Gill Haigh, Managing Director, Cumbria Tourism

Cumbria Tourism is the county’s Local Visitor Economy Partnership and accredited partner of Visit England. Cumbria’s tourism offer is outstanding and attracts visitors worldwide. In 2019 the value of Cumbria’s visitor economy was £3.1bn, attracting 47m visitors and supporting 65,000 jobs. The pandemic significantly impacted the sector, with the loss of workforce and extreme recruitment and retention challenges seriously hampering recovery.

During 2020/21, working closely and collaboratively with the sector across our county, the university engaged with us and the business community to create programmes that truly deliver for the individuals and the businesses. This included consideration of the tourism season and building the student work programme around that. The university worked tirelessly to create industry awareness of their programmes as part of the staff shortage solution. The feedback from the industry and individuals was and continues to be excellent with businesses recognising the importance and value of being able to offer Degree Apprenticeships, and other related courses, to attract, develop and retain their staff, helping many address this critical issue for the sector.

We also congratulate the university on its vision, ambition, and success in securing funding for a new campus in Carlisle. The new city campus for Carlisle represents an outstanding opportunity to significantly grow and enhance the offer and appeal of the city. The focus on re-development of existing redundant high street properties will add vitality to this area and be a fantastic new addition. It will appeal to students nationwide, as well as to visiting friends, relatives, and visitors in general and play a significant role in helping attract and retain young people to our county.

We thank the University of Cumbria for the positive impact they continue to make, and we look forward to continuing to work closely alongside them, as partners, to help delivery of their Towards 2030 Strategy, impacting and benefitting in, for and from our county.