Forward Land were part of an experienced team, led by Hotel Solutions who were engaged to provide a sustainable, long term tourism accommodation development strategy to support the core aims of the Leeds Castle Foundation.
The Leeds Castle Estate has over 900 years of history, including royal ownership and is currently owned and operated by a charitable foundation. The foundation had produced its future strategy that seeks to clearly differentiate itself in the marketplace. The strategy sets a framework whereby accommodation development will become wholly sustainable and contribute to the wider mission.
The study, which straddled COVID-19, was required to provide industry expertise to underpin a visitor accommodation development strategy. The strategy was to cover all forms of visitor accommodation estate-wide whilst being sympathetic to the historic environment and brand. The study was to increase profit from accommodation through new products and refreshment of the existing product. This was to be achieved whilst protecting the appeal of the existing offer. The study involved site visits to view and appraise all potential development opportunities across the estate through the lens of sustainable tourist accommodation.
The study delivered a market analysis, noting current and emerging trends and identifying gaps and opportunities in product offering. At the same time the study appraised the performance and positioning of the existing accommodation. This resulted in identifying growth opportunities and areas requiring remedial attention to improve performance. The form of output was a tourist accommodation focussed, estate masterplan. This was accompanied by a matrix of short, medium and long term priorities, supported by high level development appraisals. This was then applied to the income and profit projections extracted from a detailed operational model to demonstrate overall payback. The external environment for accommodation development was also analysed on a strategic level. This involved stakeholder consultations, external tourism policy and strategy review and planning policy analysis.
The findings of the study were presented to the operational and executive boards. The presentations highlighted how to strengthen the appeal to existing markets and broaden the offering by developing a new contemporary, design-led sustainable offer to attract new markets. Practical considerations were also applied to the development strategy with clusters of new products across the wider estate.
