Vibrant city centre - Welcome to Sheffield

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Destination Management PlanIntroductionThis Destination Management Plan is designed as a strategic guide, to be adopted by allpartnership organisations involved in developing Sheffield as an internationally importanttourism destination.It is a key instrument to identify the actions and strategic relationships that will deliver atourism strategy which will transcend into the Sheffield City Region.Marketing Sheffield is key to delivering this Destination Management Plan as cross-sector &partnership working is embedded in its ethos; led by private sector views and aligned to localand national strategies. Marketing Sheffield will provide the lead in delivering positiveoutcomes.The Plan concentrates on a single area - the need to deliver a ‘vibrant city centre’ - the areawith the highest concentration of visitor related facilities and services, and the area which willdeliver the highest impact on improving the experience for visitors and residents alike.The planned outcomes for Sheffield are ambitious and transformational. Everyone benefits,and everyone must contribute. By creating a vibrant city centre, we create a visitordestination which presents Sheffield as a Competitive City, as an attractive and successfulplace to live, work and invest.The DMP is important because it provides a framework and rationale for investment intourism, which is one of the sectors specified in the Sheffield City Region – Local EnterprisePartnership Business Plan.Executive SummarySheffield suffers a comparatively low spend from those who visit and use the City Centre.City centre footfall is erratic resulting in a lack of the consistent volume demanded byinvestors.Physical disconnections exist between areas of the City Centre, particularly the hotels inVictoria Quays being separate from the main retail and leisure areas of the city centre.The city’s hotel stock has grown in recent years, but the proliferation of 3 star and budgethotels is saturating this section of the market, resulting in surplus rooms that in turndepresses room rates and prohibits investment from higher value brands.The city’s cultural offer is threatened by reductions in local and national funding, and thecity’s extensive festival programme, including Tramlines and Doc/Fest face fundingchallenges. Independent leisure in the city centre is relatively strong, linked to venues like theShowroom, but we need a higher quality mainstream offer.1
The retail offer, particularly for fashion is not of sufficient quality and this is translating intolow transaction values in current retailers. This offer is dependent on planned developments,including the proposed New Retail Quarter: Sevenstone.Access to the city from out of the local area is a strength, and should improve withelectrification of the Midland mainline and High Speed Rail 2. Anecdotally this accessibilityalso makes it easy for people to limit their visit to a day trip, raising questions whether theoffer in the city centre does not always entice people to stay overnight.Locally, parking is often cited as a key reason for people not visiting the city centre; howeverour car parking average rates are below those of most other core cities, with only Newcastlebeing noticeably cheaper.Retaining a distinctive ‘content’ offer by being authentic and independent is important todifferentiate Sheffield from other destinations, but we must do this in tandem with sizeableinvestment from major retail and leisure brands that will give the city centre critical mass.The Economic Strategy, City Centre Masterplan and Major Events Strategy, coupled withnew or previously under-utilised instruments such as the New Development Deal, BusinessImprovement Districts and Tourism Business Improvement Districts, if harnessedappropriately, can start to facilitate growth and change this picture.‘We’ (the City) have a very real opportunity to address these significant challenges byaligning these strategies in a cohesive way, driven by the unifying vision of a dynamic andvibrant city centre.To do this ‘we’ must also embrace a key theme of the Corporate Plan, ‘Business Friendly’, byworking closely with the private sector to support business and ensure Marketing Sheffield &its partners create the right environment to encourage business investment and growth.PurposeWe shouldn’t accept that the city centre will operate at a lower level than before therecession.The purpose of this paper is to;1) Set out the current position2) Clearly define vibrancy,3) Describe why this is important to the City,4) To articulate what we believe the issues to be, and5) Set out our plan for Sheffield and the opportunities.Our plan will be a clear picture for our city-centre, focused on what we believe to be asustainable solution. As such, this cannot be wholly reliant on specific interventions, eitherlarge scale development projects or major events, but also must look at the incrementalchanges we can make to our services or the influence we can have with others to makeSheffield City Centre a more vibrant place.Current PositionOver the last 15 years Sheffield's City Centre has experienced a dramatic transformation.However, the over-whelming impact of the recession has been to reduce the confidence and2
Page 1: SheffieldDestination Management Pla
Page 5 and 6: ! Accessibility - people being able
Page 7 and 8: Sheffield City Centre's retail posi
Page 11 and 12: City Centre ManagementWithout holis
Page 13 and 14: CorporateoutcomesA Strong, Competit
Page 15 and 16: SummaryThe following page sets out
Page 17 and 18: Appendix One - City Centre Vibrancy
Page 19 and 20: Culture and Leisure:Night-time Econ
Page 21 and 22: Occupancy rates are steady, having
Page 23 and 24: This measure (and a number of other
Page 25 and 26: Applications to Universities in She

Vibrant city centre - Welcome to Sheffield

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