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Background

CANTATA is a 1.9 million Euro tourism development project funded through the Interreg IIIB Atlantic Area Programme and working in Denbighshire in North Wales in the UK; County Clare, on the West Coast of Ireland; Galicia, in North West Spain; Poher, in West Central Brittany, France and Montemor-o-Velho, in Western Portugal.

Originally piloted in County Clare, Ireland, as the Live the Life scheme, it was recognised that tourism is a key economic driver in Europe but recent research indicated that visitors were becoming increasingly suspicious of mainstream marketing; they suffered from marketing overload and could be disappointed by their tourism experiences.

Mainstream tourism drives the visitors to tourism ‘hot spots’ or ‘honey pots’ whereas CANTATA aims to move visitors from the ‘hot spots’ to more peripheral and under developed areas and deliver authentic and genuine visitor experiences, thus promoting and strengthening local distinctiveness.

CANTATA will do this by assisting local tourism groups and businesses to help themselves and each other through capacity building workshops to build local knowledge, local distinctiveness, pride in the local tourism asset and ways of transmitting this welcome to visitors, and improving marketing at local level, improving local connectivity, tapping into national activities and cross national marketing where applicable.

People are at the heart of CANTATA. The project is intended to foster a sense of pride within these local communities, pride in the region and in the way of life. This will communicate itself to the visitors in terms of a welcoming attitude and in-depth knowledge of the area, a confidence that what the area has to offer is of interest and value to the visitors.

CANTATA in Denbighshire

CANTATA is led by Denbighshire County Council who coordinates the transnational project on behalf of all partners.

Denbighshire is working closely with our CANTATA project partners and through the project we will learn from each others' experiences and the added value CANTATA will bring to local tourism businesses

Why is Cantata important to businesses in Denbighshire?

Cantata aims to entice visitors to lesser-known locations and connect them with authentic local culture.

In Denbighshire, it will mean increased county wide marketing and promotion, FREE development workshops for businesses and a new opportunity for trade groups to network and make their voices heard.

The story so far..

Consultation

The Cantata team at Denbighshire have been meeting with the trade across the county and from all different types of business.

A Consultation group has been set up to provide an opportunity for people from businesses across Denbighshire to have input into shaping the projects activity.

Meetings have been held with the businesses and the main actions they felt were required to assist the success of tourism in Denbighshire were:

· Raise the standard of customer service in Denbighshire to compete with other destinations
· Improve the consistency of the tourism offer
· Market the county in a joined up way
· A greater on line presence of Denbighshire as a visitor destination

Cantata will aim to address these areas by;

· Providing bespoke FREE, no-nonsense, practical workshops to help businesses grow and develop their tourism offer
· Researching the option of a visitor website dedicated to Denbighshire that would be supported by a marketing campaign
· Facilitating networking events to connect the tourism trade across the county

FREE opportunities!

‘Delivering excellent customer service to boost your profits'

Visitor habits and expectations are constantly changing. To help ensure we keep up with these trends, Cantata is providing FREE corporate workshops aimed at owners and managers of small to medium sized businesses in Denbighshire.

The workshops will provide a common sense, practical approach to how to attract more new and repeat customers and ultimately improve your bottom line.

Lunch and refreshments provided.

Or contact us: www.cantata.eu.com or click here on the link to register for your free workshops

By email: cantata@denbighshire.gov.uk

By phone: 01824 708244

By post: Cantata

Denbighshire County Council

The Old Gaol

46, Clwyd Street

Ruthin

Denbighshire

LL15 1HP