alongside world-famous festivals that already put the town on the map. the
“We aren’t looking to maintain the status quo, we are looking to grow the cake and do much more with it,” he said. “We have to convince the businesses in the town - be that the Jockey Club or Cheltenham Festivals at one end of the scale, through to the very small, but no less important independent businesses at the other - that growing the cake is of benefit to them individually. “If the cake is bigger overall, everyone gets a bigger slice. It’s not just a case of looking after the size of your own slice. “The age-old analogy on Scilly was ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’ and that philosophy is true for Marketing Cheltenham. “If we increase visitor numbers, everyone benefits. We have to try and promote the altruistic perspective and encourage that in the existing organisations. “What the Festivals and Jockey Club do is amazing. They are at the top of the tree of what they do. “What we need to do therefore, is harness what these and others deliver for the benefit of Cheltenham PLC. “They are incredibly successful in bringing people to their events. Similarly, the BID has also developed some great events for the town centre, but can more be done to have a greater economic impact for the town? “Some of it can be done around those events, but a lot of it is about attracting that clientele to come back another time, at a different time. “We need to find out what the gaps are in our visitor offer and match them with trends so we can develop our own events and other reasons to visit. “Our long term goal and the council’s goal is to make the most of the valuable assets that we have, our
parks, our venues and event spaces. “They are well used already, but there is scope to do more, in more places.” Marketing Cheltenham was central in establishing The Festival Town identity that was launched to great fanfare earlier this year. Aimed at securing the tourist pound, Mr Jackson knows the next step is to encourage business to either continue investing or to come to Cheltenham and add to the existing economy. “I would like businesses to help us communicate what their Cheltenham story is,” Mr Jackson said. “In some cases it may not be about being the Festival Town. It may be about quality of life here, or other reasons, but we want to know. “Our next project over the next fewmonths is the wider remit around inward investment and place branding. “We will be launching something which will be about putting Cheltenham on the map as a place to do business, live, work, invest or study as well as visit. “Because lots of places are doing that already, we need to know what matters most, so we can turn up the volume and market it. “In my mind, yes that’s about Cyber Central, of course it is. But it could also be about advanced engineering, academia, digital and creative also. “It’s about establishing why Cheltenham is a great place to invest. “That means the quality of life. That means the festivals, the culture, the retail offer, it means the parks, the architecture and tree-lined boulevards. It means the sense of place. Continued overleaf
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