Cumbria’s Living Heritage, a vibrant cluster group of great houses and gardens, heritage attractions and museums, celebrated its sixth anniversary at a 2019 season launch and laid down a signal of intent – to drive more benefit to member attractions than ever before.
New partners
Meeting in Staveley, the group, which has members spread as far apart as Birdoswald in the north and the Furness Peninsula in the south, welcomed two new partnerships for 2019. These are with tour operator, Mountain Goat, and with destination management organisation, Cumbria Tourism, with both partnerships providing new dimensions in support for 2019.
Stronger heritage voice in tourism
Cumbria’s Living Heritage was formed in 2013, to give heritage a stronger voice within the tourism mix and to cast off the impression that heritage is dull and dusty. The group has certainly done this over the past five years, even giving heritage heroes a Pop Art makeover in 2018 and creating the World’s Largest Duster.
National Trust & English Heritage members
The 32 member attractions, which range from those operated by national organisations, The National Trust and English Heritage, to privately run homes like Mirehouse and Levens Hall and Gardens, are embarking on their boldest marketing campaign to date, with more to be revealed soon.
The group’s brochure is already printed and in circulation and should once again prove extremely successful at bringing visitors into the members’ collective geographical area, which covers two World Heritage sites.
Sixth anniversary celebration
Whilst plans for 2019 will be unveiled in the coming weeks, there will be a nod to the traditional gifts for a sixth anniversary – sugar and iron – as some activity takes place around national Cream Tea Day and other plans bring industrial heritage to life.
The group will be supported once again by co-ordinator Jeanette Edgar, and PR consultant, Jane Hunt, whose company, Catapult PR has used its own 2019 consumer research survey into visitor attractions to inform the PR campaign for this year.
Chair of Cumbria’s Living Heritage – Peter Frost-Pennington
Chair of Cumbria’s Living Heritage, Peter Frost-Pennington, says: “Our initiative goes from strength to strength each year and our members derive great benefit from working as a collective. We can’t wait to attract more visitors to Cumbria in 2019, whilst also providing local residents with a plethora of unexpected things to do, on both rainy and sunny days. We shall continue to create amazing, enriching and memorable experiences for independent explorers, families and those travelling in groups.”
More information about all of the members in Cumbria’s Living Heritage and the exciting, uplifting and spiritual things to do and feel whilst visiting them, can be found at www.cumbriaslivingheritage.co.uk
