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Colchester Ups its Tourism Game to Go for the Short Breaks Market
Once in the town there’s more and more for visitors to see and
do following the £4.2m upgrade of Colchester Castle Museum,
where a new feature is the hoard of Roman jewellery, unearthed
from beneath the town’s Williams & Griffin store during
refurbishment. Now called the ‘Fenwick Treasure’, the
collection of gold and silver jewellery was put on show in the
Castle Museum in 2016.
Meanwhile, Colchester Presents, the town centre partnership,
has been formed to encourage collaborative working amongst
stakeholders in the town. An interim board, comprising business
and council representatives, with Fenwick’s MD Carl Milton at
the helm as Chairman, is seeking funding from local businesses
to cover ‘year one’ objectives – primarily the appointment of a
Town Centre Manager, whose job it would be to communicate
news about town centre investment taking place and the
improvements that are being delivered as a result.
Another heritage area within the town is the Priory Street car
park, earmarked for a re-design in 2016. The intention is to
showcase the town’s historic wall, with plans that include the
installation of lighting to highlight the bastions along the wall.
Tourism Sector Profile
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Tourism was worth £335.1m to the Borough in 2015,
a 4% rise on 2014
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More than 6.2m trips were taken in the Borough in
2015, a 2.9% rise on 2014
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More than 6,221 people work in tourism, a 4.2%
increase on 2014
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£15m+ is being invested in new/refurbished hotels
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More than 180 rooms (65,700 room nights a year)
have been added to Colchester’s hotel base over
the past 5 years
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£32.6m has been spent on new/ improving visitor
attractions
The Wivenhoe House Hotel, once a building painted by John Constable
but more recently redesigned to accommodate The Edge Hotel School