The Isle of Thanet Promise
The Isle of Thanet Promise priority aimed to ensure the destination met and exceeded visitor expectations through Brilliant Experiences and a Brilliant Welcome.
Experiences:
Visitors seek distinctive and authentic experiences. Businesses needed to develop the offer—facilities, services, and experiences. Plus provide the Tourism Team with content, ideas, and inspirational stories to make the destination stand out and attract Thanet’s target markets. Visit Thanet aimed to facilitate and support the private sector in developing experiential tourism that delivered the Isle of Thanet Promise, via the Interreg-funded Experience project. The updated Shared Story was relaunched to stakeholders across sectors, emphasising its role as Thanet’s promise to visitors, and foregrounding the storylines (themes) to inspire/invite investment in experiences and events that delivered the promise.
Welcome:
This strand underpinned the Promise. This programme of work aimed to ensure Thanet presented its best possible face to the outside world, making locals feel proud of their place. It aimed for higher quality standards in the public realm and facilities, harnessing locals’ passion-for-place to make the welcome as positive as possible. It ensured the destination’s stakeholders delivered against 21st-century expectations of quality, including environmental sustainability. It involved the local community in providing the welcome and acting as advocates for the place.
Short to medium-term actions
Experiences
What
Re-launch Shared Story with an emphasis on its role as the Promise, and giving examples and lessons of where it has already been used by business, and ideas of how it can be used in experience development as well as promotion.
When
Q1/Q2 2020
Who
Tourism team
What
Use the Shared Story storylines to inspire private and 3′ sector providers to develop off-season bookable experiences as part of the Experience project.
When
Q2 2020
Who
Businesses and Tourism Team
What
Develop the Tourism Team’s social media presence with an increase of quality content and engagement from tourism businesses, thinking about how and where their offer can add to the quality and currency of Thanet’s promotional efforts.
When
2020
Who
Businesses and Tourism Team
What
Identify a potentially new and large-scale event which draws in large numbers of visitors and helps extend the season. Engage with national organisers of similar/existing events to indicate willingness to help them build a new successful event in Thanet.
When
2021
Who
Thanet District Council with Businesses
Welcome
What
Review the first and last impressions for visitors arriving in Thanet as well as the individual towns – at bus and rail stations, car parks, entrances to towns and the district. Look at whether the first impression is positive and welcoming and identify what can be done to improve it.
When
2021
Who
Business-led review with support from Tourism Team
What
Review and develop an improvement plan with a sensible timeframe and resource plan for the ‘Brilliant Basics’ such as toilets, parking, signage and wayfinding: things that will put visitors off if they are not working well.
When
2020
Who
Business-led review with support from Tourism Team
What
Expand the model of disaggregated tourism information – where tourism businesses and local communities become ambassadors for helping visitors with tourist information. Provide training, materials, enhanced ambassador programmes and local greeters to support and develop this approach.
When
Ongoing
Who
Tourism Team lead with support from Tourism Businesses
