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Context and purpose

History and purpose of a design sprint

Design sprints have been developed across multiple industries as a way of applying innovative design thinking to reduce the risk in taking a new product or service to market.

º£½ÇÊÓƵ has adapted the standard design sprint methodology to allow broad exploration of key themes to enable the creation of strategic roadmaps to achieve agreed outcomes across our projects. By collating the varied expertise, experience and understanding of our delegates, the º£½ÇÊÓƵ design sprint will facilitate a multidisciplinary exchange of ideas.

B&NES context and opportunity

Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) is a unitary authority in South West England that encompasses the historic city of Bath and surrounding areas.

The city of Bath offers a rich array of tourist attractions, a surrounding rural area with picturesque villages all conveniently located and easily accessible. This has contributed to the region becoming immensely popular with tourists. This popularity brings benefits and challenges, some of which are unique to B&NES, but many are shared by tourist destinations across the UK and globally.

Through conversation with B&NES, it was identified that the º£½ÇÊÓƵ design sprint methodology would be an ideal tool to help support the development of a future sustainable tourism strategy, identifying future opportunities and barriers in terms of remaining a world-class destination.

A design sprint offers the opportunity to assemble key stakeholders and leverage their shared experience and expertise to develop fresh insights into sustainable tourism. The structured, collaborative, and iterative nature of a design sprint allowed insights to be developed into a wellinformed and innovative vision. The variety of organisations and backgrounds represented at the design sprint will ensure that this vision is both workable and aligned with the needs and aspirations of all stakeholders involved.

By leveraging the varied expertise, experience and understanding of the sprint delegates, the session facilitated a multidisciplinary exchange of ideas able to create a cohesive and sustainable tourism strategy that benefits the region economically, socially and environmentally.

The sprint topic and objectives

Bath and North East Somerset, as with many historic and picturesque regions and cities across the UK and Europe, faces a range of opportunities and challenges from tourism. This design sprint explores this topic by gathering specialists and key stakeholders. Together, we pooled our shared expertise to develop fresh insights and innovative solutions.

The aim of this design sprint was to identify the opportunities and barriers to B&NES remaining a leading global destination that harmoniously blends cultural heritage, natural beauty, and innovative experiences, fostering economic growth while preserving the environment and enriching the lives of community and visitors alike.

The sprint addressed the need to strategically focus on how tourism can act as a catalyst for conserving and enhancing heritage, natural assets, targeted climate action, and social cohesion.

In addition to producing a vision and a strategy, this sprint sought to encourage dialogue between the different stakeholders involved in tourism. An overarching aim was to situate tourism as an important sector that should be considered as a crucial asset, rather than an industry that is managed by disparate departments and policies.

The sprint question

The purpose of this design sprint was to identify barriers and opportunities for B&NES, to remain a leading global destination.

The sprint questions were:

How can B&NES remain a leading global destination that harmoniously blends cultural heritage, natural beauty, and innovative experiences whilst fostering economic growth and preserving the environment for its community and visitors alike?

How can we continue to welcome visitors to this UNESCO World Heritage Site whilst also distributing the benefits of tourism to residents and improving the natural world and environment?

Through these questions, the sprint considered how tourism can serve as a catalyst for conserving and enhancing heritage, natural assets, targeted climate action and social cohesion.

Sprint structure and focus areas

Strategic areas

Six strategic areas were identified through engagement with Bath and North East Somerset council regarding their social, economic and environmental priorities. We undertook background research into relevant case studies and tourism more broadly to understand how these six areas relate to a more sustainable visitor economy.

Adopting these six themes as lenses and strategic areas allowed for the development of integrated and multidisciplinary ideas. Additionally, it encouraged different areas of expertise to consider how they relate to each other. This facilitated productive discussions that encouraged participants to consider tourism from new perspectives.

The design sprint day

There were 63 participants in total, and these were divided into six tables. Each table was assigned a strategic area and comprised a range of different stakeholders; Visit West, B&NES, º£½ÇÊÓƵ, local businesses, higher education and transport providers.

The seating plan was arranged so that experts, practitioners, decision makers and local businesses could all engage in conversations that align closely with their priorities and interests. Each of the six tables undertook five activities following an initial presentation by B&NES and Visit West.

