At last week’s full council meeting, Leader of the council, Ian Stephens told members that the council would be committing £5,000 towards the cost of ‘Visitor Points’ on the Island.
After the former council closed all the Tourist Information Centres on the Isle of Wight in 2011, there’s been a gap in ‘on the ground tourist information’.
Nine Visitor Points planned
New ‘Visitor Points’ (they were originally referred to as Tourist Information Points, then Visitor Information Points, but are now known as Visitor Points) have been set up with the help of Visit Isle of Wight and so far sees coverage in Shanklin, Ventnor, Brading, Ryde, Yarmouth and Brighstone.
The cost of each unit is around £1,000 plus VAT with some variations depending on signage etc., and we understand there are plans to create nine in total. Visit Wight will be paying 50% of the cost as well as staff time
David Thornton from VisitWight told OnTheWight,
“The DMO (Destination Management Organisation) budget (agreed in January) was primarily for attract marketing (eg marketing off Island).
“The Council officers advised the new administration that whilst the DMO was capable of helping to install and promote these points dispersal marketing (eg marketing on Island) was not something we had allocated funds for at the start of the year. We were happy to work with the new administration and find the money and resources between us.
“After the season we hope to get the point owners together and work out how we can help them develop this service to the next level. Feedback from their visitors is obviously key to discussing this.”
Image: © Visit Wight
