Decision details

(i)  That Cabinet agrees and adopts the Southampton Destination Management Plan 2021-2031 as attached at Appendix 1

(ii)  That Cabinet agrees to additional resources to support the creation and implementation of a virtual Destination Management Partnership. Specifically, the additional resource will be 1 additional post to (£50, 000 per annum) to support bespoke marketing, engagement and inward investment and a funding pot of £50, 000 per annum for the partnership to act as seed funding for future investment.

(iii)  That the Head of Culture & Tourism is delegated authority to make minor and consequential amendments to the Plan, take all decisions and actions arising from recommendations of the DMO partnership and any other ancillary decisions required in order to give effect to the recommendations in this report;

(iv)  That the Head of Culture & Tourism is delegated authority to agree the Terms of Reference of the DMO Partnership Board following consultation with Board Members.

1.  Over the past 10 years tourism has been one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK, forecast prior to the pandemic to be worth £257bn by 2025.  In 2019, tourism generated an estimated £422m of direct expenditure to Southampton’s economy, supporting 7,720 full time equivalent direct and induced jobs.

2.  Regionally other destinations have invested in the sector and the Solent LEP 2050 vision identifies the cultural and visitor economy as one of its six priority areas.  This dovetails with the Council’s recently adopted Economic and Green Growth Strategy 2020-2030, international city agenda and its bid to be the UK City of Culture 2025.  All are key drivers to develop the visitor economy as part of the City’s post-Covid recovery and longer term approach to the ‘levelling up’ agenda.

3.  Unlike other cities and regions, Southampton has never had a Destination Management Plan (DMP) or Destination Management Organisation (DMO) The former being the business plan for building and managing the visitor economy in a destination, which jointly owned with stakeholders and used as a guide to manage and invest in the destination.  The latter is how the destination is managed and developed by the partnership.

1.  Not adopting a destination management plan – this option is rejected given the strategic and economic priority of the visitor economy and associated sectors in the City of Southampton and the contribution this work has to the medium and longer-term recovery of the City.

2.   Not supporting the delivery of the plan, via a destination management organisation/ partnership – this is rejected because if a plan is adopted the resourcing of that plan is critical to the long term success of the city, the economic recovery of the city as laid out in other City Council strategies as well as the city’s bid to be the UK City of Culture in 2025.

3.  Not supporting the additional resource request of £50, 000 staffing and £50, 000 working balance to enable the destination management partnership to be set up and operate.  This is rejected as without this resource the partnership will be unable to operate.  Alternative means of resourcing the partnership have been discussed as part of the development of the DMP such as membership or inward investment by external bodies such as the LEP and will continue. It is however the ambition that having dedicated resource, that is able to work towards inward investment, will in time reduce the reliance on council resources.

4.   Another option considered was to invest more than that highlighted in this report with 2 x additional posts increasing the additional council resource request to £144, 000.  Having reviewed the nature of the work required and in recognition of the financial challenges across all sector, this option was rejected in favour of that recommended in this report.

5.  The development of the DMP and ideas for a DMO have been subject to extensive consultation with key stakeholders and partners across the city including as laid out in Appendix 2.