Councillor Jemima Laing (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, Culture and Communications) introduced the report and highlighted:

a)    The Visitor Plan 2030 set a strategic direction for growth of the visitor economy and would continue to act as a key strategy in growing and positioning the city’s place brand;

b)    The emerging brand strategy would amplify the good work that had taken place to date and would start to position the city as somewhere to live, invest and work, as well as visit;

c)    The city’s reputation would be enhanced and act as a catalyst for increasing and attracting talent and provide an overall direction of travel for the city’s brand messaging;

d)    The visitor economy had been relatively stable post COVID19 pandemic up to 2023;

e)    The teams continued to deliver events that reached over 500,000 people in 2024, including the British Firework Championships, which delivered a direct economic impact to Plymouth of £2.8 million;

f)     The city continued to have good marketing activity and coverage as a visitor destination;

g)    Social media channels and website saw increases in reach and engagement;

h)    Plymouth had attracted a number of notable conferences;

i)     13 cruise ships visited the city with over 13,000 passengers total in 2024 with more planned for 2025;

                      i.        Expressed thanks to the cruise ship ambassadors/volunteers who helped welcome passengers to Plymouth;

j)     A development manager to support the sector was recruited to in Spring 2024 and within seven months of the 18 month contract, had exceeded the DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) contract;

k)    Perception was crucial to Plymouth’s growth;

l)     The brand strategy aimed to:

                      i.        Enable Plymouth businesses and communities to align their efforts and resources behind a strong brand narrative and specific objectives;

                     ii.        Support the work of Growth Alliance Plymouth by repositioning the city and attractive talent using new narratives and highlighting the unique strength and opportunities the city had to offer;

m)  The Board of Destination Plymouth expressed their thanks to Babcock, Princess Yachts, University of Plymouth, The Box and Plymouth City Council for providing funding support to enable the brand strategy to be developed.

Paul Fieldsend-Danks (Chief Executive, Arts University Plymouth) added:

n)    The brand development group had been engaged with stakeholders for over 2 years;

o)    A perception report was commissioned to identify the internal and external dialogue of the city, as well as what it would take for Plymouth to attract talent and be a destination for people to work, live and remain in;

p)    The talent attraction research attempted identify key assets within Plymouth and establish the size of the market, demand and supply in terms of jobs and where the cities strengths weaknesses were;

q)    The perception research looked at how the city was perceived by visitors, workers and residents, of which mixed views were received;

r)    Key areas identified were:

                      i.        Celebrating the oceans all-encompassing benefits;

                     ii.        Making Plymouth synonymous with a greater quality of life;

                    iii.        Showcasing Plymouth’s employment opportunities and to narrate how innovation threads through the city’s past, present and future;

                    iv.        Define Plymouth’s unique selling point (USP);

s)     Important to capture the friendliness and community feel of Plymouth as a welcoming city;

t)     Full family support to allow talent to come to the city and stay in the city was also key;

u)    Important to proactively engage with young talent;

v)    A city brand toolkit would be developed to allow businesses to promote the city.

Amanda Lumley (CEO, Destination Plymouth) added:

w)   Engagement with the local community and businesses on branding Plymouth had been inspiring;

x)    Britain’s Ocean City would be remaining as part of the brand.

Supported by David Draffan (Service Director for Economic Development), in response to questions, the following subjects were discussed:

y)    Need for further representation from businesses in the North of the City and the officers would connect with Councillor Sproston to discuss suggestions for further engagement with the north of the city;

z)    Plymouth had a high number of volunteers;

aa)  Plymouth had claimed the phrasing ‘Britain’s Ocean City’ as it had developed over the centuries because of the positioning next to the sea;

bb)Plymouth had leading research institutes and marine industries that were not promoted enough;

cc)  Need to develop a brand strategy that the people of Plymouth were proud of and could ‘own’;

dd)People were integral to Plymouth and needed to be included in the strategy;

ee)Access to funding from Visit Britain had changed considerably.

The Panel agreed to:

1.    Continue to support the work of Destination Plymouth to lead delivery of the Visitor plan and emerging new brand strategy working with wider City stakeholders and partners;  

2.    Support the continuing transition to a broader remit growing and positioning the city’s ‘place’ brand going forwards;  

3.    Recognise the continued significant achievements of the Destination Plymouth, Plymouth City Council, BID and partnership teams in supporting the sector and moving the brand strategy forwards;  

4.    Endorse the adoption of a city-wide brand strategy and new narratives to position Plymouth as a place to ‘live, work and visit;

5.    Asked the Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, Culture and Communications to continue supporting Destination Plymouth by lobbying government for continued funding.