Why tourists flock to Warwickshire...

"The tourist and visitor sector is an integral part of Warwickshire's economy and we are truly fortunate to have such a fantastic visitor appeal, from our country parks and other attractions to a vibrant and diverse food and drink offer."

Warwickshire is a county of literary greats, culinary brilliance and iconic heritage. It is also a place for an unforgettable short break or relaxing day out. For the family craving some outdoor adventures or a couple looking for a restorative weekend away, Warwickshire is waiting. 

English Tourism Week (March 14-23), a national campaign led by VisitEngland, is an annual celebration of the vibrant tourism industry, highlighting its importance to local economies and promoting the innovation, quality and range of products and services on offer to encourage more domestic breaks.

Warwickshire has much to celebrate and its attractions are brought together by the Visit Warwickshire website which is a go-to resource for Warwickshire’s visitors and residents all year round. The county’s diverse range of towns are showcased in the ‘towns and villages’ section which brings together the hyperlocal town websites such as the Love Shipston website, launched for English Tourism Week 2024 to enable Shipston town centre to make the most of its role in the strategic visitor economy.

The latest figures for the economic impact from tourism in Warwickshire reveal that £1.26 million was spent in the area from 14.6 million trips (Tourism EIA 2023) while 22,645 local people are employed in the tourism sector in the county.

This year’s English Tourism Week theme is ‘Supporting people and places to drive growth’ which aligns perfectly with Warwickshire’s Economic Growth Strategy focused on ambitious and sustainable growth. The business community, including hotels, theatres, restaurants, cafes and camping, within the leisure and hospitality sector is key to that strategy.

To support these businesses, assistance is on hand through Warwickshire County Council’s scheme Project Warwickshire which is delivered by Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, working with partners including Shakespeare’s England . Project Warwickshire offers help with marketing strategy, recruitment and retention and business planning. Further information on local tourism support for businesses, including news of the formation of a new Local Visitor Economy Partnership, is available here.

Warwickshire County Council's Portfolio Holder for Economy, Cllr Martin Watson, said: "The tourist and visitor sector is an integral part of Warwickshire's economy and we are truly fortunate to have such a fantastic visitor appeal, from our country parks and other attractions to a vibrant and diverse food and drink offer. English Tourism Week gives us a chance to celebrate all that attracts people to our wonderful county and makes it such a great place in which to live. Warwickshire County Council, along with our partners, will continue to do all we can to support the businesses which power this crucial part of the local economy." 

Further business support is available from Coventry & Warwickshire Growth Hub, which offers one-to-one advice and ongoing support to businesses in the region. Providing a ‘front-door’ to the vast range of business support initiatives and programmes on offer locally and nationally, the Growth Hub's team of experienced business advisors work closely with each business to identify the best resources for each business.

Visitors to Warwickshire’s parks and greenways can enjoy a host of concessionary businesses, including food and drinks caterers, ice cream vans, bicycle hire, and ‘pay to play’ bouncy castle and trampolines. Well-renowned local business, Farmers Fayre, became the new café operator at Ryton Pools Country Park last March which has seen a 26% increase in visitor numbers since the café started operating. The County Council also installed its first roof-mounted solar panels with 30 Photovoltaic (PV) modules to the café which is expected to fulfil 20% of the park’s energy needs and save around 2.63 tomes of CO2 emissions each year to support the council’s ambition of a sustainable future and become a net zero organisation by 2030.  

During 2023/2024 a number of activities to support health and wellbeing, and protecting the environment were introduced, including Friends of Kingsbury Water Park selling 4,002 bags of duck food to fund park improvements; hosting the Midlands ‘Spring into Fishing’ event with the Angling Trust to teach new anglers safe, sustainable fishing; and volunteers from Butterfly Conservation helping to launch “Let’s Create Wild Spaces” projects at Ryton Pools, with 19 mini projects supporting specific moth and butterfly species.  

Cllr Watson said English Tourism Week was a perfect opportunity to highlight the wide variety of vibrant attractions for visitors to enjoy at Warwickshire County Council’s green spaces throughout the county. 

“We have worked hard over the past 12 months to build our commercial partnerships to enhance visitors’ experiences and to generate vital income to make our country parks and the service we offer the best they can be,” he said. “Warwickshire is a place to do business that provides economic opportunities tailored to business needs while meeting the county's sustainable and inclusive ambitions which are reflected in the businesses operating from our country parks. 

“To have reached just under a million visitors to our country parks in 2023-24 shows that we are providing the amenities that people want and that more and more people appreciate the benefits of visiting country parks for their health and wellbeing.” 

For further information, please visit https://visit.warwickshire.gov.uk/ and https://countryparks.warwickshire.gov.uk/