August 31, 2011 9.51 am This story is over 151 months old

City Council gives cash to tourism

Tourism & Culture: More than £450,000 will be put towards tourism and culture initiatives in Lincoln.

The City of Lincoln Council Executive decided on August 30 to boost the amount of funds it puts into tourism and culture by almost £450,000.

As previously reported, of the total sum, £10,000 went to the newly formed Visit Lincoln Partnership and £5,000 toward the upkeep of the Visit Lincolnshire website.

Another £163,638 will go for a funding agreement with Lincoln BIG and £275,970 to Lincoln Arts Trust for provision of cultural arts at Lincoln Drill Hall.

The funding increase comes after the council was presented with a report that highlighted smaller cities, such as Bath and Salisbury, achieve more through their visitor economy than Lincoln.

In the report, Rob Bradley, Economic Sustainability and Tourism Services Manager at the City of Lincoln Council, argued: “The visitor economy is broader than just tourism, and includes retail, business tourism, students and their families, and people visiting friends and relatives: basically anyone who comes to Lincoln to visit, shop, study or invest.

The latest research indicates that Lincoln received three million day visitors in 2010, worth £125 million to the local economy, supporting 2,000 jobs.