Reflections on 2022-23

During the past year, as with businesses across the country, Experience Oxfordshire has continued to adjust its operations to respond to the challenges of working within the post pandemic environment.

As international travel became more normalised, our priority was ensuring the county remained top of mind amongst potential visitors. Whilst maintaining a steady stream of communications to engage potential visitors, the team successfully bid to deliver strategic marketing campaigns in partnership with national tourism agency, VisitEngland, and on behalf of Oxfordshire’s Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) and GWR (Great Western Railway). The associated funding enabled the creation of new marketing assets and access to new targeted audiences, (in turn producing record results), through the Escape to Oxford, Only in Oxfordshire and Spires & Shires campaigns, respectively.

Throughout the year every opportunity was taken to engage with the travel trade, at online pitching events and in person exhibitions, as well as with journalists and media influencers hosted with the support of Experience Oxfordshire Partners and Ambassadors.

English Tourism Week 2023 gave our Partners and supporters the opportunity to engage directly with Oxfordshire’s MPs who in turn demonstrated their support for the sector with onsite meetings across the county and by joining a cross-party visitor economy virtual round table discussion.

We were at last able to offer a full year of in person Experience Oxfordshire Partner events providing welcome opportunities for networking and sharing experiences. At our first Ambassador Dinner since 2019, hosted by The Oxford Collection at Gees Restaurant, our guest of honour, BTA Chairman Nick de Bois CBE, warned the sector that, having had almost a year of exclusive access to the domestic market (due to travel restrictions) the highly competitive global tourism marketplace had reopened. To maintain a destination’s position businesses and agencies needed to work together and re-focus on consumer needs.

The Economic Impact Report commissioned by Experience Oxfordshire shows the visitor economy, although recovering, is still performing at 36% below 2019 levels in terms of value. The Business Survey commissioned at the beginning of 2023, however, shows operators expressing a level of cautious confidence for the year ahead which is supported by the level of interest in visiting the county expressed in the accompanying Visitor Sentiment Survey.

As we work towards the goal of full recovery, we must remember the BTA Chairman’s warning. To capitalise on the growth in interest amongst our home-grown visitors, fostered during the pandemic, and the latent desire to travel amongst potential international visitors, it is essential that our sector comes together to deliver experiences that meet and exceed our visitors’ expectations. Experience Oxfordshire, with Partnershipworking as our cornerstone, looks forward to further collaboration with our Partners from across the sector to create innovative opportunities and spread the benefits of tourism for all.

I personally remain extremely proud to represent such a wonderful destination and would like to thank the entire Experience Oxfordshire team for all they do to support our Partners and destination management and marketing across the county. We all look forward to continuing to work with Partners and stakeholders throughout Oxfordshire to achieve sustainable productive growth across our visitor economy.

Hayley Beer-Gamage, Chief Executive, Experience Oxfordshire