What would attract visitors to our city long term?

I'm just trying to come up with some suggestions Tony. I suspect to get the BM touring exhibitions is probably quite expensive, and requires adequate security and so on - which is why the Castle Museum in Norwich is looking for significant funding. I know from talking to my cousin who lives in Solihull that Birmingham has revamped its museums, creating Living History type displays - back-to-back houses, the needle making museum, jewellery quarter museum, gunmanking museum, etc. And they apparently have been very successful in bringing people into the centre of Brum. Also, the Symphony Hall is a good attraction, it seems. I understand they are all quite close together and very accessible, but I can't offer any personal experience to go on. However I did have another idea for getting publicity. I know the Antiques Roadshow was in Coventry some years ago; but I don't think it's been back since. But what about "Flog It"? Wherever that programme goes, Paul Martin does a piece on a place or places of local interest, and that usually takes 10-15 minutes of air time. I wondered if Flog It could be induced to do a programme in Coventry? The valuation day could be accommodated in St Mary's Hall (they usually pick a nice venue for that) and there are good auction houses in Coventry, so it would be eminently suitable. Cost would be negligible to the city; OK, there would be hire of the hall, but the programme almost certainly covers that. And Flog It is repeated quite quickly for instance on 'Dave' Ch 19, so the you get more than one bite of the cherry. It's damned good publicity - that's where I saw a piece about the back-to-back houses in Brum. I hope that's a useful idea!

The "Flog-It" team do regularly come to Coventry, their next visit will be at The Coventry Transport Museum on Saturday 3rd March 2012 The Antiques Road Show was broadcast from Charlecote Park, Warwick in September last year so it may be a bit soon for us to play host to them in this area.

I do watch Flog It pretty regularly, but I've never seen one from Coventry. Oh well, I tried! I did see AR from Charlecote Park. Flog It does give a good plug for the area it's in, though, doesn't it? The only thing I don't like about it is seeing so many people sell family heirlooms for "a good night out" or "towards a holiday". But the programme is a lot better now than it used to be, and it seems to be repeated a lot more quickly and frequently than AR.

Better watch the next series then!

I took this photo in Coventry of the fastest land vehicle in the world Thrust-ssc, it's the first car to break the sound barrier but another is coming up Click the photo

I recently looked in horror at Whitefriars Monastery and the dreadful state of its deterioration. Could it not be used as a museum for the watchmaking industry? Surely Coventry's heritage deserves better than to allow this former monastery and workhouse to rot. Incidentally I would love to go inside but after sending a e-mail to Coventry Library and receiving no response I do not know of any other means to get in - apart from breaking and entering of course! Frances

It's one of the places I hoped would be open last summer but was disappointed.

I could be wrong in this but wasn't Whitefriars a local museum in the 70's? I seem to remember seeing wooden cages with balls in them all carved from the one piece of wood as well as many other items. Wasn't it also used by Coventry University (in an earlier incarnation ) for a while?

I feel sure you are right, Old Lincolnian, but when I went to look at Whitefriars recently it was just a mess. I cannot believe that this important part of Coventry's heritage is going to decline until it is deemed to be unsafe and razed to the ground and another of the city's historical sites is lost. I realise there are currently old watchmakers' cottages adjacent to the Watch Museum's present location and by the "fantastic and architecturally important Ikea building" but these could be protected separately and the museum itself relocated to the site of Whitefriars. I suppose the main problem is vandalism and the position being so close to the ring road which poses the question of lack of adequate parking. It does seem a terrible pity that nothing can be done to protect the building. Frances

Agreed Frances, but I believe its main problem is its location because as well as parking problems it is nowhere near anything else, apart from the University. I'd been here several years before I found it, accidentally I might add as I was looking for Elliott's. I have been to look at it recently as it really is a rather depressing site

First you have to find somewhere to put your visitors, Brighton attracts visitors but they have a very wide choice for accommodation, I don't see that in Coventry, most of us have to stay with relatives?

People keep talking about using old buildings as museums, but the visitor numbers to the existing museums are low and these places aren't cheap to run. To get a thriving city you need people living, working and spending their leisure time there. A few mediocre chain restaurants and third rate museums aren't enough.

Perhaps therein is a potential solution - boutique hotels? As for a watchmaking museum, we already have one, this building has no history with that trade and these small museums tend to get very poor visitor numbers. I know Cov uni used to use it as archive storage but it didn't protect the documents well enough. I'm hoping that the Charterhouse plan may see this link into the city centre better but it is still a bit disconnected. Personally I think the only long term hope for this building is for the levelling of the ring road.

I feel there's a general lack of promotion of the city from those who should be doing more to attract visitors. It seems the council has an obsession with self-promotion rather than promoting the city. As has been pointed out in this thread there is a diverse range of things which Coventry has been noted for, yet we try to treat visitors as a homogeneous group. As has been shown in previous posts visitors come for different reasons. To increase the visitor numbers most publicity should be targeted towards these groups.

To be totally honest I don't really care. If thousands or only one visitor arrives it won't make me a penny richer or a penny poorer. There's lots of accommodation available for those that want to come, try phoning any Coventry hotel for a booking and they will oblige. As for accommodating visitors' needs, I can only think of one public toilet and I would rather suffer than go into there.