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Tourism and Leisure
Plymouth is an ambitious city that is focussed on growing its visitor economy. In support of this ambition, Destination Plymouth, established in 2012, was set up to drive forward the city’s visitor marketing agenda and raise the profile of Plymouth on a local, national and international scale to attract more visitors to the city, with an ambition to grow visitor numbers and visitor spend year on year.
Plymouth has invested in developing its offer to visitors and recently transformed its Museum and Art Gallery, Central Library and St Luke’s Church buildings into a new, unique cultural attraction that highlights Plymouth and its place in the world. The exciting History Centre development,The Box, opened in September 2020 as part of the Mayflower 400 commemorations.
Other capital investment projects include the redevelopment of the Railway Station and public realm improvements.
Vew the Tourism sector factsheet
Please note: The Sector Factsheets have not yet been updated to provide new details for each sector. This is due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the unprecedented events of the last year resulting in the Office of National Statistics (ONS) having to delay the release of a variety of data due to their work on tracking the outbreak. As such, we have been unable to update the statistics used within these Sector Factsheets. As soon as the data becomes available from ONS we will work to rapidly update all of the accompanying statistics and provide the complete picture. We really do appreciate your patience and urge you to sign up to the Invest newsletter; here we will update subscribers as soon as the new data is released.
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Plymouth Visitor Plan 2020 – 2030
Plymouth aims to grow visitor numbers by 15% from 5.1 to 6 million by 2030, and visitor spend by 30%, generating 1,000 new jobs to bring employment in tourism to just over 9,000 jobs.
The Plymouth Visitor Plan 2020 – 2030 is now online and available to view.
Destination Plymouth
Destination Plymouth is a partnership between Plymouth City Council and businesses in the city centre and waterfront areas, it co-ordinates the delivery of the Visitor Plan for Plymouth 2020 – 2030 and brings together the activities of the City Centre Company and the Plymouth Waterfront Partnership, both of which are Business Improvement Districts.
Events
The city hosts a number of high-profile and award winning events each year, including Pirate Weekend Plymouth, Flavour Fest, Armed Forces Day, Plymouth Seafood Festival, British Fireworks Championships and world-class sailing events such as Rolex Fastnet and Transat.
- Event attendance figures show 350,000 people attended our events in 2019
- British Firework Championships alone attracts over 100,000 visitors with an economic impact of £5.2 million for the city.
Existing and new developments
Railway Station regeneration will attract inward investment of £48 million over the next 10 years, create 705 jobs and 13,000 sq m of new education, retail and leisure space.
The Barcode is a new development led by British Land of £50 million which created a new leisure destination which includes: 13 restaurants, an 11 screen IMAX cinema complex and an Adventure Golf facility.
Heritage
Plymouth has had a long history as one of the most important naval towns in the UK and was the port where many famous explorers were based or disembarked from our shores. There are over 750 listed buildings in Plymouth and over 200 can be found around The Barbican.
Did you know Plymouth has the highest concentration of cobbled streets in England?
Mayflower 400
Plymouth attracts over 5 million visitors annually. With the programme of events and profile generated through the programme of events and activity to mark the 400th Anniversary of the Mayflower and the opening of the city’s major cultural attraction The Box the city’s visitor numbers are expected to rise.
The Box Plymouth
The biggest cultural attraction to open in England in 2020, The Box includes cutting-edge galleries, high profile exhibitions and interactive events which will take visitors on a journey from prehistory to the present and beyond
Opened in 2020, The Box is expected to attract 300,000 visitors a year from across the world.
SailGP
SailGP is the fastest, most cutting-edge sailing event in the world. Established in 2018 and headquartered in London and New York, SailGP is an annual, global sports championship featuring bold, state of the art technology and awe-inspiring athleticism. The fan-centric, inshore racing takes place in some of the most iconic harbours around the globe including Sydney, New York and San Francisco. The 2021 British Sail GP will take place in Plymouth on 17 and 18 July 2021. Among the league stars is the most successful Olympic sailor of all time, Sir Ben Ainslie, who will give the home crowd something to cheer about at the Plymouth event.
British Art Show 9
Held every five years to showcase the work of British artists who have made a significant contribution to international contemporary art, British Art Show will be in Plymouth – for the second time in its history – from 6 November 2021 until 13 March 2022.
Visitor Attractions
The Grade II listed Elizabethan House, one of Plymouth’s oldest buildings, has been awarded a £142,000 development grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for restoration as part of the Mayflower 400 commemorations, and will become a prime visitor attraction.
The Mount Batten Watersports and Activities Centre is one of the foremost Outdoor Education centres in the South West, with a reputation for excellence and professionalism in water and land based activities.
The Theatre Royal Plymouth is the largest and best attended regional producing theatre in the UK and the leading promoter of theatre in the South West.
Plymouth is well connected
There are 24 trains to London Paddington per day, with journey times from three hours. Three international airports located within a two hour driving distance. Daily sailing to Roscoff and weekly to Santander with Brittany Ferries.
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