Tourism and the Marlborough Area: Part 2 – how does VisitWiltshire work?

 

The main point to understand about VisitWiltshire is that it is based on the rather sly notion of a ‘partnership’.  And being a ‘partner’ costs you money.  There are two levels of partnership: Gold and Silver – you pay an annual membership fee and you get different benefits and website exposure at each level.

So what you see on the site is not simply the ‘nearest’ or the most used or most recommended, it is most likely to be the one that pays VisitWiltshire most for publicity. 

This will not be apparent to a tourist looking for information.  But it is not a secret. Way down at the bottom of the home page is a link to the partner pages and there you can find the rates charges and the benefits you are buying – which we will come back to.

How much does all this cost the council tax payers of Marlborough – some of whom might prefer to have their Tourist Information Centres back?   The amount of VisitWiltshire’s funding that comes from Wiltshire Council does not appear in the Council’s 2015-2016 budget papers.  

However we know two things:  first that VisitWiltshire’s funding from the Council was planned to be cut by £100,000 this financial year.  Secondly that in the first four months of this financial year, VisitWiltshire received £256,000 from Wiltshire Council.

The scale of ‘partnership’ charges is complex and in most cases depends on the numbers of visitors a partner gets in a year – or in the case of hotels and B&Bs, their number of rooms. The annual fee for a golf course with between one and 5,000 visitors a year (the lowest level) is £158 + VAT for silver membership.  And the same sum is charged for the smallest B&B.

If an attraction gets 500,001+ visitors a year silver partnership will cost £1,910 + VAT a year and £2,064 + VAT for gold partnership.

A Town Partner (for a town with a population of over 6,000) would pay £721 + VAT a year and a Village or Parish Partner would pay £412 + VAT a year – and they can only be Gold Partners.

There is an ‘entry level’ fee for website listing of £75 + VAT.  But many of the events and places to visit mentioned on the site are included without charge.

The VisitWiltshire website does realise that their service is not comprehensive.  So it directs tourists to a section headed ‘TOURIST INFORMATION CENTRES (TIC)’ – which will confuse those who thought TICs had been ‘disappeared’ by Wiltshire Council in 2011.  This section explains: “You will find Information Centres in many of the towns in Wiltshire.  To obtain information at a more local level or to book accommodation, contact one of the following.”

And there is a list of thirteen Wiltshire towns with addresses, phone numbers and opening times for all those TICs – which Wiltshire Council no longer fund. There has been a blurring of definitions:  some these so-called TICs are much more like Tourist Information Points.  

Many are based within council offices and many – like Marlborough’s – are in a state of development.  In the main they provide leaflets for tourist attractions and compile lists of B&Bs and other local accommodation.  

Marlborough News Online phoned them all to find out how many could book accommodation for a visitor from abroad.

Devizes ‘TIC’ is in the Wiltshire Museum, and they call themselves a ‘Tourist Information Point’ and they do not do accommodation.   Corsham’s ‘TIC’ is in the town council’s offices and is manned by volunteers – some of whom could book accommodation.

Cricklade’s ‘TIC’ does not do bookings: “But we can point him in the right direction.”  Salisbury would not help with bookings over the phone: “If he came in we could certainly book for him.”  Amesbury’s ‘TIC’ has a leaflet about local accommodation.

One thing is certain, if you go to Avebury do not go looking for the tourist information point in the Chapel Centre – it and the chapel are well and truly closed.