Michelle Gorman, managing director of Visit County Durham, reflects on two decades of Visit County Durham.

People. Place. Possibility  - Celebrating two decades of growth and success  

June marks 20 years since Visit County Durham began supporting and shaping County Durham’s visitor economy and it’s the perfect moment to reflect on how far we’ve come, and what we’ve built together.  

From saints to bishops, romans to monks, and from mining to rail - County Durham has been a place that has welcomed travellers for centuries, whatever their motivation. From mining to rail, our story has always been one of movement, endeavour and connection. And what motivates someone to visit today is not that dissimilar to what motivated people centuries ago, it’s our heritage, our landscapes, our stories, and most of all our people. 

As we celebrate this anniversary, three words sum up our journey and our future:  

People. Place. Possibility.  

From propaganda to promotion to destination leadership 

Long before destination management was a recognised discipline, the value of tourism to places like ours was being explored. In the 1930s, national efforts to stimulate local economies included support for activity designed to attract both investment and visitors to areas hit hardest by industrial decline.  

The Special Areas (Development and Improvement) Act of 1934 was the UK government's primary response to the severe industrial depression and high unemployment in specific regions, including much of County Durham and Tyneside. 

The Act resulted in the North East Development Board being given financial assistance to work in cooperation with the Travel and Industrial Development Association for “the purpose of propaganda designed to attract new industries and tourist traffic to the area”. 

Subsequently, unemployment in the special areas halved between 1931 and the outbreak of war in 1939, with the opportunities presented by tourism fully recognised for the first time. 

It’s a reminder that the visitor economy has long been intertwined with jobs, confidence, and renewal. 

2006 – Global and UK context 

Fast forward to 2006 and Visit County Durham was established at a pivotal time. Digital was emerging but not yet dominant, social media was in its infancy, with Facebook only just opening up beyond universities, tourism promotion was still largely print and brochure-led, and the idea of managing and marketing a “destination” as a unified offer was still taking shape across the UK.  

I joined Visit County Durham in July 2006, just as that work began in earnest, and I can still remember the sense of ambition, matched by the scale of the challenge ahead.  

And if you’re interested, Sandi Thom with I Wish I was a Punk Rocker was number 1 in the UK singles chart – very much pre streaming! 

A very different starting point  

In 2006, County Durham’s tourism sector was talented and passionate, but too often it was fragmented. Many places and attractions were promoted separately rather than as part of a shared, compelling story. National visibility was limited. Digital channels were in their infancy.  

There was cohesion to build, confidence to grow, and a destination identity to shape.  

Those were our early priorities:  

• Unite the sector and strengthen engagement  

• Create a strategy for growth rooted in evidence and ambition  

• Develop a compelling, distinctive proposition for County Durham  

• Raise our profile regionally and nationally 

Early momentum: building the foundations  

The early years were about creating the conditions for long-term success.  Priorities focused on uniting the industry, sector engagement, creating a strategy for growth, and raising the profile and appeal of the county — and some milestones still stand out as pivotal moments:  

• 2007 – The county’s first Destination Management Plan launched, and the Wednesday Grapevine introduced to build industry engagement, strengthen industry connection and communication  

• 2008 – Launch of Taste Durham, showcasing local food and drink, to build and strengthen the county’s distinctiveness  

• 2009 – A unified consumer brand launched, supported by a dedicated tourism website (a first for the region)  

• 2010 – National recognition as VisitEngland named the county as one of England’s attract brands  

• 2011 – A Bronze award for our Visitor Information Network at the national Tourism Awards for Excellence  

Navigating external shocks — and staying resilient  

Over the last 20 years, travel demand has been shaped by economic, political and health shocks. Each tested the sector in different ways and each reinforced the importance of partnership, clear communication and agile destination leadership. Visit County Durham supported partners to adapt, communicate clearly, and rebuild confidence, resulting in a sector going from strength to strength. 

2008–09: Financial crisis  

With household budgets under pressure, consumer confidence in overseas travel fell, but the domestic market strengthened. Value-led messaging and short breaks became even more important.  

2016 onwards: keeping County Durham welcoming 

Following the EU referendum in June 2016 and the subsequent Brexit process, the visitor economy faced a prolonged period of uncertainty, it became even more important to communicate clearly what County Durham offers, reinforce a sense of welcome, and make it easy for audiences to choose us.  