The sprint outputs

Participants were grouped into six tables, with each table focusing on one of the strategic areas. A range of experts, practitioners and stakeholders all with an interest in one of these themes were grouped together to pool their experience and share different views of the same opportunities and issues.

After introductory briefing presentations, the day’s proceeding revolved five around interactive exercises between and amongst the tables. Over the course of the design sprint, each of these tables produced different outputs for the five activity sessions that followed the initial plenary session. This illustrates the design sprint’s capacity to generate visionary ideas that are developed into feasible strategic propositions.

1. Understand: These introductory presentations briefed participants on sustainable tourism in B&NES.

2. Define: This session followed the introductory presentations. In it, participants discussed their hopes, concerns and potential solutions for sustainable tourism in B&NES. The output was an annotated activity canvas listing the top priorities identified in these discussions. Furthermore, participants described a future scenario in which opportunities and issues identified previously has been maximized or mitigated. The output was a vision statement for sustainable tourism in B&NES

3. Discover: In this sessions, participants plotted their ideas onto a canvas by grouping them thematically. The output was an annotated canvas that showed the interdependencies between the key strategic areas that comprise sustainable tourism.

4. Decide: With their vision statements and an understanding of strategic interdependencies, participants decided how their assigned strategic area contributed to sustainable tourism in B&NES. The output was a strategic outcome statement that built on their vision statement and was informed by strategy

5. Design: At this stage, each table developed their strategic outcome statement into a granular roadmap. This involved using the strategic activity canvas to plot the resources, actions and stakeholder involvement required to realise their vision over the next ten years. The output was a clearly itemized strategic roadmap for sustainable tourism in B&NES

6. Validate: The output of this final session was for participants to share how their vision and strategy has developed throughout the day as well as any recurring themes. Moving from defining the scope of the opportunities and issues at play for sustainable tourism in B&NES, to validating a strategic proposition that participants had designed, the day’s proceedings produced a series of actionable outputs.

Discussions and visions

The design sprint showcased its ability to rapidly develop ambitious visions and develop them into granular roadmaps with an itemised sequencing of required actions. Each table took a different path to this final output, reflecting the diversity of expertise and professional backgrounds present at the sprint.

Table 1: Governance

The governance group saw the visitor economy as a key vehicle to generating prosperity for local people and businesses. They focused on linking Bath city centre with the broader region to encourage longer stays by higher spending visitors.

Governance is the tool that will unlock this vision as it is a device to coordinate activities, resources, stakeholders and timelines. Their desired outcome was the establishment of three complementary governance workstreams that will enable the development of the other five strategic areas.

Table 2: Economy and business

This table’s vision was for B&NES to leverage its higher education institutions to improve productivity in the visitor economy. This would be achieved through partnerships between educators and employers to improve sustainability practices within the visitor economy. The effect would improve the tourist experience, decrease the negative impact of tourism and reframe working in the visitor economy as an attractive employment opportunity.

Table 3: Infrastructure

The infrastructure table saw improved transport and accessibility across the region as a tool to unlocking the visitor economy outside of Bath city centre, benefiting residents and visitors alike. This would be achieved through improved promotion and coordination of active travel routes, including the better use of the region’s waterways. Improved accessibility would broaden the region’s tourist offering and better distribute visitor spending and numbers across the region and throughout the year.

Table 4: Tourist offering

This table considered how tourist attractions and visitor profiles could be leveraged to improve outcomes for B&NES residents. Their vision was for B&NES to lean into its status as a spa destination and curate authentic visitor activities. This would reframe B&NES as a year-round destination known for health, wellbeing and place-based visitor attractions. This approach can reduce seasonality and divert visitor spend towards more responsible businesses. Four workstreams would realise this vision. Each of these require input and alignment from other strategic areas, particularly infrastructure and governance.

Table 5: Sustainability and natural environment

The vision developed by this table was for B&NES to fully integrate nature into its tourist offering. This involves leveraging the region’s outstanding natural environment as a key driver of tourism. Additionally, B&NES will become known as destination known for its sustainability, attracting visitors whose spending will support the green economy. The strategy that underpins this sees local supply chains, improved connectivity and enhancing the natural environment as key enablers. This strategy would be realised through four workstreams; engaging local communities, establishing sustainable funding, collecting data and integrating nature into a circular economy.

