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Bruges Cafe |
I write this article at 36,000 feet on my return from my
summer holiday to Greece, with all its economic problems it’s still such an
idyllic place and I believe the route out of its economic mess will be a future
based on tourism.
One of my Arun Cabinet responsibilities is tourism
development with that in mind I think of home and Arundel, The Festival was a
great success and thanks go to Ash and Andy and all the other organisers of the
festival. Arundel really does punch above its weight in the tourism stakes, the
food festival is coming in October and Arundel has its own tourism logo and a
well developed brand.
The nation’s high streets have to adapt to a post retail
environment where a good proportion of what we buy is on line and shopping areas
have to be leisure destinations as well as providing convenient places to
purchase goods and services. I believe
Arundel is well in front of other towns having had to change over the last two
decades adapting to economic forces that have made the town very much tourism
focused.
Brugge, Belguim. |
A few years ago the Town Council, Arundel Community
Partnership and the Chamber of commerce came together with Arun to form the
Arundel Visitor Strategy group (AVSG) under the excellent Chairmanship of James
Stewart, I was very proud that Arundel led the way and showed the District the
way forward, Money was sourced from the EU to fund a Public relations company
and to design the logo. The food
festival was one of the products of the AVSG.
This built on the existing tourism cornerstones that were already
established like the restaurants, pubs and hotels as well as cultural and art
events like the festival.
Recently Arun
District completed its leisure strategy and Arundel’s street scene was a major
focus in the strategy. It is envisaged
that Arundel could be very much like some of the market towns in the Belgium or
Holland with space for pavement cafe’s and making some streets pedestrian
friendly without kerbs and this I believe will give the town a boost, but also
Green tourism will be a major growth area with more walkers and cyclists as
well as the local population being able to use new cycleways.
With the new museum building acting as a tourism hub and the
visitor information service helping direct tourists to use the various tourism
business’s will only aid tourism, but also this tied to Arun’s well developed
web brand sussexbysea.com and with Arundel only 50 odd miles from one of the
richest and most densely populated cities in the EU, then I believe Arundel has
a great future with tourism being a major economic growth driver.
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