Interreg Experience - Product Development Business Consultations

In light of the current Covid-19 crisis, the tourism, leisure and hospitality industry is having to re-think how to move forward and rebuild business, demand and revenue. Many organisations, both nationally and locally will be forced to re-examine business operations and products, in order to adhere to social distancing measures and respond to changing consumer behaviour. To survive, businesses will need to adapt existing products, collaborate with others in and out of the sector, and reach out to new audiences to recover and drive business growth. The sector has also been shown to be particularly vulnerable due to the seasonality of the visitor economy demonstrating the need for development of off-season product to make businesses more resilient in the future and to deliver more year-round jobs.

As part of the Interreg Channel EXPERIENCE project, Visit Kent has launched the Experience Development Programme which will work with 125 organisations from across Kent and Medway to help them develop new experiential tourism products for the off-season. We have received over 70 applications for the first round of the programme from a range of businesses including traditional tourism businesses, individuals with a skill they'd like to turn into a new business and businesses from other sectors looking to diversify. Applications are still open for the second round of the programme until the end of December 2020 and will be informed if they have been approved by the end of January 2021.

The programme offers successful applicants a package of support to develop their product concept and take it to market. The support delivered through the programme includes 1:1 business consultation, product testing, content development, product photography, inclusion in B2C campaigns and B2B distribution through travel trade partners.

Visit Kent are looking for a provider to deliver 1:1 business coaching for the 125 businesses who successfully apply for the programme. The consultations will need to be tailored to the specific needs of each organisation depending on where they are in the process of developing the product and therefore the provider will need access to a range of business support expertise. We anticipate that each business on the programme will receive at least one face to face coaching session and at least one follow up call within six months of starting the programme.