(a)

the plan would enable Plymouth’s residents to benefit from the visitor economy, supporting quality job retention and creation; whilst also enabling Plymothians to take full advantage of the city’s rich history, heritage and unique environment, by promoting opportunities for education, health and wellbeing and pride;

(b)

work on the Visitor Plan refresh was being led by Destination Plymouth and was initially brought to the Committee in August 2018 and was then further reviewed with the headline Visitor Plan 2020-2030 strategy being adopted by the City Council in March 2019;

(c)

the growth of tourism and the visitor economy had been a great success story for the city with over 25% growth in the last eight years; from just under four million visitors to 5.4 million in 2018 spending over £347m annually and supporting nearly 8000 jobs, over 7% of the city’s employment;

(d)

the Visitor Plan 2020 had more than achieved its targets ie –

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visitor numbers had grown by 25.9% against a target of 20%;

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visitor spend had grown by 25% in 2018, against a target of 25% by 2020;

(e)

the plan’s aim was to build on and consolidate the success of the previous plan and the legacy of Mayflower 400; the delivery of the refreshed Visitor Plan would generate a further 1000 new jobs in the city bringing employment in tourism to just under 9000;

(f)

the 2030 targets included -

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growing visitor spend by 30% from £347m to £450m in a decade;

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increasing the total visitor number by 15% from 5.1 to 6 million by 2030;

(g)

the new strategy had three key themes -

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blue-green city;

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brilliant culture and heritage;

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premier destination.

(h)

whether all the cruise ships scheduled to visit Plymouth in 2020 would be docking at Millbay;

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in response -

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the Disney Magic cruise liner would be anchored in Plymouth Sound; passengers on board would land at both Millbay and Commercial Wharf on the Barbican via tenders;

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work had been undertaken with Disney Cruise Liners to arrange for the passengers to pre-book visits such as the National Marine Aquarium, The Box and Plymouth Gin Distillery;

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the initial aspiration was to secure up to 30 vessels a year, based on the current infrastructure; Trinity Pier had the capacity to berth 150m vessels; companies that operated 150m vessels or smaller were being targeted to visit Plymouth (companies did not always operate larger vessels around Britain);

(i)

the need to be digitally ready, in order to provide visitors with an opportunity to download an app which would enable them to visit areas of interest across the city and whether this could be an augmented reality app;

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in response: the aim was to launch the first pilot app for three of the heritage trails (which had been developed for Mayflower 400); it was hoped to launch the app in February 2020 (in time for the half term holidays) however this may slip to March 2020; once the app had been tested, it was hoped to build on this with children and accessibility friendly trials (work was being undertaken with Plymouth Area Disability Action Network regarding the accessibility friendly trail); initially this would not be an augmented reality app but it was hoped that in the future this could be achieved;

(j)

concerns regarding visitors’ initial impressions of the city coming through the Millbay gateway;

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in response:

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discussions were continuing with ABP Plymouth and Brittany Ferries to provide experiential improvements to the Millbay gateway; this area would also be enhanced by the Millbay Boulevard;

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discussions were being held with ABP Plymouth and Brittany Ferries to co-invest in the infrastructure to provide berthing facilities for 300m vessels.