Destination Management Plan
Ashfield
Executive summary
The Destination Management Plan is all about how we will work together to make the most of the exciting developments that are happening across Ashfield. It sets out a clear plan for the visitor economy, concentrating our efforts on key target markets, enhancing our events programme and working more closely across businesses and the public sector.
In the next 3 years over £20 million is being invested in the District’s visitor economy in a number of projects including the Sherwood Observatory, Science Discovery Centre & Planetarium, and King’s Mill Reservoir and water sports centre.
We have a number of strengths and opportunities including:
- our location and catchment population
- Discover Ashfield (our place partnership)
- our people and community
- our visitor products – existing and emerging
- our connections to historical figures.
However, we face a number of challenges:
- awareness of Ashfield as a destination
- limited spend opportunities for visitors
- and a lack of compelling products.
Looking forward, there are a number of opportunities to grow our visitor economy and areas we need to develop.
These include:
- further development of our attractions sector
- building on our heritage and outdoors offer
- developing more accommodation
- further enhancing our evening economy
- expanding our events programme.
This plan seeks to deliver 2 distinct outcomes;
- Enhance the quality of life for our residents
- Generate spend and jobs in our local businesses.
It outlines a phased approach. Phase 1 is about Foundation and Development (covering 2024 to 2027) and Phase 2 will be a Growth phase (covering 2027 and beyond).
Initially we will focus on the 3 key strategic approaches:
- Awareness raising;
- Products - focusing on clusters of product where we have real strengths;
- Partnerships.
In developing this plan we identified 5 priority action areas. Some we can deliver immediately whilst others will take more time to develop.
Our immediate action areas are:
- Discover your doorstep - which is all about a proactive marketing campaign targeting a relatively local (circa 30 to 40 minutes travel) audience. The intention is that the content is dynamic – very much ‘what’s on in the Ashfield area’, with regular features
- Our events programme - which is about enhancing, in the first instance, our existing programme through generating sponsorship and commercial funding partnerships, and seeking to support independent events.
Our longer term priorities include:
- Ashfield Adventures - focusing on our outdoor and activity offer
- Group and education markets - building on some of the unique experiences we offer - Sherwood Observatory, King’s Mill facilities and the Woodland Adventure Zone
- Our history, our culture - developing and interpreting our rich and distinctive heritage offer.
To see the full Destination Management Plan you can find this here.
