Flagship tourism project awarded €16m
- By Elaine Bird
- 10 October 2019
- Hunstanton
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Norfolk County Council is leading a project that has been awarded €16m in funding by the Interreg FCE programme for a flagship project to promote off-season tourism, the largest amount the programme has ever awarded to a tourism project.
Norfolk County Council will be the lead partner throughout the four-year EXPERIENCE project (total budget €23.3m), which aims to promote new tourism ‘experiences’ between October – March, increasing visitors and overnight stays during the off-peak season.
EXPERIENCE aims to attract more than 20m additional visitors to the Channel regions of France and England by the end of the project, and approximately 44m after a further five years.
Cllr Andy Grant, Cabinet Member for Environment, explains: “Promoting tourism with a focus on the destination can work well for conventional, mass-market locations during peak season. However, modern travellers are losing interest in this type of holiday and instead looking to experience different cultures through interactive experiences and authentic insight into daily life in the area.”
“Norfolk is brimming with wildlife, scenery, tradition, history, gastronomy and architecture for people to visit and experience, and we want to focus on this message to get results that help people and businesses flourish. This is an exciting time for the county and everything it has to offer.”
Sustainability is key to the project, with the aim to protect natural and cultural assets for future economic and social resilience. Helping both raise the profile of Norfolk internationally, and supporting and growing the economy.
Norfolk County Council led development of this collaborative England/France project. Partners across the Channel region will work together to share ideas and resolve common, cross-border problems.
The programme area covers the South and East Coasts of England from Cornwall to Norfolk and the North Coast of France from Finistère to Pas-de-Calais.