‘Case Study: Westerham, Kent

The Westerham Town Partnership and the Tourism Working Group supported by Westerham Parish Council have worked with Hidden Britain on several key projects, notably a branding exercise for the town and a new website for Westerham.

Need for the project

Westerham Parish Council and a group of local volunteers began the Healthcheck process in August 2008 with community-wide consultation. This consultation bore out a strong desire to keep and preserve the shops and services for the community, with a strong realisation of the role visitors and tourism could play.

As a result of this research the Parish Council set up a Tourism Working Party to bring together the stakeholders and try and address the key issues around Tourism in Westerham. Hidden Britain was invited to join the group and in doing so helped identify several key aims to begin working on:

. Defining & communicating the Westerham offer
. Providing better information on the town and area
. Improving the visitor experience.

Planning the Project

The Tourism Working Party had some initial ideas of their own to meet these aims, chiefly to institute a yearly event in Westerham, using the 2009 anniversary of the battle of Quebec to highlight the local connection with General Wolfe.  This was led by two of the large attractions, Quebec House(NT) and Squerryes Court.

n addition to this the group were keen to look at the branding of Westerham,  having seen the work undertaken by Hidden Britain in the Eden Valley, and as it was clear that there was little cohesive voice or consistent message that the town was projecting. Working with Hidden Britain the group undertook to get views from all the key stakeholders and the community into what made Westerham special. With this information on board an open competition was run to design and develop the visual elements, whihc were then developed into the final brand.

n tandem several volunteers expressed a interest in developing a Westerham website, that could be utilised not only for promoting the town to visitors, but also to showcase the healthcheck progress and have benefit to the community as a whole as well.  With assistance from Hidden Britain and the technical expertise of several dedicated volunteers the website was developed as the chief vehicle to promote Westerham.

Project Outputs :

1. A revised Westerham map was produced
   
2. The Westerham 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.
3. The Westerham website  at www.visitwesterham.org.uk has been developed and is currently maintained and updated by local volunteers.
4. A funding bid has been submitted for a new project to create a booklet of walks guides to better interpret the wealth of history in the town, and increase access to the surrounding countryside and landscape.

Achievements of the Project:

Businesses engaged (70)
The group has worked hard to raise the profile of the project with the businesses, and has sought to include them at every step. At present there is no charge levied for entry onto the website which has allowed all the businesses in the town to be involved. Several key businesses have been part of the Tourism Working Party and have had more direct input.

No. of volunteers (5)
Although the wider working party have had involvement, there has only been a small core group of active volunteers working on the project. However this group has been well supported and have had no difficulty getting more people and businesses on board when necessary.

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 and management, destination management, commissioning and working with designers and printers, marketing, and web design and build.

Marketing support
HBSE has assisted Westerham in development of content for Ruralways and several other destination websites, both regionally and nationally, as well as enabling their participation at the Bleriot event in July 2009.

For more on Westerham view the destination page »

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