Table 6: Community and social value

This table saw potential to improve the outcomes that the visitor economy delivers for residents. Their vision was for tourism in B&NES to better engage with the region’s unique qualities and to better support local businesses. The strategy is to more effectively capture and redistribute visitor spend. This will be achieved through improved collaboration amongst local businesses and governance bodies to promote a well curated socially sustainable tourist experience.

Resident engagement in the process is key to improving perceptions and awareness of the benefits of tourism. The end goal would be for tourism to have a net positive impact that makes B&NES a better place to live, work, and visit, with a high-quality public realm and a strong sense of community pride.

Key insights and themes

In addition to specific outputs, the design sprint facilitated a series of productive discussions amongst participants. Throughout these discussions between and amongst the different tables a series of recurring themes emerged. The key themes are an invaluable accompaniment to the outputs of the design sprint day. They offer an insight into recurring ideas across different strategic areas and activities. These themes capture the ideas that must be carried forward and inform the development of any technical sustainable tourism strategy.

1. Interdependencies

They day’s proceeding highlighted the interdependencies of sustainable tourism. Although participants were grouped into their respective strategic areas, similar recurring themes arose throughout these six groups independently of each other.

The six strategic roadmaps produced all required actions by other strategic areas to be effective. Whether it be a governance framework to improve the tourist offering or infrastructure provision to unlock and improve the natural environment, there are always interdependencies between the different facets of sustainable tourism.

Both tourism and sustainability are inherently multidisciplinary as they involve a multitude of stakeholders, timeframes, challenges and opportunities. When thinking about sustainable tourism, an appreciation of these interdependencies is key to developing ambitious visions and informed roadmaps to achieving them.

2. Data

Understanding the current nature of tourism in B&NES is of course a prerequisite to developing a sustainable tourism destination. This involves understanding how and why people visit B&NES, the levels of visitor spend as well as their flow and numbers. Such data allows us to paint a picture of how the visitor economy in B&NES is performing.

However, the current levels and quality of data are insufficient to inform a detailed understanding. As such, across all groups, data constantly emerged as a key theme. For all strategic areas, reliable data was key to developing and improving action plans. Any implemented strategy will need a regular flow of data to monitor and test its performance. Without improved data gathering and monitoring, improving sustainability in B&NES will be challenging.

3. Health and wellbeing

Across all tables, there was an understanding that B&NES has an untapped potential to promote itself as a health and wellbeing destination. Such an approach would cover different activities, attractions and assets. This includes improving the provision of luxury hotels and encouraging the expansion of wellness businesses.

The surrounding landscape and bodies of water offer opportunities for visitors to engage with nature. As either tranquil retreats or for outdoors activities, there is scope to engage with the natural environment as part of a health and wellbeing
visitor destination.

This approach can attract a diverse visitor profile and promote longer stays, benefiting the local economy. It expand markets for local sustainable businesses, further growing responsible local supply chains and reinforcing B&NES reputation as a sustainable destination.

4. Authenticity

The value of authenticity was identified across by all groups. An authentic visitor destination provides experiences and products that are unique to the area. In B&NES, this includes Bath’s 2000-year history as a spa town and the West of England’s food and drink products with protected status.

By curating and marketing these unique offerings, B&NES can attract visitors who stay longer and spend more. Expanding tourism beyond Bath city centre to include the surrounding rural areas can reduce seasonality and distribute visitor numbers more evenly, benefiting a wider range of local businesses and improving economic resilience.

Emphasising authenticity can also improve residents’ perceptions of tourism, showcasing it as a sector that highlights the region’s special qualities and fosters local pride.

5. Visitor economy as the undervalued sector

Many of the day’s participants shared the frustration that the visitor economy is taken for granted or undervalued. The feeling was that visions, strategies and policies tend to focus on other sectors at the expense of the visitor economy. This is despite tourism in the UK contributing to 3.39 million jobs and 9.5% of GDP.

The understanding is that the visitor economy is perceived as less prestigious or attractive by workers and policy makers. This requires any sustainable tourism strategy to make the industry as an attractive place to work. This means improving pay, productivity and working conditions. Fortunately, many of the visions and strategies produced during the design sprint seek to achieve exactly this.

