Council Provides Opportunity For Improved and New Visitor Information Services

The Council of the Isles of Scilly adopted the Tourism Strategy in 2011 which saw the consolidation of the three bodies then responsible for tourism services, the Tourist Board, Island Marketing and Island Tourism.

The intended next stage in this process has always been that the Council would also transfer the operation of the Visitor Information Service to a third party along with funding to support that transition.

The meeting of the Planning and Development Committee of the 11th September discussed and agreed the processes for funding and finding a delivery partner for the Visitor Information Service.

The Council continues to be committed to supporting tourism as the cornerstone of our economy. This is despite the fact that it is not a statutory function and many other local authorities faced with difficult budget decisions have ceased to deliver and fund any tourism activity.

It has long been recognised that the Council is not always best placed to deliver certain services such as the Visitor Information Point and this represents a good opportunity for another party to take forward this crucial and highly valued service with our support.

A tender to procure the service provider will be issued shortly and we look forward to receiving innovative, cost effective and high quality visitor focused proposals from interested parties. It is hoped that the revised and improved service could be in place for the start of the 2015 season.

 

The following recommendations were approved by Members;

  1. That Members agree the process for implementing the transfer of the Visitor Information Services to a third party as per the approved Tourism Strategy 2011 (TB 16/11)
  2. That Members agree the transfer of funds for the delivery of the Visitor Information Services to a third party deliverer.
  3. If a successful deliverer is identified, the contract will specify Key Performance Indicators (KPI) relating to opening hours, service level, customer satisfaction and that the Visitor Information Service  continues to be open to all businesses on the islands
  4. If the process does not identify a suitable delivery partner, the service will be re-tendered and the Council will continue to directly provide the service until an appropriate third party is identified. The Council’s tender evaluation process will be used throughout and the tender requires ratification by the Planning and Development Committee.
  5. This report will be provided as a for information item to the next meeting of Full Council.

 

END OF RELEASE

Publishing date: 
Friday, 12 September, 2014