With the news Dorset Council will stop funding Dorchester Tourist Information Centre (TIC), the town council is committed to promoting tourism in the town.

Although it is not in a position to fund the service, it will be allocating £30,000 each year to develop a new partnership with local tourism and business providers, as well as creating a role for a part time tourism development officer.

Working with museum, heritage, arts and business community partners, the town council has also developed a heritage tourism strategy for Dorchester and wants to grow awareness of what the county town has to offer.

Trevor Hedger, tourism project manager at Dorchester Town Council, said: "The town council had an aspiration to do something to support and help town centre businesses and it decided that where it could help was through tourism."

Trevor joined the team in November 2019 to develop the strategy and has worked during lockdowns on putting it together.

Through the strategy, the council wants to develop a long-term vision for Dorchester's tourism, create a universal brand to underpin collaborative marketing, work up new visitor experiences in collaboration with the town's venues, support local business engagement, retain and improve Dorchester's built and natural environment and encourage community participation.

Trevor added: "It was very clear that a lot of people came to Dorchester for other reasons and when they got here their comments were, 'I wish I had known, I would have stayed longer', 'I didn't know it was here' - so, there is clearly an awareness issue.

"Also, we have an awful lot of stories to tell, whether that's our Neolithic and Roman past, around Thomas Hardy and William Barnes, whether that surrounds some of the artists that have been associated with the town or some of the great buildings, and everywhere you go there are more stories to be told."

There are six key themes around how the strategy will develop visitor experiences to tell the town's stories. These are: Thomas Hardy country, archaeology and history, centuries of creative thinking, compact and green, marvellous museums, and vibrant town.

"We're trying to work up some of those and projects to add in a Covid safe way," Trevor said.

"There's going to be rich experience guided tours and we're working with a group of students from the history department at Bournemouth University on the first of those."

There will be a lot of focus on marketing and getting out there what Dorchester has to offer.

Trevor added: "If people don't know what we've got, we need to get better and smarter at telling them, so we're looking at a possible website, we're working with Dorchester BID on a Dorchester app.

"When the time is right and the stories are right, we're thinking joined up social media activity where everyone involved in promoting Dorchester is sharing the same stories and images. We'll be doing that throughout the year."

Environmental projects will also be looked at, which could include a green tourism charter for businesses, flower beds or supporting more electric car charging points in the town.

Similarly, there will be a focus on supporting industry, including shared resources.

To find out more about the heritage tourism strategy, visit Dorchester-tc.gov.uk

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