Tourist business day at Craven Arms home

Visit Shropshire Hills has said representatives of "well over 100" venues, places to stay and tourism organisations have gathered to swap details, share ideas and work together, in a day held at a Shropshire stately home to kick off the spring tourist season.

The day has now been held for a couple of years, in a bid to get south Shropshire's different attractions and supporting businesses to be more aware of each other so they can better support and promote each other.

Paul Davis, chair of Shropshire Hills Tourism, said: "This was a record breaking turnout, probably because Caroline Magnus kindly opened up Stokesay Court for the event.

“This is an annual event for our Shropshire Hills tourism group, it’s a great opportunity for tourism businesses to find out about all the new attractions and activities for visitors, and make sure that they have stocks of leaflets for their guests.

"Exhibitors at the event showed the sheer diversity of attractions that are available in the area to keep visitors and locals entertained, from Acton Scott Historic Working Farm and Stokesay Castle to Ralph Janderell’s pottery, garden trips from Wisteria tours, Church Strettons’ new town guide, information about Bishop's Castle town history tours to Ludlow’s many festivals, churches to visit and Kerry Vale Vineyard.

"For the active there were walks galore from the AONB and the outdoor partnership team, cycle hire from Wheely Wonderful Cycling and horse riding from Darky Dale Forest Stables."

He said it was one of many events throughout the country to celebrate English Tourism Week last week.

"Tourism is a huge industry, bringing in £257 billion nationally, 10 per cent of GDP, with 3.8 million jobs. Its big business in Shropshire too, worth £539 million to Shropshire’s economy every year, and supports nearly 15,000 jobs in the county."

The swap shop day was organised with the help of Shropshire Hills AONB partnership, which wants to encourage thoughtful and sustainable tourism in the area, he said.

"If you are a tourism business and would like to join our group, we ‘d be very pleased to welcome you," Mr Davis added.

"We hold regular events for our members, so that they can network with each other and take part in familiarisation visits to new attractions. We also hold training sessions and of course advertise the county through our website and social media activity."

For more information, see the website visitshropshirehills.co.uk or contact Paul Davis on 01743 891117 or by email at chair@visitshropshirehills.co.uk