Support for Tourism Businesses

Warwickshire County Council has a Tourism Development Unit that can assist with general queries. Please see Enjoywarwickshire.com/contact for further information.

For more specific advice, please see the links below to partners who can offer specialist advice within their field.

Regional Centre for Tourism Business Support

The Regional Centre for Tourism Business Support (or RCTBS) can provide diagnostics and business advice for tourism businesses, and can also advise on the Assessment Schemes that they run.

If you are thinking of starting up a business or want advice on any areas of running a business, such as on tourism legislation, then contact them for free and impartial advice.

ICT Support for Business

See the ICT Support for Business webpages from Warwickshire County Council that will help guide you through the technology and marketing maze.

As well as a full programme of events on all aspects of ICT, there are full details on other initiatives

Having an excellent knowledge of ICT can really help your business get ahead - click here for a list of courses

Quality Assurance Schemes

A quality assurance rating provides an independent assessment of what a guest can expect to find. Whatever the size of accommodation or the facilities offered, it gives an invaluable guarantee that a guest's stay will meet expectations and be of high quality.

Accommodation
Please note that Visit Britain as well as Warwickshire County Council only promote accommodation that has been Quality Assured.

Quality in Tourism is the assessment service provider for Visit Britain. It offers a national quality assurance standard across a range of accommodation, including luxury hotels, small B&Bs, holiday cottages, holiday parks, hostels and even visitor attractions.

The AA also offers a full accommodation grading service and is fully recognised by Visit Britain.

Tourism Attractions
Visit Britain also offer a Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Service. Launched in 2001 the scheme plays an important role in helping to identify business strengths as well as also highlighting development areas, based on industry standards. See www.vaqas.org.uk for details.

Tourism Statistics

For full details on tourism statistics and visitor trends see our Tourism Statistics pages on Enjoywarwickshire.com that include details on Economic Impact Assessments (EIAs) and other research. There are also further links to Government websites such as National Statistics.

Warwickshire has around 12 million visitors a year - see the Economic Impact of Tourism in Warwickshire 2002-2004

Local Tourism Associations

Joining a local tourism association can have many benefits - as well as being able to market your business more effectively by inclusion in visitor guides and other advertising material, there is also the benefits of expertise from other members.

NWTA - Northern Warwickshire Tourism Association
SWT - South Warwickshire Tourism
RTA - Rugby Tourism Association

Town Centre Managers

If you are a business based within a town centre, contact your local Town Centre Manager who will be able to advise on local organisations and areas of support for your business.

Enjoywarwickshire.com

See Enjoywarwickshire.com, the county tourism website for information on tourism attractions in Warwickshire, as well as details on towns within the county, images and photographs, accommodation, getting to Warwickshire, history, famous faces and lots more.

Brown Signs in Warwickshire

The tourist industry has long recognised the benefits of adequate and distinctive signs for visitors and tourists. Brown tourist signs help visitors to find the attraction as well as promoting the attraction to potential visitors.

There are two authorities that control signs;

The Highways Agency controls eligibility for brown signs on national trunk road networks (which includes most motorways). For further information please see www.highways.gov.uk/business/1218.aspx

Local Authorities have their own policies on the provision of brown signs on local roads (i.e. all roads other than trunk roads). For further information on applying for such a brown sign see our webpages on local Brown Tourism Signs in Warwickshire.

Brown tourism signs are distinctive in signposting tourist attractions

Visitor Economy Strategy

The Coventry and Warwickshire Visitor Economy Strategy 2005 - 2009 is positioned as a Visitor Economy Strategy rather than a Tourism Strategy. It is the recognition that Tourism is as much about attracting people who live locally as it is about attracting people from far away. It details the strategy for 2005-2009.

Refer to policies within the VES when making applications to funding, or for planning purposes. This will tie you into the strategy for the sub-region and give you a better chance of your application being successful.

For further details please contact Tourism Development at Warwickshire County Council on 01926 412210 or email: tourism@warwickshire.gov.uk

Visitor Economy Strategy for Coventry and Warwickshire 2005-09

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