Case Study: Petersfield, Hampshire

Petersfield Tommorrow have undertaken a programme of town improvements and tourism development in order to raise visitor awareness of Peterfield, create a cohesive draw and to support and sustain the local economy.

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Need for the project

Petersfield as a Market Town conducted a Healthcheck in 2006. This process of consultation with residents, businesses and other stakeholders highlighted just how key tourism and visitor spend is to the wellbeing of the economy of the town, and identified a real need to improve the Petersfield offer. In addition the consultation showed there was a real need to ensure Petersfield was positioned to take best advantage of the formation of the South Downs National Park.

HBSE was invited to come and work with the Petersfield Town Partnership to audit the current provision and develop a tourism strategy for Petersfield. The key themes identified were:

Improving the existing experience
Improving the provision of information
Need for a clear message

Planning the Project

The Process began with an audit of existing provision and a mystery visitor study undertaken by HBSE, who then drafted some initial recommendations.

However to ensure the strategy had local buy-in and ownership a working group of the Petersfield Town Partnership was set-up to take the project forward. Over several weeks HBSE led an action planning process with the group, working through the existing research, the audit findings and any other information available in order to identify the relative key issues, strengths and weaknesses of Petersfield , and through this pull together a list of achievable actions that could make some real difference.

Sub groups were assigned for each key area to explore means and methods of delivering each project. These groups undertook additional audits on current information provision, signage, provision and quality of mapping throughout the town, using these to develop specifications for each project as well as comprehensive costed action plans and budgets for the work, which allowed external funding to be sought for delivery.

In addition to the funded projects the group also approached the subject of branding and utilising local expertise undertook wide public consultation in order to distil not only the message of what made Petersfield special but also to get feedback on the visual components of the brand.

Project Outputs :

The Petersfield brand and logo was developed to provide consistency in promoting the destination. The key messages were set down in a branding document made available to all stakeholders.
Redesigned Map boards for key arrival points in the town, as well as replacing, resiting or providing new boards where needed.
A new Petersfield promotional leaflet to draw in visitors to the town and area
A new Petersfield website, providing the key visitor portal
Tear off map pads
A Visitor Survey managed by Tourism South East but to be conducted by local volunteers

Achievements of the Project:

Businesses engaged (??)
The group have so far had little business engagement beyond the initial consultation, however as the projects come on stream more businesses will be involved. In addition the group are not charging businesses for any of the marketing opportunities created through the project to try and ensure fair inclusion for all.

No. of volunteers (est. 10)
The majority of group members have volunteered their time and efforts at some point in the process, not only in key decision making but also in the action planning process and in various sub groups actively delivering the projects.

Skills & training
Whilst no formal training has been arranged as part of the project, volunteers have gained skills and experience in various areas, most particularly in; obtaining funding, project planning, project management, commissioning and working with designers and printers, undertaking audits and research, branding and marketing.

Marketing support
HBSE has assisted Petersfield in development of content for Ruralways and several other destination websites, both regionally and nationally.

Hidden Britain Input:

It was Hidden Britain’s previous work in Edenbridge and the Eden Valley that facilitated the initial approach from East Hampshire District Council following a presentation at a South East Rural Towns Partnership Event. HBSE was invited to work with Petersfield Tomorrow to bring a similar Tourism Project to fruition in Petersfield.

HBSE initially complied an audit and recommendations for the group, then led them through the action planning process, and at each stage provided key support and guidance. HBSE worked to identify potential funders and was instrumental in drawing the budget and costed action plan together, as well as brokering the details of the funding contracts.

Hidden Britain also assisted in putting together the branding guidelines and continues to take a supporting role as the projects get underway.