England’s Northwest through the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and the Tourist Boards are working towards providing an excellent  information service through the network of Tourist Information Centres (TICs).   The Visitor Information Framework highlights a number of issues for future visitor information provision, including TICs.

The region possesses a very wide range of TICs, reflecting the diversity of their locations, users and business rationale.  For many, local residents, as well as visitors, form a significant elements of their user base and their services are tailored accordingly.  We have undertaken to better understand the types of TIC in England's Northwest and therefore what type of partnership support will be most valuable in taking the business forward.

TICs have been categorised into three broad groupings:

• Strategic TICs which are located in prime destinations and act as gateways to the region.  They tend to handle the highest volume of enquiries through a range of channels: face-to-face, phone, email and web.  Their staff would be expected to answer a large number of non-local enquiries about the region and England.
• Destination TICs, which are also located in places with high footfall.  They tend to handle high volumes of visitor enquiries about the sub-region and England's Northwest.
• Local TICs, which are situated in places attracting a high proportion of enquiries from local residents and whose business focus is primarily on local information provision.

The Northwest TIC and Segmentation review can be obtained from here: