What would attract visitors to our city long term?

Hello Norman - The music museum is relatively new and something I only stumbled across when I was looking for something else. As I said, it is mainly about music of the 80's onwards although there are sections about earlier times. It is a very friendly little place and there is a cafe downstairs as well. I am sure there are places in Coventry that I don't know about or can't bring to mind as well. It would help everyone, both local and outsiders, if the city's attractions were better promoted. Regards. Roger

Hi Roger.. Thanks for your update on the music museum, I will certainly look up its exact location and give it a visit. For many years I was a boat owner on the Norfolk Broads and on one Broads forum there is a list of all Norfolk's attractions even what pubs are dog and children friendly. Perhaps someone with the time and inclination could do the same for Coventry.

When you visit the music museum, make sure you leave time for an excellent breakfast at the Two Tone Café in the same complex. It serves the full works with tea or coffee for four quid. At night it turns into a very good Caribbean restaurant.

Just been looking around the internet and came across this: London Tourism Surely a few thousand pounds could be spent on producing tourist guides that they could download to their phones, delivered at the tourist information office via wi-fi or even downloaded at home from the council internet site. Perhaps it could become a project for students studying communications at our local universities.

Interesting discussion! I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned the link already in the "Useful Links" section of this website - Visit Coventry [apologies if someone has mentioned it!]. It's not a bad looking list of things to do and places to visit. I suspect that the real problem might be that there's not a lot of activity in some of the places mentioned, or that they don't publicise themselves enough. As a rare visitor to Coventry (coming over in November ) I might be wrong - I'm usually found at Brandon when I'm looking for things to do - but maybe that's the issue? I notice several small theatres that never existed in my days - do they publicise themselves enough to attract visitors, or do they rely only on locals? The last time I brought my kids over (in their twenties), I took them to the canal centre - sadly it was deserted - couldn't even get a cuppa. I took them to the Roman Fort - sadly, they were entirely focussed on catering for schoolkids, and we could only wander around and look. I guess it was because it was a weekday - is that a good excuse - Coventry only caters for visitors at the weekends?? They liked the old cathedral - mainly for the squirrels!

But if you look at places which get high amounts of visitors (New York, London, Paris, Rome) older tourists actually make up only a small percentage of the visitors - they attract people of every age. They have many things beside old architecture to see and do. The retired people I know, the ones who are recently retired tend to go on holidays to places like these or hot countries for the warmer weather. After a few years due to the beginning of health problems or just insurers not willing to cover them or after they've visited the places abroad they wanted to visit they start going on seaside holidays closer to home. These town and cities rely on their tourism but despite a massively increasing elderly population almost all of them are struggling economically and have a great deal of young people moving out because they have so few options. So going for the 'grey pound' doesn't seem to be a very solid basis for an argument as far as I can see. Obviously they should be as welcome and catered for as every other group, but not chased above others. As has been pointed out the theatre was turned into a bingo hall, who predominant clientele are elderly. Even with a decent crowd (which it supposedly used to attract) this had very little impact on the wider city/city centre. The theatre brought a great deal more into the city as a whole, and it attracted far more diverse patrons and, crucially, gave them a reason to return more than once. As much as I like the old architecture you see it once and that's it. There's no reason to come back.

As far as I can see regarding promotion and advertising, the council do seem to go for very generic things, such as shopping (which they seem totally obsessed by). They are chasing people like John Lewis but these are brands that can be found elsewhere too. So why would they come shopping here instead of where they currently go if the brands on offer are exactly the same? To me that isn't going to attract visitors - at best it will stop local people going to other places. For me, having brands like that would just add us to a list of places visitors might consider going to, but isn't enough to make them choose us on their own. To use another analogy, it will lead them to the door but it won't necessarily make them open it. They need more than that - entertainment, restaurants and, yes, things like the old architecture and spires as unique selling points and places. But they need to be more prominent and actually have things in them rather than an empty shell to walk past. I also that we need to promote ourselves better and be more bombastic and proud. Here's a few potential taglines (consider this copyright ) Sent to Coventry? You should be so lucky! Come n' try COVENTRY Is your city good enough for a noblewoman to ride naked through? COVENTRY- Weave got an amazing history Wheel have a great future Watch and see.

