The five Tourist Boards are responsible for developing the Tourism cluster of their sub-region through all their tourism development activity and are bringing together a fragmented industry.  A further way of developing this is through Tourism Business Clusters (TBC’s).  Each cluster has a particular characteristic, but the common focus is on an enlightened sharing of best practice, to mutual benefit and strong cohesion as a group to a clear common business objective and a commitment to innovation and development of skills.

This approach will deliver real change and more effective tourism business growth. The NWDA and Tourist Boards have developed a Cluster Development framework, which has established an approach and way of working that supports the Visitor Economy model in a practical way, linking the marketing, business development, skills and productivity activities of the Tourist Boards and their partners in the region.  A summary paper is available by contacting the NWDA.

In order to make regional strategic sense of this tourism clustering work as it progresses, a standardised framework has been developed.  This framework will help to categorise and then provide a measure of relative success and the reasons for this success, so that we can learn and implement for the future.