Agenda item

Consider report by Executive Director.  (Copy attached.)

4.0     SOUTH OF SCOTLAND TOURISM ACTION PLAN

4.1     There had been circulated copies of a report by the Executive Director which updated Members on the tourism development activity of the Scottish Borders Tourism Partnership and sought approval for support for a South of Scotland tourism action plan to deliver a 12 -18 month programme of activity that paved the way for a transformational 5-year Destination Development Programme.  Mr Dickson advised Members that there had been a typo in the recommendations in the report at paragraph 2.1 (c), which referred to the allocation of £60k and should have read £65k.  The report explained that one of the key tourism initiatives which was underway was the strengthening of the local industry body, the Scottish Borders Tourism Partnership (SBTP).  It had grown over time and was currently made up of over 550 private sector companies and was wholly operated on a voluntary basis, by the industry, for the industry.  SBTP had led a review of the Scottish Borders tourism proposition during 2018 and the resulting report identified the low profile of the Scottish Borders as a tourism destination and a lack of innovation in tourism product development.  Following further joint work with partners in Dumfries and Galloway, an agreement had been reached to progress with a joint tourism action plan covering the South of Scotland.  The tourism action plan took the outputs from a recent workshop, and the ambitions of the local industry bodies and merged these with action already identified by SOSEP and VisitScotland.

4.2     The draft action plan was being tested with the industry bodies and other local partners so the actions and estimated budgets could be subject to change prior to a funding application being made to SOSEP.  The report went on to detail the background, the sustainability of the Industry Body, the tourism action plan.  In terms of financial implications, the Economic Development Service had an annual budget of approximately £120k to support tourism development in the Scottish Borders.  Part of this budget included payment to VisitScotland for marketing campaigns specific to the Scottish Borders as part of the annual Memorandum of Agreement (MOA).  In 2019, the VisitScotland MOA was used to secure the delivery of the Tour of Britain Stage 2 start and finish.  In 2020, the Council would have flexibility to use the MOA budget differently again; it was therefore recommended that £40k be allocated to delivery of the action plan.  It was proposed that the tourism action plan be a priority for support in 2020/21.

4.3     A budget of £100k was allocated for the delivery of a new Boundary signage project, as the tourism action plan budget included a branding element.  In the immediate short term, it was recommended that £25k of the boundary signage budget be used as match funding to help progress the branding element of the wider South of Scotland tourism action plan.  In total it was therefore recommended that across 2019/20 and 2020/21 SBC allocate £65k to support delivery of the action plan.  Whilst supporting the proposal in principle, the Leader was reluctant to commit budget until she had viewed the action plan.

DECISION

(a)       NOTED the positive progress being made by the industry-led Scottish Borders Tourism Partnership.

(b)       AGREED:-

(i)     to support the development of a pan-South of Scotland tourism action plan to deliver short-term tourism development activity in the Scottish Borders and South of Scotland; and

(ii)    to delegate authority to the Chief Executive, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer, in consultation with the Leader and Executive Member for Economic Development, to allocate £65k from existing Economic Development Service budgets to support the proposed South of Scotland tourism action plan and, in particular, the brand development work at SBT.