Agenda and minutes

Apologies for non-attendance were submitted on behalf of Cllrs Jonathan Yardley

Cllr Phil Bateman declared a non-pecuniary interest in item 3 relating to the visitor economy relating to public transportation

[To provide an overview of activity to support the development of the visitor economy.]

Cllr Jacqueline Sweetman, Chair welcomed to the meeting Mark Blackstock, Head of Visitor Economy, Chrissie Rushton,  Marketing and Development Manager and Adrian Jackson, Chief Executive Grand Theatre.

Keren Jones provided an overview and update of the Visitor Economy report highlighting that section three of the report provides the current evidence base, as follows:

·         Understanding our markets

·         Shoppers

·         Cultural visitors

·         Students

·         Business developers and investors

She advised that section four builds on the assets that the City has which sets Wolverhampton as distinctive from others highlighting the three defined areas: Central, East and West.  She emphasized the importance of business improvement and the need for City ambassadors and that Panel would hear more detail about this later in the meeting from the Head of Visitor Economy who would talk about the cultural offer and from the Chief Executive of the Grand Theatre who would talk about the Grand Theatre.

The Service Director referred to section 4.4 ‘Wolverhampton West’ and advised that the planned improvements to Bantock House would need to be done under reducing resources.  She referred to section 4.5 ‘Wolverhampton East’ and advised that the Bilston Business Improvement District had been secured.  She referred to the geology and fossils exhibition at the craft gallery and that Dudley Council were looking at developing a geopark.

The Service Director highlighted that section 4.6 ‘Visitor Week’ had been very useful and that a summary was appended to the report (Appendix 3).  She advised that each time the process is useful to improve on the Wolverhampton offer and to provide opportunity to support industries involved in the visitor economy, of particularly interest is to build on the hospitality and hotel sector.

The Service Director referred to Section 5 ‘Improving our visitor offer’, she highlighted the following:

·         City centre regeneration

·         The Canal Side Quarter

·         Hotels and hotel study

·         Business conferencing

·         City of Wolverhampton Council owned venues

·         Complimentary visitor offer

·         Marketing and publicity

She summarised that improving the visitor offer is partly about leisure, and less obviously about improving the housing offer, to support the local economy.  She highlighted that new developments are spreading the areas of interest to the Springfield Brewery site, the new Youth Zone and she emphasized the need to make sure things connect, creating real reasons for people to move from one place to another.

Presentation - ‘Visitor Economy’, Mark Blackstock, Head of Visitor Economy

The Head of Visitor Economy reminded the Panel that the Council are not the only organisation to provide visitor attractions. He highlighted that the Racecourse holds concerts and shows; the Monmore Green Dog track holds events and racing is filmed and transmitted around the world; Television has recorded five programme of ‘Flog it’ in Wolverhampton and the Civic Halls and Grand Theatre are being transformed to increase footfall.  He highlighted that each of these attractions positively increased the Wolverhampton Visitor Offer and that they were responding to change with different business models, considering licensing laws and capacity in the Civic Hall and Grand Theatre. The panel  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.