Led by Hotel Solutions, Forward Land were part of a team who were commissioned to report on the potential for hotel and visitor accommodation development in the Armagh, Banbridge & Craigavon (ABC) Borough Council area. The team were also asked to advise on the role that the Council might play in helping to deliver this.
The report built on the Visitor Accommodation Development Plan from 2017 to examine the routes to delivering the market potential. Specific focus was placed on public sector support measures for the visitor accommodation sector and how these should be applied. ABC Borough Council sought guidance on how to provide subvention to help deliver visitor accommodation projects within its area.
A number sources provided impetus for the need to stimulate the development visitor accommodation. The 2017 plan identified a range of accommodation potential much of which hasn’t been realised. A bid for UK City of Culture for 2025 identified a shortage and need for additional overnight accommodation. Furthermore the Game of Thrones studio tour recently opened and should become a world class attraction and generate significant levels of additional visits to the area. Over recent years, there have been a number of significant visitor accommodation development proposals that have fallen by the wayside. This combined with a lack of serious interest from the key international hotel brands begs the question – why? There is a need to understand the reasons behind this as well as the scope to address these.
The study set about addresses these matters across three stages of work. The first stage was to provide an up-dated baseline of hotel and visitor accommodation demand and supply. This was delivered through an audit of current visitor accommodation and a review of any proposals coming forward. In addition to this existing accommodation operators were surveyed to assess their performance, markets and future plans. This was set alongside data analysis from national sector surveys and data analytics from online platforms.
The second stage assessed the prospects for growth of the visitor accommodation sector. This began with a review of national trends as well as visitor accommodation product development trends. Strategies and policies were reviewed to understand the wider context to the sector as well as ambitions for the destination. Consultations also took place with internal council teams including tourism, estates, culture and planning and externally with government departments and tourism bodies. Drivers for demand were assessed along with a desktop analysis of the sector performance. Owing to the potential for council involvement, examples of public sector investment in visitor accommodation schemes were provided to assess best practice and methods of intervention. Soft market testing of a sample of hotel and visitor accommodation developers and operators also took place in this stage. Finally, an assessment of potential sites across the ABC area took place.
The final stage involved the presentation of options for delivery to a variety of key stakeholders within the council. The presentations included key findings reports highlighting the market potential for accommodation development and how this could be delivered. They also included an implementation framework detailing next steps, recommended actions to be taken and priority projects within a broader strategy.