I do think you make some very valid points, AD. The buildings, particularly the cathedral, are very much of the 'see it once' variety. There are plenty of historic locations, however, that people don't get to see at all because they are not well enough promoted. Perhaps the Heritage Weekend initiative should be held a lot more than once a year in order to raise awareness. As has been said previously, the cathedral is always seen as the main attraction but in truth it would only detain anyone for under an hour, and is not money well spent. There is certainly no reason to go a second time. It is certainly leisure and entertainment that is lacking. OK, they have started to try and create a restaurant quarter but it is only baby steps so far. A serious entertainment venue (or two) is what is really needed to attract regular footfall. Sadly, the Belgrade doesn't really cut it now as it is very much on the second-rate circuit for shows. Any big music acts have only the Ricoh and not many will justify that venue. Where would other big names perform? I don't entirely agree that the 'grey pound' is not a priority. My experience is that the over-60s often have the most disposable income and are happy to spend it. I go on a lot of cruise ships and there seems no shortage of people in that age group who will happily pay for leisure activities. So all ages need to be attracted, and not just on a one-off basis.

AD, then I don't know what you are looking for, to me Rome is visited mainly for its history and I've just watched a programe on the Holy Land who claim to have more people visit than any other country and it's about history, But whatever you want to attract large crowds, you have to have the accommodation, and as Norman pointed out you have to have the toilets first priority. I know where all the tourists visited in Paris and Amsterdam in the fifties, but I can't speak for today for we are from a different generation and I have no idea what the youngsters want. I'm not looking for an argument about anything and I know nothing of economics, so I drop out of this topic. P.S. I might be interested in a nice graveyard.

I'm certainly not looking for an argument either, and certainly not to upset anyone. My point was that you seemed to infer that tourism should be geared largely towards the elderly and retired, when I find that places that rely on that sector, like the seaside resorts and historic cities like York and Chester, don't tend to be thriving. So while retired people definitely have more time and more disposable income (or none at all and live in absolute poverty depending on who you ask), which they are certainly not afraid to spend (from my experience they seem to be sitting down for tea/cake every five minutes and can't leave the house without coming back with bags full of stuff they don't need) somehow the places that get most of their business don't seem to be doing too well. You are indeed right, the main draw to Rome is the history. But because it has SO much of it you could look round it for weeks and barely even scratch the surface. While Coventry has far more history remaining than it is credited with, I think you could see it within a week, especially as much of it is boarded up and can only be seen from the outside. Plus Rome has far more to do than just that - it's filled with art galleries, museums, restaurants, theatre, opera.

AD. That's because I thought they were the only ones with the time, in my day the young had to go to work every day bar for one fortnight every year at the same time, so I'm far behind today's times. I was lucky I managed to go to Italy twice for a month each time in the fifties. A train ticket from Ventimiglia for three months get on/off anywhere on the whole of the Italian railway, cost me a fiver. Hey some of those old pensions were like the French, stand up toilets, that was a novelty. I did have a very unusual life for a Coventry kid in those days, I suppose you could say, kind of a 'back-packer' before they were around. There was a place just north of Florence, Siena, that had a horse race round the streets of the town once a year, attracted thousands, me included. Imagine that around the Coventry cathedrals.

Hi Kaga. I remember those tourists' rail tickets well as I also used them. What a bargain they were. Are there similar rail tickets today I wonder?

Hi Norman & Kaga , Try these. Rail-Rovers This is a good one for around here. I have used it several times. Using my railcard makes it very good value. There is a modified day version too. Heart of England With a railcard, the cost is £10 per day for seven days. Reaching Oxford, Chester & the Malverns for example. There is separate east midland rover too, that stretches to the east coast. With the shuttle link in full swing between Coventry & Nuneaton, makes our local rover tickets very convenient for anyone. These go anywhere rambler tickets, I remember as a schoolboy trainspotter, but they were very regionalised in the fifties. It was in the late sixties & into the seventies that they were re-introduced as a marketing ploy when trains were running half empty. Our local one was £6.30 for seven days then. Petrol was a lot cheaper then too. A couple of years ago, I did my own price comparison of using my car with two travelling, compared to two using the midland rail-rover which about broke even, even if we only travelled for five days. That included allowing for the cost of parking as well. As long as we do a bit of homework with the timetables, & bus times if using a bus-pass, it makes really good economic sense. For me, the Ricoh station is so convenient to where I live, I think that it was just opened for me! PS Pam & I have in the past used rail-rovers outside of our area, for example the west country & north of the border. Similarly, if anyone is visiting us here for a week, timing the start of the rail-rover, say coming from Sussex, you would only need to have a return ticket to say Oxford. Your rail-rover then becomes your all inclusive tour as well as return ticket to Oxford. Wherever you stay, it is obviously advisable to be in a convenient location to the rail-network.

Hi Philip! You are certainly fortunate that the Ricoh Station appears to have been opened just for you. However, I do have to say that it seems a shame it wasn't opened for any of those spectators attending events at the Ricoh.