10.1.1 Visitors and tourism can contribute to enhancing quality of life through delivering rewarding experiences for visitors, and a greater variety of jobs and training opportunities. They can support urban renaissance and rejuvenation, and diversify and develop the rural economy.
10.1.2 The Borough’s economy is supported by a vibrant visitor and tourism market. This is particularly important to Windsor and Eton, Ascot and Thames-side settlements. One of the objectives of the Borough Local Plan (BLP) is to enable the continued success and evolution of the Borough’s distinct visitor economy.
10.1.3 Key objectives include:
10.1.4 To work towards these objectives, the Council will work with partner organisations through the Visitor Management Forum to support the tourist economy. An integrated approach will be taken to ensure that these objectives are reflected in local activities such as town centre management and regeneration, open space strategies, heritage enhancement initiatives, countryside management and environmental stewardship. Visitor and tourism policies encourage development which supports the sustainable growth of the tourism industry.
10.1.5 The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) includes tourism under a category with arts and culture, as a main town centre use. This definition can include theatres, museums, galleries and concert halls, hotels and conference facilities. The NPPF also identifies the need for Local and Neighbourhood Plans to support sustainable rural tourism and leisure developments that benefit businesses in rural areas, communities and visitors, while respecting the character of the countryside.
10.2.1 Windsor is one of the major tourist attractions of south east England, experiencing very high levels of tourism and day visitor activity which make a major contribution to the local economy. Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world and is an international tourist destination. The effects of high visitor numbers on traffic congestion and pressures on local services and residents require careful management.
10.2.2 The River Thames is also a major tourist attraction and of considerable importance to tourism and the visitor economy in the Borough. The river provides high quality landscapes along its length and is widely used for a range of informal leisure activities, bringing direct economic benefits to its surrounding area.
10.2.3 Legoland Windsor is one of Britain’s most popular paid for tourist attractions, with over 2.3 million visitors in 2018, rising from 1.1 million when it first opened in 1996. In addition, of the many events that take place in the Borough each year, the Royal Ascot race meeting attracts the most visitors, with around 300,000 people travelling to the racecourse over the five days of racing each year.
10.2.4 There are many other visitor attractions and events in the Borough, including Windsor Race Course, the Royal Windsor Horse Show, Eton College, Cookham’s Stanley Spencer Gallery, Windsor Great Park, golf in Sunningdale, Thames Valley Athletics Centre, River Thames' locks, Bisham Abbey and Windsor Festival. In many cases, tourism and visitors are important in helping to maintain key heritage assets.
Key challenges and issues
10.3.1 The number of visitors received by the Borough is increasing annually, both from overseas and domestically. Between 2006 and 2017, visitor numbers increased from 6.7 million to just over 7.6 million trips per year.
10.3.2 The number of day visitors currently represents 92.3% of the total number of visitors received. Overall, an estimated 590,000 staying trips were spent in Borough in 2017, of which around 382,000 were made by domestic visitors (65%) and 208,000 by overseas visitors (35%). Domestic visitors were down 13% from 438,000 in 2016 and overseas visitors up 8% from 192,000 in 2016.
10.3.3 Staying trips in 2017 resulted in an estimated 1,712,000 visitor nights in the Borough, a reduction of 1% compared to 2016. Total expenditure from overnight visitors in 2017 was £188 million, of which over £104 million came from overseas and £84 million from domestic visitors.
10.3.4 Approximately 7,615,000 visitor day trips were made to the Borough in 2017 generating an additional
£253.4 million in visitor trip expenditure. Compared to 2016, the volume of day trips fell by 2%, and trip expenditure also fell by 5%.
10.3.5 Direct expenditure generated by visitors and tourism in the Borough in 2017 was £441.8 million. Adding additional indirect and induced effects (which generate a further £124.7 million) translates to £566.5 million worth of income for local businesses. Compared to 2016, this represents a reduction of 0.8% in total tourism value.
10.3.6 This visitor-related expenditure is estimated to have supported 8,816 full time equivalent jobs in Windsor & Maidenhead. Many of these jobs are part-time or seasonal in nature and are spread across a wide range of service sectors from catering and retail to public service jobs such as in local government as well as tourism.
10.3.7 The visitor accommodation usage in the Royal Borough is different to many locations and there have been some recent new developments, but there may need to be a wider choice of accommodation, based on existing buildings, towns and villages to meet visitor demands and aspirations.
10.3.8 The Borough’s Local Transport Plan highlights the burden placed on local transport infrastructure by the fact that 51% of visitors arrive by car, with parking capacity and traffic congestion being particular issues for Windsor and Eton.
Policy VT 1 Visitor Development
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