She talks about smartening up the resort, reinventing it as 'the city on the beach' with a cafe and bar culture and celebrating its entertainment history.
'It's not just Punch and Judy. Last month we did the Iliad as a half-hour puppet show on the streets. There's more blood and guts in the Iliad than in Punch and Judy.'
Blackpool. sadly not Swanage
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Ahem. The 'city on the beach' quote is from Blackpool's Director of Tourism. I understand that with the departure of Alison, Swanage does not even have a Tourism Officer?
What's the 'ahem' for? I referenced my source.
Alison? Who she?
What budget did she have?
Can you provide evidence of how a PARISH council can afford a Tourism Officer?
Can you provide evidence of her good works?
Or was she a volunteer?
Good luck in your future Alison.
Alison was the Tourist Information Centre manager from about 2002. I don't know what her salary was.
Too many councils for me to understand... employed by Swanage Town Council, is that a Parish council then?
Anyway, why were you comparing Blackpool with Swanage? The fact is that Swanage needs someone to pull everything together and make it a place that will continue to benefit from Tourism, surely? Or do you want to see it as purely a residential town?
Well, you sort of answered one of my questions - who she?
I didn't ask about her salary - but as she was a public employee I could probably find out.
"Too many councils for me to understand..."
Well, if you can't understand a pretty simple, if ineffective, system, I wonder why you're so concerned?
The article I referenced was about seaside towns.
Here comes the lesson - both Blackpool and Swanage are built by the sea.
As for; "someone to to pull everything together", how the hell is a Parish council with a budget of zilch going to do that?
STC are responsible for the tourist info centre, car parks and footpaths.
PDC - that's the next level up - are responsible for rubbish, council tax and housing benefit.
They have 2 tourism officers, but if you can imagine anything less effective the read this;
"Purbeck District Council employs Tourism Officers in order to:
Manage tourism so as to maximise its benefit to the local economy whilst protecting the local environment; and Promote awareness amongst visitors of the environmental quality of the District and the need to "Keep Purbeck Special".
Dorset County Council - who do have a bit of clout - are in strange way quite supportive of Swanage and surrounding area - the Education Centre at Langton and the proposal for Durlston Castle. But both of these rely on an amazing amount of good will.
But, compare those two projects to the rest of Purbeck.
Now, one last thing. Where the hell do you get the idea that I want Swanage to be residential?
Please explain your reasoning.
The article in the Guardian is quite interesting. It says that resorts in the North West are going up market and moving on from mass tourism at last, hence the Iliad.
What an excellent thing to do. I have long advocated it for Swanage. Alas, the mentality here seems to be to drag in the maximum numbers we can regardless than concentrate on marketing to people with a bit of money to spend, as Blackpool now appears to be doing.
Swanage Town Council (the parish council) has a large income from car parks and its caravan site with which to employ a tourism officer. As far as I am aware the post was jointly funded by the district council. It begs the question of whether the post should be funded by the businesses that benefit from tourism rather than the tax payers as a whole.
As for not understanding the roles of all these councils, I am willing to learn and would like you to point me to a website that shows all this information please.
No need to try to goad me by saying that you wonder why I'm so concerned. Ask virtually any ratepayers and they'll have difficulty in telling you which council is responsible for what. Maybe the system is designed for just that reason?
You ask "how the hell is a Parish council with a budget of zilch" going to pull everything together? I said that is what is required, not who should do it. Why are you banging on about a parish council?
Oh, and thanks to the last person who explained that the 'parish' council is the 'town' council, and affirmed that whatever you call it, it can afford a Tourism Officer.
If you want to have a successful business, you identify what needs doing and then allocate the tasks. What we have with all these councils, is a multitude of organisations that do what they do, and not necessarily what needs to be done!
As for the residential bit, well if there isn't a cohesive plan to keep tourism alive and attractive in Swanage, then the trend towards residential will take over. It's obvious, look at the move over the years from hotels to care homes, thence to flats; from pubs like the Ferryboat, Kings Bar and the Purbeck towards flats.
