Explanation EC6

Tourism as a driver for economic development

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Tourism is one of the country’s fastest-growing industries. In an area such as Knowsley, the term can be extended to include business and domestic visits and visits to architectural attractions, sports facilities, countryside, museums and any leisure facility that attracts visitors from outside the area. Its potential benefits include the creation of jobs, income for local businesses, environmental improvements and new social and leisure facilities, which benefit local people as well as visitors.

Tourism and cultural facilities in Knowsley

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The largest tourist attraction in Knowsley is Knowsley Safari Park. This major regional facility employs local people, provides business for local firms and attracts several hundred thousand visitors a year. The Council recognises that this major existing tourist attraction offers the foundation to foster the development of other local tourist facilities, by providing the basis for multi-purpose leisure trips. Prescot Clock and Watchmaking Museum and the National Wildflower Centre in Court Hey (Huyton) are also of outstanding, although more specialised interest.

Opportunities for tourism/cultural development  

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Liverpool City has been awarded the status of European Capital of Culture for the year 2008. This is likely to stimulate significant interest in the whole of Merseyside as a destination for tourism and cultural visits. Knowsley MBC has also produced a Cultural strategy (see footnote ⁶). This will encourage more people to get involved in cultural, community and educational activities and events. The Council wishes to build on the success of existing tourist and cultural attractions in Knowsley, as well as accommodate the potential needs of new development. Opportunities exist to further develop international tourism to the Borough, and Merseyside, through Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

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Potential new tourism and cultural developments might include the development of hotels serving the wider Merseyside area and attractions created by the diversification of the rural economy away from traditional farming. Developments that help to interpret the historic heritage of the Borough, such as the clock and watch making industry in Prescot, will also be encouraged. Knowsley’s open countryside has the potential to accommodate new sports, recreational and tourist facilities, although it should be noted that any development within the countryside will need to comply with policies in chapter 9 “Green Belt and the Rural Economy”. Uses that can be accommodated in a town centre or edge of town centre should be located there, as opposed to in the Green Belt.  Certain tourism or cultural activities cannot be located in urban areas, however factors such as the impact on the character of the countryside and accessibility need to be taken into account.  Wherever possible, previously developed land should be used in preference to undeveloped land.

⁶ Ref: Knowsley MBC Cultural Strategy.

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