Sustainability, through development

Environmental and economic sustainability are crucial to developing our year-round tourism offer and growing employment and wealth. However, that growth must go hand-in-hand with greater conservation of our natural landscapes and biodiversity, key reasons the region is such an attractive destination. Holkham Estate is leading the way on environmental sustainability in the east, and there are other venues where development, particularly in inclusivity and accessibility, will see them become nationally significant year-round attractions.

An infrastructure providing clean travel is key.

Getting visitors to travel without using fossil fuels will not only improve the environment and reduce the carbon footprint but it will also improve health and wellbeing. In the VEE Spring 2021 Consumer Sentiment Survey 86% of respondents said they would travel to the region by private car, and 47% will walk when here but only 7% will cycle. If the region had more accessible, reliable and affordable public transport within and between rural areas, villages, towns and cities, visitors could be encouraged to use this as well as making their journey here by rail.

Holkham Estate

Pioneering environmental sustainability in the region is the Holkham Estate, which attracts more than a million visitors each year, and encompasses agricultural land, a national nature reserve, saltmarshes, 25,000 acres of parkland as well as a beach and forest. There is a hotel inn, a holiday park and, of course, the 18th century Palladian Hall.

The ambition through their WONDER conservation and sustainability strategy is to be the UK’s most pioneering and sustainable rural estate.

Holkham’s first commitment is to increase natural capital every year, sitting alongside an ambition that recognises that the estate is responsible for stunning landscapes, habitats, biodiversity and ecosystems which need to be treasured, enhanced and revitalised for the benefit of future generations. The estate will be carbon negative by 2040 and the strategy aims to reduce the amount of non-recycled waste the estate generates by 10% each year for the next ten years. Other initiatives include:

An electric bus service to Wells-next-theSea beach – the first of its kind in the UK.

Cycle hire at Holkham itself and at the holiday park.

Discounts offered for those who arrive on

bike, bus or by foot. Installing recycling stations across Holkham Park, at the beach café and information centre, and the holiday park. Installing eco-friendly shower blocks at the holiday park with green roofs, and water saving taps. Prioritising using compostables with much of the food and drink offering being served in compostable packaging and cups. Developing natural capital at the holiday park, including a nature trail and allotment for guests. Solar panels installed throughout the estate.

Installing EV chargers to guest accommodation.

The estate’s journey can be viewed at the Stables courtyard where an exhibition tells the story of how Holkham manages the landscape and produces sustainable food.

ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure

ROARR! is set to embark on the biggest development in its history, after being granted permission to create a new four-acre interactive play-themed area within the existing 85-acre Park. Gigantosaurus Land is a collaborative partnership between ROARR! and Cyber Group Studios, a leading producer and distributor of animated series for children and families worldwide.

The immersive area will be themed around the internationally renowned animated TV series Gigantosaurus, currently streaming worldwide on Disney+ and Netflix. The development will be completed in three phases, with the first including a vertical volcano themed drop ride, spinning flower teacups, water play, a jumping pillow, a towering wooden play ‘n’ climb den and much more.

Work is due to begin in January 2023 with the first phase set to open to the public in 2024. The final two phases will see additional Gigantosaurus themed concepts introduced to the Park, elevating the family day out at ROARR!. The project continues the development of the award-winning park, which already has 25 different attractions. They were amongst the first to weather-proof with Dinomite indoor play area and invest year on year, including: 2018: Predator High Ropes & The Explorers Restaurant.

2019-21: Refreshed Dippy’s Snack Shack, Dippy’s Raceway, Dippy’s Theatre. 2022: Valley of the Dinosaurs as part of a £350k investment, which includes its own AR trail and magic mirror and Dippy’s Exploration Adventure. 2023-2024: Plans to expand ROARR! with a £3m hybrid planning application, initially to include two new rides and other themed play areas as well as water play and the creation of three new themed worlds.

The latest development could see visitor numbers rise from 300,000 to 500,000 a year.

