Purpose

An investment of £225k over an 18-month period will

enable Experience Oxfordshire to deliver significantly more support to the county to develop its Investment Plan with regard to the visitor economy.

The decision enables the signing of a grant agreement to provide the above funding.

Decision

To provide £225,000 grant funding for Experience Oxfordshire.

Reasons for the decision

The proposed £225,000 grant will provide essential capacity within Experience Oxfordshire to enable greater support for county-wide economic development, destination management and visitor economy strategy. As Oxfordshire's Local Visitor Economy Partnership, Experience Oxfordshire is heavily reliant on private sector membership and commercial income, which rightly focuses its resources on supporting businesses and promoting the destination. However, this funding model leaves limited capacity to contribute to the development and delivery of public sector policy, strategic planning, research, stakeholder engagement and partnership activity. The grant will help address this gap, ensuring that the visitor economy, worth billions to Oxfordshire and supporting significant employment across the county, is effectively represented in local growth, place-making, transport, skills and investment discussions. It will also strengthen collaboration between Experience Oxfordshire, Enterprise Oxfordshire and local authorities at a time of significant economic and governance change, maximising opportunities for sustainable growth and inward investment across the county.

Alternative options considered

1.       Do nothing. Given the County Council’s established position on working supporting the visitor economy and its value to the county, this is not considered viable. 

2.       Increase resource at Oxfordshire County Council and/or Enterprise Oxfordshire. OCC could directly employ staff to create a similar programme, working with Enterprise Oxfordshire. Given the existence of Experience Oxfordshire, which already has significant buy-in from the sector, this option was rejected as it would create unnecessary competition and fragmentation.

3.       Identify a market solution. It would be possible to identify a market solution but this was rejected as it would create unnecessary competition and fragmentation.