Those who fail to plan to keep tourism alive here are effectively planning its demise.
I get the feeling that you actually do agree with what I say, but you just like an argument.
If I can find a website that explains councils and their functions, so can you. Go do it!
“Ask virtually any ratepayers and they'll have difficulty in telling you which council is responsible for what”.
Sweeping statement or what? Most of the council tax payers I know understand the system.
You raised the issue of Swanage's Tourism officer – having officers is not the answer. The answer is to have an officer who has a budget big enough to organise, empower and advertise.
“If you want to have a successful business, you identify what needs doing and then allocate the tasks. What we have with all these councils, is a multitude of organisations that do what they do, and not necessarily what needs to be done”!
I agree with you there – but Councils aren't businesses. If you went to Barney's meeting then you would have found out what the businesses are trying to do.
“As for the residential bit, .....”
Again, that's something you raised. You're the one making assumptions.
“a cohesive plan to keep tourism alive .....”
Obviously.
“Cohesive”.
People, Charity, Business and Council working together. MCTI etc
“I get the feeling that you actually do agree with what I say, but you just like an argument”.
I agree with some of what you say, but not all.
I enjoy discussion – I learn thro' it.
So do I enjoy discussion and learn through it. For exactly that reason I would appreciate you naming the website you use that explains councils and their functions, then at least we'll start off singing from the same hymn sheet!
This is a serious request, I have already looked on the Internet several times and am still having difficulty, so please advise me.
Its the same old chestnut better quality people. who decides who that is? Blackpool is trying to go up market god it can hardly go down market its the sane as newquay catering for the stag/hen boys weekend away theme, swanage does not do that. swanage does I belevie cater for the family style holiday which I feel is correct.
I know of a local bussines where the owner has done a fair bit of research ie employed someone to construct and supervise a webpage also enlisted the help of bussines link dorset, the myth that if we go "up market" is not born out they found that the type of people that some on here want actually spent less per head than fammilies and middle class incomes. (my dad allways said those with it keep it)
These people were asked what they wanted from swanage most were happy, and suprisingly most liked the herritage and natural aspect of the town ie walks/ boat trips beaches, etc. The pier head raised a few eyebrows and what was suprising was 2nd home owners were not thought a lot of.
This study was not run like the national census but hopefully was a help to them.
the people who were asked were from backgrounds like police officers teachers, solicitors small bussines owners, publicans, property investers, middle managemet.
Just my thoughts.
Oh boy!
Dear 8:45
Go to wikipedia and type;
government england
then click on the first link.
But as I've never read that page, don't expect any clarification from me!
There is a reference to Barney and his meeting. Can someone please tell me what meeting and what happened?
The most recent factual work on who comes here is the annual survey done by the market research department of Bournemouth uni. It does not give figures for Swanage by itself. The best you can get is for Purbeck. It shows that only 27% of visitors in August/September were in family groups. Almost half were couples without children. ABC1s made up a disproportionate percentage. Most people come here for the coast and walks.
Less than 3% came as a result of print advertising although the fact that 20% got their information from the web highlights the need for a top notch Swanage website.
Some work on what makes people decide to come here and not go further west to our main competitors is needed before any marketing money is spent.
discussing this in terms of the "quality" of people is not really what it is about. We are talking about disposable income. A couple, both working full time, with no children will have a lot more spare money than a couple with children and one likely to be either not working or working part time. If you want a successful tourist economy it pretty obvious who you try to attract, unpalatable as this may be to the "family resort" way of thinking.
As regards the better off not spending in the present state of things you have a choice between the can't spends and the might spends. The figures out today for house prices in seaside resorts shows they have gone on rising in the places the rich go indicating a lot more resilience regarding money among those who have it than among those you don't.
Today is a bank holiday. It will be interesting to see how busy Swanage is and what the tourists are doing.
I think that the reference to "Barney and his meeting" might have been covered in the previous post "Swanage Future conference Thurs 15 May".
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