PrimEvil

In diversifying its offer, ROARR! hosts the award-winning scare event PrimEvil, which takes place over 13 nights and attracts more than 22k visitors each year. It continues to grow as the UK’s best loved scare attraction.

Visitors can experience five terrifying haunts. The haunts are upgraded each year to provide visitors with a new experience. PrimEvil also has local street food vendors, as well as local artists and businesses – circus skills and axe throwing and zombie archery. PrimEvil employees over 100 local scare actors including professional make-up artists.

ROARR! on CSR/sustainability 96 solar panels on EEP and Dinomite buildings (the largest buildings). 0% waste going to landfill, and garden waste composted. Menus based on food sourced within 50 miles of the park, and no single use plastic in any of food and beverage outlets. 3254kg of C02 balanced. ROARR! store focuses on recycled materials. Ground source heat pump for Dinomite indoor softplay area. Air source heat pump for Explorers restaurant.

ROARR! on accessibility The accessibility journey has been a gradual and thoughtful process over the past few years. They take action based on a collaborative approach with professionals and guests once research has been made, to make the correct and valuable changes: Working with National Autistic Society in Norwich, the venue is a sensory park. Four accessibility days held, with reduced Park noise and static lights. Makaton signage at Secret Animal Garden, and in ‘ROARR! Welcome’ framework for crew. An accessibility Christmas Grotto experience and a Father Christmas who can speak in sign language and trained in reduced communication with children with SEN requirements. Hearing loop in Guest Services area. Mobiloo hired for different events, giving those guests who need a changing place the option to visit the Park during an event. A Changing Place will be installed in the Park in 2022.

Worked with Access for All to look at the Park as a whole and registered interest in becoming accessibility champion for Norfolk. An accessibility video for the website and an accessibility guide which is available through the national accessibility websites, which gives a rundown of the Park and each attraction.

Introduced hidden disability wristbands and trained the crew to be more patient with guests who are wearing one and to change their style of giving instructions. Working closely with Twinkle SEN group to provide out of hours access to the Park, Dinomite, Splash Zone, Jubilee celebration and Christmas experience.

Mobility scooters and wheelchairs

available to hire.

Norwich Castle: Royal Palace Reborn

Royal Palace Reborn is a £15m project to transform Norwich Castle’s iconic Norman Keep, one of Europe’s most important early medieval castles. This ambitious undertaking will enable Norwich Castle to take its place as one of the UK’s premier heritage attractions. The National Lottery Heritage Fund are the principal funders, investing over £10m in this once-in-a-generation project. From Easter 2024, visitors will be able to explore the original layout of the palace of the Norman kings, with recreated spaces and the innovative use of projection and digital technology to bring the building to life with sound and colour.

Working in partnership with The British Museum, a gallery of the medieval world will show beautiful and fascinating objects to explore the lives and stories of people from the period. The Keep will also feature a multi-sensory participation area dedicated to Early Years audiences. Thanks to the installation of a new lift, for the first time in 900 years visitors will be able to explore all five levels of the Keep. The project will also create a new glass atrium and a new café with an internal glass bridge into the Keep will provide a spectacular new social space for the city. Upgraded toilets will include a Changing Places facility, helping to ensure Norwich Castle is a place for everyone. Norwich Castle – Gloucester: The most significant maritime find since the Mary Rose, the discovery of the wreck of the Gloucester made headlines worldwide. The ship sank off Norfolk in 1682 while carrying the future King James II and lay half-buried on the seabed until local divers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell found it after a four-year search. A major exhibition exploring the dramatic find opens at Norwich Castle in Spring 2023 featuring items from the wreck, but this is the first step on a process to create a permanent museum for the artefacts in Norfolk.

Zoological Society of East Anglia (ZSEA)

Operating Banham Zoo in Norfolk and Africa Alive in Suffolk, ZSEA is already one of the leading visitor attractions in the region, working with 1400 schools across the region and raising awareness of the importance of connecting with nature and animals for mental health and recovery. Working in collaboration with DEFRA and the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA), and with sustainability and accessibility at its heart, ZSEA’s five-year vision is to reimagine what the modern zoo should stand for.

