Procurement for Cultural Destinations Brief

Partners of Essex’s Cultural Destinations Project [Focal Point Gallery, Visit Essex, Firstsite] are looking to commission a body of research to inform an activity plan aimed at repositioning culture as a prominent component of the county’s visitor economy. The value of tourism in Essex is a significant £2.9 billion, however only a small proportion of this is going to the arts and culture sector and a much greater contribution could be made.

The proposed project has been designed to ensure that a wider audience will experience the cultural offer in Essex, which will benefit the visitor and cultural economies and have wider social benefits. The aim of this research is to provide the partners a solid foundation upon which to develop its activity plan.

The partners will require a final report which must be user-friendly. There is likely to be a need for interim reporting at the end of certain research phases.

Due to the limited timescale of the project, the activity planning by partners and research by the consultant will need to feed into one another and so a timeline/ordering of research will need to be agreed prior to starting. The closing date for proposals will be the 11 December 2015. Research is expected to start in January 2016.