Shifting perceptions through improving productivity and wages can help to attract and retain workers as well as winning support from policy makers. Appreciating the current role and potential of the visitor economy is the first step towards realising its full benefits.

6. Communication

Finally, tourism involved many stakeholders. This includes residents and visitors, but also local authorities, business, suppliers, transport providers and infrastructure.

Producing a well aligned and coordinated sustainable tourism strategy requires engagement with these stakeholders. Communication is key to understanding how challenges can be overcome and which opportunities can be maximized.

Crucially, this involves communicating more effectively with the residents and visitors. For residents, improving the understanding of tourism’s economic benefits can shift perceptions of the visitor economy. The effect of this could be greater support for visitor economy strategies or more pride amongst the host community of their status as a leading visitor destination. For visitors, comprehensive marketing can shift how a destination is perceived. This can change visitor numbers, stays and spending as B&NES becomes known as an exciting, sustainable and authentic destination.

Next steps and recommendations

Through their professional experience, discussions with stakeholders and engagement at the design sprint, º£½ÇÊÓƵ participants from each table have identified some key recommendations as next steps.

These are practical and concrete steps that can be taken by B&NES to begin their progress towards a more sustainable form of tourism.

Governance

Finally, tourism involved many stakeholders. This includes residents and visitors, but also local authorities, business, suppliers, transport providers and infrastructure.

Visitor economy evidence review

• Synthesises and reviews all the data required to understand tourism in B&NES and propose effective measures to improve outcomes.
• Identifies gaps in existing knowledge and data needed to develop an effective strategy or framework.
• Address these gaps through later studies or assessments.

Stakeholder mapping exercise

• Identify the beneficiaries and stakeholders whose collaboration and consideration will be required to improve tourism outcomes.
• Conduct initial groundwork to identify opportunities and challenges for each stakeholder.

Visitor economy governance strategy

• Develop a governance strategy that is informed by the evidence review and stakeholder engagement.
• Ensure the strategy is coproduced with local stakeholders, a wide range of local authority departments and technical disciplines.

Economy and business

Visitor journey review

• Understand the drivers and influences behind visitor dwell time, spend and seasonality in order to propose measures to improve outcomes.

Analytical tourist tax study

• Identify the beneficiaries and stakeholders whose collaboration and explore the potential impacts, practicalities and validity of implementing a tourist tax in B&NES.

Visitor economy management framework

• A management plan that coordinates measures across departments and stakeholders to improve pay and productivity in the visitor economy.

Infrastructure

Transport assessment

• Understand how visitors move around B&NES and identify measures to improve sustainability, active travel and reduce congestion.

Bath city centre crowd analysis

• An analysis to understand where overcrowding in Bath city centre takes place to then inform wayfinding and public realm improvements.

Visitor economy transport strategy

• Previous data gathering and analysis can inform measures to improve the sustainability and economic impact of visitor travel around B&NES. These can be synthesised and coordinated as part of a transport strategy for tourism.

Tourist offering

Strategic assessment of visitor attractions and flows

• This assessment should be informed by transport assessments so that the causes behind variations in visitor numbers can be understood. The output of this assessment will be to understand why and how visitor numbers in B&NES are distributed.

Demographic study of tourism in B&NES

• This will inform the development of a tourism strategy for B&NES.

Nature and sustainability

Natural capital assessment

• This will help to understand the contribution of the natural environment to the visitor economy and identify measures to improve economic and environmental outcomes.

Climate value chain assessment

• Reviews stakeholders that can reduce emissions and traces environmental and economic impact of tourism through the tourism ecosystem.

Natural environmental management plan

• Informed by natural capital, value chain and transport assessments, a management plan will coordinate policy measures across different stakeholders to ensure effective stewardship of the natural environment while maximizing its contribution to the visitor economy.

Community and social value

Stakeholder mapping and engagement

• Start by preparing a systems map of local stakeholders, their priorities, and capital flow.
• This will create a holistic understanding of social and financial capital, helping to identify competing priorities and unlock funding opportunities for desired outcomes.

Social impact strategy

• Develop a social impact strategy that considers the B&NES ecosystem.