At Banham Zoological Gardens the first project will be to create a conservation education centre of national significance, The Native Haven of the East, to support and restore endangered native species of the UK. This will be an ‘Eden Project’ style modern zoo where mixed species are housed in biodomes surrounded by their natural flora and fauna. This will be a centre where future generations are taught the importance of all aspects of conserving our planet and those that live within it, where digital technology and AI can extend understanding and connections within conservation. With accessibility at the heart of every step forward, Banham Conservation Education Centre & Zoological Gardens will be a destination attraction which will attract worldwide attention and be a centre of excellence for animal welfare and science research.

ZSEA will also:

Become a carbon neutral organisation and ensure sustainable consumption and production. Create a covered car park with 40,000 solar panels and install a ground source heat pump to provide sufficient energy for the entire site. Install EVR points and introduce shuttle links from local train stations using a Hydrogen Fuel cell bus with zero emissions. At Zoological Society of East Anglia’s Africa Alive Zoological Reserve create a new 400 acre attraction land dedicated to nature and reintroductions of endangered species and enable a dedicated native species nature reserve to incorporate a visitor centre, walks, cycle paths, wildlife conservation, bird hides and sustainable tourism to support the work at Banham Zoological Gardens. In partnership with the Tusk Trust, and using digital and AI technology, every visitor will become immersed in both the plight and beauty of Africa. There will also be live links into conservation programmes in Africa. The aim is to ensure the reserve can educate those who otherwise may not be able to travel to Africa and enable visitors to have an immersive experience of the global conservation challenges our generation face. Neighbouring Benacre Estate are supporting the project, which would provide a further 500 acres of land dedicated to nature and the reintroduction of endangered species. The projects will create conservationists and the future caretakers of our planet by providing world class facilities for diverse and disadvantaged communities, primary and secondary schoolchildren, through apprenticeships, further education partnerships, and through social prescribing community programmes, and inspire a life-long interest in young people and communities for preservation and conservation of the local environment and wider world.

The National Centre for Gainsborough

Opening in Autumn 2022, the £9m redevelopment of Thomas Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury will attract visitors from across the UK and abroad to see a wide collection of the artist’s work in a single setting. Reviving an Artist’s Birthplace – a national centre for Gainsborough sees a new, landmark three-storey structure replace an empty local authority building located on a brown-field site adjacent to the Georgian house, Gainsborough’s childhood home. It provides spaces for exhibitions, displays and learning with four new galleries – a showcase Gainsborough gallery, a landscape studio with panoramic views over Sudbury, a community gallery and a temporary exhibition gallery/performance space. The best-known English artist of the 18th century, renowned for his outstanding innovations and techniques in both landscape and portraiture, the redevelopment will give more access to the entirety of Gainsborough’s work, including his highly original work as a printmaker. Crucially, the new purpose-built art space will attract national and international exhibitions from around the world to be displayed in what is now Suffolk’s largest gallery. A new orangery-style café, overlooking the beautiful eighteenth-century garden, will enhance the visitor experience and boost venue hire, along with improved shopping facilities and a varied programme of talks and concerts.

The project will highlight Gainsborough’s widespread influence on the next generation of landscape artists, particularly John Constable (1776–1837). With the long-term loan of the Constable family’s collection on display, the museum will provide the only gallery space to see the landscapes of Constable in the vicinity of ‘Constable Country’. The development doesn’t just secure the future of Gainsborough’s House – close to the railway station - but will also be the start of regeneration of an historic market town, the creation of a long-needed centre for visual art in Suffolk and a national centre for Thomas Gainsborough.

Stowmarket Food Museum

The Museum of East Anglian Life at Stowmarket has rebranded as The Museum of Food to focus on food production and sustainability. With an ambition to become a national museum, the 75-acre town centre venue, close to the railway station, houses 17 historic buildings and around 40,000 objects. The museum’s focus is on the environmental impact of food production, using demonstrations, displays, living landscape, tastings and hands-on experiences from cheese-making to brewing, as well as looking at themes connected by food – social, historical, technological, industrial and environment.

