Tourism
James Berresford
Director of Tourism
The Tourism Directorate works to lead growth in tourism and the
visitor economy of England's Northwest, working through our
regional delivery partners the five tourist boards for each of our
sub-regions.
Our vision is that within ten years, the region offers our
visitors real excellence and superb experiences, wherever they go,
and has a thriving visitor economy that is second to none.
Tourists are people who travel to and stay in places that are
outside their usual environment; this includes visitors to and from
places overseas as well as in this country, and it also includes
people on same day visits. Tourists go to the same places as the
wider set of ordinary visitors, so the region's strategy has as its
focus both the people that are this region’s tourists and the
destinations they choose to travel to.
When thinking about the activity of all visitors within a
destination, whether tourists or not, it is useful to have a single
term that describes this; we use ‘Visitor Economy’ for this
purpose. So, the quality of our public places, our parks, the
transport systems, the architecture, the gateways, the parking, the
cultural activity, all matter and all need to be as good as we can
make them, for the sake of the tourists, the other visitors we wish
to serve and local communities.
In broad terms, the directorate provides strategic direction for
all tourism activity in the region, focusing on improving the
quality of the destinations, products and experiences we offer our
visitors, and on the promotion of our destinations to the customers
we seek. The team also provides funding both to our Tourist Board
partners and to a range of others who deliver our objectives.
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