Well over 100 local tourism businesses turned out in force to swap leaflets and ideas at Stokesay Court to start the new tourism season off with a swing.
Paul Davis chair of Shropshire Hills Tourism, said “This is an annual event for our Shropshire Hills tourism group, it’s a great opportunity for tourism businesses to find out about all the new attractions and activities for visitors, and make sure that they have stocks of leaflets for their guests. This was a record breaking turnout, probably because Caroline Magnus, kindly opened up Stokesay Court for the event.”
Exhibitors at the event showed the sheer diversity of attractions that are available in the area to keep visitors and locals entertained from Acton Scott Historic working Farm and Stokesay Castle to Ralph Janderell’s pottery, garden trips from Wisteria tours, Church Strettons’ new town guide, information about Bishops Castle town history tours to Ludlow’s many festivals, churches to visit and Kerry Vale Vineyard. For the active there were walks galore from the AONB and the Outdoor partnership team, cycle hire from Wheely Wonderful Cycling and horse riding from Darky Dale Forest Stables.
This was one of many events throughout the country to celebrate English Tourism Week. Tourism is a huge industry – bringing in £257 billion nationally (10% of GDP, with 3.8 million jobs. Its big business in Shropshire too, tourism is worth £539 million to Shropshire’s economy every year and supports nearly 15,000 jobs in the county.
The swap shop was organised with the help of Shropshire hills AONB, which wants to encourage thoughtful and sustainable tourism in the area. Paul Davis says, “if you are a tourism business and would like to join our group, we ‘d be very pleased to welcome you. We hold regular events for our members, so that they can network with each other and take part in familiarisation visits to new attractions, we also hold training sessions and of course advertise the county through our website and social media activity. Have a look at our website for details www.visitshropshirehills.co.uk”
Full details about Visit Shropshire Hills on www.visitshropshirehills.co.uk or contact Paul Davis on Tel: 01743 891117 or email: chair@visitshropshirehills.co.uk
Image courtesy of Buy-From Shropshire