Talks, tours and demonstrations change daily but foraging activities, animal feeding and hands-on farming take place every day. Buildings include community exhibition spaces, a blacksmith’s forge, farm barn, a watermill and chapel and there is a mile of river trails to explore.

Year-round Great Yarmouth

A sustainable visitor economy can make sustainable careers.

Renowned as the East Coast’s top seasonal resort, Great Yarmouth is reinventing itself as a year-round destination, particularly through arts and heritage regeneration. Following a £2.7m refurbishment of the seafront Venetian Waterways and Boating Lake, £16m is being spent on the Grade II-listed Winter Gardens to make it a yearround attraction. It had been named as one of the top ten endangered buildings of the Victorian and Edwardian era. Also on the seafront, The Empire, the town’s first purpose-built cinema in 1911, has been reimagined as a street food and music venue. The owners also run the nearby Hippodrome, the UK’s only surviving total circus building, which itself has increased its events from the traditional Summer Water Spectacular to a year-round programme. The Tourism BID and borough council collaborate on a year-round events calendar, including Fire and Water and Out There.

To help grow the visitor economy sustainably we need to change the narrative that the sector is not one where people will find a career. The perception of the industry for many is that it is ‘seasonal, low skilled, low paid’ and ‘a holiday job for young people’. We need to develop a year-round visitor economy, spreading demand seasonally and geographically. This is our biggest barrier to productivity and will raise the overall tide of tourism towards the high-water mark of Summer. If businesses are more successful, they will invest in skills, training and pay, create more full-time roles and provide career progression. The visitor economy is about people and there are a multitude of entry levels. It is the ‘ultimate meritocracy’: tourism rewards ambition, it has ease of career progression, it aids social mobility, it has careers for all ages, and provides transferable skills. Articulating this could help transform the region’s visitor economy.

Year-round boosts business

Survey results highlight the need for a year-round visitor economy.

Two of the region’s attractions have shown the way to developing a year-round business. Thursford Christmas Spectacular near Fakenham began in 1977 when, against a background of steam engines, mechanical organs and fairground rides, eight choral scholars from Kings College, Cambridge, sang a selection of John Rutter carols. Today, the Cushing family’s business has grown into the largest Christmas show in the country, with a cast of 130, many recruited from the West End. Almost six million people have attended.

In November and December, tour groups arrive from around the country and stay in accommodation across north Norfolk as well as Great Yarmouth.

Family-owned Potters Leisure Resort near Great Yarmouth pioneered indoor bowls in the UK – discovering a way to fill hotel rooms year-round. It has hosted the World Indoor Bowls competition, the sport’s flagship televised event, for more than twenty years. Viewing audiences peak at one million over the seven days of finals from the 17-day competition each January. Many of the 20,000 spectators each year stay at Potters, but many also stay in other local accommodation giving a welcome boost to the Winter visitor economy. The success of indoor bowls has led to the Resort being full year-round, with more than 600 permanent staff who are offered career progression. The range of jobs include West End-style theatre technicians, sales and marketing and catering. The Resort serves around one million meals a year, with many opportunities for local suppliers. Consistent revenues have allowed management to develop infrastructure and recently the business invested £14m in the acquisition and refurbishment of the Five Lakes Resort in Essex.

The VEE Winter 2020 Business Survey (473 responses) suggested that the majority of trade (43%) is delivered during the summer months, followed by almost equal share of activity taking place in Spring (23%) and autumn (21%). Three in five (62%) believe that developing the year-round visitor economy would help their business in the future. Two thirds of respondents believe that not developing year-round business is the key barrier to business productivity. ‘Making the region more top of mind with potential visitors’ (21%) and ‘High-quality, year-round experiences that are good for visitors and host communities’ (20%) are two key measures that would help businesses develop the year-round visitor economy. Half (50%) of respondents believe training programmes would also help them extend their season. The survey suggested that other key challenges are the ‘gap between jobs available and worker qualifications’, the ‘cost of delivering vocational training’ and ‘insufficient ties with industry’.