Christopher Scott Tourism & Leisure Workshop

5/8/10

PRESS RELEASE

The event was sponsored by Christopher Scott Chartered Surveyors and Town Planning Development Consultants , Hose Rhodes and Dickson Commercial Property Agents and the Isle of Wight Council Planning Department.

The event was well attended by a cross section of Island operators, professionals, mainland investors, hoteliers, developers, planning consultants and architects, as well James Fulford from Red Funnel.

The event sought to establish the vision and future of leisure and tourism over the next 25 years as part of the consultation process for the Island Plan and Core Strategy. The event wanted to ensure that the correct policies are put in place to deliver the right tourism and leisure for the Island. This consultation proved to be very successful and rewarding.

The contributors included the following:

John Metcalfe – Associate Director of the Economic Development of the Isle of Wight Council. John Metcalfe opened the meeting and outlined the Councils views about tourism now and how it could be taken forward over the new planned period. Wendy Perera then outlined the current Core Strategy looking at the provisions of tourism and leisure. She welcomed input on how this could be improve and enhanced. Other papers were delivered by Mark Rhodes of Hose Rhodes and Dickson. He explained how successful some hotels and commercial operations were. This was mainly based on location and proprietorship. While successful self catering units are having up to 85% occupancy and those of lesser quality going to 35%. The accents on quality and service were seen through many of the discussions.

Andrew Palmer, the owner of the Priory Bay Hotel at Seaview, explained the difficulties of running and moving forward a high quality Island hotel and the need to find ways of widening the holiday season across the season.

James Fulford, Chief Executive of Red Funnel Ferries, gave an enlightened insight as to how things could be improved, citing examples from abroad and showing how there was a need for all stakeholders to work as a team and create a process that benefit all sectors.

Christopher Scott of Christopher Scott Ltd proceeded to discuss two case studies of how leisure projects could be taken forward particularly with regard to enablement and mixed use projects such as at the Priory Bay Hotel and Harcourt Sands.

David Long of Christopher Scott Ltd, Associate Director and Town Planner then went on to explain the relationship between the national tourist and leisure policy and how this would impact on the Island.

A lively question and answer session at the end produced several ideas as to how the policy could be enhanced and improved including the naming of sites which could help the delivery of tourism over the next 25 years. There was a requirement that these developments should provide a good experience for the community and tourists alike.