2020: COVID-19 Pandemic  

The pandemic reshaped everything: operations, visitor confidence and business survival. Travel restrictions and public health guidance fundamentally changed the work of Visit County Durham, with a global lockdown in place, widespread uncertainty about when life would return to normal, and people unable to travel. In response, our focus shifted towards business support, real-time communication, sector engagement and advocacy, alongside practical guidance for the industry. Campaigns such as “Explore from Your Door” encouraged local audiences to safely reconnect with the county, while we also lobbied for financial support for visitor economy businesses. As restrictions eased, recovery activity became central, with locally focused campaigns underpinned by data, insight and clear reassurance messaging helping to rebuild visitor confidence and encourage a return to travel.  

2026: Global uncertainty and renewed disruption 

Over the past year, the global travel landscape has entered another period of heightened uncertainty, with wider economic pressures and changing international conditions influencing consumer confidence, travel costs and decision-making. UN Tourism has noted that demand has remained resilient overall but continues to be shaped by inflation in tourism services and broader geopolitical challenges, making sentiment more cautious in some markets. For County Durham, this reinforces the importance of staying agile: supporting partners with clear, timely communication, using insight to track shifting behaviours, and focusing on value, welcome and reassurance so that confidence in travel and in our destination remains strong.  

A resilient visitor economy 

Despite external factors, the visitor economy has demonstrated resilience, resulting in a sector which has almost doubled in value during the lifespan of Visit County Durham. 

In 2006 the county received 17.4 million visitors , with £600 million in visitor spend and 12,100 FTE jobs supported.  

Today annual visitor numbers stand at 21.98 million, up 8% on 2024, visitor spend has exceed £1bn for the 4th year in a row, now at a record £1.49bn, and over 14,000 jobs are supported by the sector.  

That growth represents far more than an uplift in visits, it’s confidence, livelihoods and opportunity across communities. 

The shift: from marketing to place leadership 

This success didn’t happen by chance, it came from a deliberate shift in how we work: 

• It is no longer just about marketing, it’s about place leadership 

• It is ensuring the destination is unified, not fragmented 

• It isn’t only about promotion, it’s about building identity and reputation 

• And it isn’t just ‘tourism’, it is prosperity for the place and its people. 

And it is this social and economic impact that matters most. 

Visit County Durham was created to champion this place, but our role has always been bigger than tourism alone.  We exist to support a thriving County Durham - one where businesses grow, communities feel proud, and people choose to live, work, and invest. 

That’s People. Place. Possibility. in action. 

Partnership — the engine of progress 

Our success is built on partnership: public and private sector working together with shared purpose. 

Our private sector-led Advisory Board brings industry expertise and challenge. Within Durham County Council, the tourism internal working group we established helps to ensure the visitor economy is embedded across key services, including planning, transport, public realm, heritage and conservation, policy and Clean & Green. 

Regionally, we collaborate with the tourism industry, protected landscapes, our fellow Local Visitor Economy Partnerships in Northumberland and NewcastleGateshead, neighbouring destinations and the North East Combined Authority. Nationally, we connect the county with partners including the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, VisitEngland, VisitBritain and national cultural and heritage agencies. 

And our marketing partnerships with County Durham businesses enable the kind of high-impact activity that no single business could deliver alone. Our most recent campaign, Next Stop Durham, has included digital advertising across the London Underground and the East Coast rail network, national content partnerships, influencer commissions and media visits. 

The results speak for themselves – year one reached 18 million consumers and contributed an estimated £165 million in visitor spend. 

What comes next.. 

The work of Visit County Durham had demonstrated the visitor economy is a foundational part of the county’s wider economic system. Tourism is not an isolated sector; it provides employment, supports supply chains, sustains town centres, strengthens culture and creativity, attracts inward investment and enhances quality of place.  

Increased visitor demand supports hospitality, retail, transport, culture and creative industries, many of which are dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises embedded in local communities.  

Over two decades, Visit County Durham has provided strategic leadership that recognises this wider value, positioning tourism as a catalyst for regeneration rather than a standalone activity.  We have helped to demonstrate how a strong destination offer contributes to business confidence, skills development and the attractiveness of the county as a place to live, work and invest.  

Visit County Durham’s role in coordinating destination development, marketing, insight and business support has reduced fragmentation and enabled scale, ensuring that individual businesses benefit from a collective platform they could not achieve alone.  

Importantly, the organisation has also helped extend economic benefits beyond traditional hotspots, encouraging dispersal into market towns, villages and the coast.  

For strategic leaders, this matters because it aligns tourism growth with inclusive economic outcomes, supporting levelling up, rural sustainability and community wellbeing. Visit County Durham has consistently articulated this value to policymakers and partners, ensuring that the visitor economy is recognised as a serious economic contributor and an integral part of County Durham’s long-term prosperity. 

And that brings me back to where I started. This is not just our story. It is a shared story. One that has been built over 20 years and is still being written.  

So the focus should not be on what Visit County Durham has achieved, it’s on the future for the county that we continue to build together.