’s visitor economy – our new Tourist Information Centre is about to open with the Bath Festivals Box Office also on site, we have a new marketing campaign ready to launch and we are forging new and strong partnerships with others, including the Business Improvement District, Bristol Airport and our Universities.  Although Bath is one of the UK’s world-class destinations, we cannot become complacent.  We need to ensure that Bath maintains its appeal by using inspiring and imaginative ways to attract visitors here”.