Something a little bit different.  The National Trust has introduced ‘outdoor living rooms’ at a number of their properties.

A new group has been set up in Shropshire to ensure that historic churches are included within the local tourism industry. Shropshire Churches Tourism Group has produced a colour brochure featuring 77 churches, with more churches joining. The brochures are being distributed in information centres.  The churches are grouped together in three zones, a map of which will be available once the website has been completed.  The group is to help positively promote churches to visitors to Shropshire.

Aerial Extreme a leading provider of extreme adventure activities have just opened a new urban high rope course in Sheffield, at iceSheffield and another is planned to open at the Trafford Centre in Manchester.   Visit their website to find out more.

The £100,000 Art Fund Prize, for museums and galleries, has been awarded to the Ulster Museum, Belfast. The museum has undergone a £17.8m refurbishment, which took three years. The refurbishment included new galleries – interactive learning zones, the Applied Art Gallery, Window of Our World and the reconfiguration of the listed building.

Our sister company Planning Solutions Limited is launching its latest leisure operation – Super Tubing at Festival Park in Ebbw Vale, South Wales.   It’s opening on 31st July.

SS Robin, is thought to be the oldest steamer in the world (launched in 1890) and has completed a two year £1.9m refit and will be transported to its new home on the River Thames as a floating museum.  SS Robin has a strong education and learning offer. The steamer is listed on the National Historic Fleet register. Image credits: Top black and white archive image Ambrose Greenway and lower image Kampfner Ltd.

The former Romford Brewery has been transformed with the help of a £990,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant. The museum will be run by Havering Museum Ltd, supported by the borough council. Artefacts are split in to themes including farming, transport and childhood. It will have two permanent exhibitions, a temporary exhibition, event space, learning space (education and family activities and workshops) and a gift shop.  Visit the Havering Museum’s website.  You can also visit the Museum’s Facebook page.

According to a report in Travel Mole, the tourism industry is facing a social media revolution. The Social Travel Report has found that almost 70% of consumers surveyed use the internet to book holidays, with only 23% by phone and 8% in travel agents. Many people looking to go away trust the reviews by complete strangers more than the travel industry itself and see it as an extension of worth-of-mouth recommendations.

VisitGuernsey has launched an online strategy targeting UK visitors and potential visitors by social media. This includes a  blogging platform, a Facebook page and Twitter feed, supported by a Flickr photo-stream and YouTube channel.

There’s new experience at Palm House in Kew Gardens which has introduced the ‘Whispering in the Leaves’ experience.  Listen to the interview with wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson on the Guardian’s website.

We have just launched our new microsite Tourism Consultant.

Sailing and power boating tourism is worth around £100m per annum to Scotland.  The sail and power boat cruising tourism sector is worth around £101m per annum and supports more than 2,700 jobs. This could possibly grow by £44m in the next decade.  VisitScotland has invested more than £70,000 into promoting sailing and power boating to neighbouring countries.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has announced that heritage tourism contributes £20.6bn to the British Economy, putting the heritage sector ahead of car manufacturing or film induistries in terms of conrtibution to the UK gross domestic product.   The report highlighting these results is ‘Investing in Success: Heritage and the UK Tourism Economy’.

The Bowland Tourism and Environment Fund is a visitor payback scheme within the Forest of Bowland. The scheme aims to encourage tourism businesses, visitors, local communities and groups to work together to care for the Forest of Bowland. The Bowland Tourism and Environment Fund raises funds from visitor donations and payback schemes.

Japanese tourists visiting the Lake District this summer have been asked to donate £5. The scheme is to help sustainable tourism in the Lake District. More than 70,000 Japanese visit the Lake District every year

Tour operators in Japan will encourage customers to donate the voluntary £5 and in return will receive a Peter Rabbit Badge and certificate as a thank you.

Premier Inn is to build a 267 bedroom, £25m hotel in Stratford, East London.  It will be part of the Westfield Stratford City Development , next to the Olympic Stadium.

Four Sea Life Centres across the UK are to have Animalive’s Chatterbox Minis installed. The centres include Brighton, Birmingham, Weymouth and Scarborough.  They offer live interactive animation.

The Cairngorms National Park Authority have been the green light from the Scottish Government to move forward with the Core Paths Plan. It has been designed to attract more people into the outdoors and manage access across land and water.

The National Brewery Centre, the much-anticipated, world-class visitor attraction, will open on Saturday 1st May 2010.

Situated in the heart of the town that is synonymous with the British brewing industry, Burton upon Trent, the new centre will serve as a focal point for the celebration of the far-reaching influence that the town’s pioneering brewing methods have had throughout the world.

The site was originally home to the Bass Museum and more recently the Coors Visitor Centre, which closed during the summer of 2008. With the support of the brewer Molson Coors UK, Planning Solutions Ltd, the company behind this new venture has made some fundamental changes, which will broaden its appeal – particularly to families.

Mike Stickland, chairman of Planning Solutions, said: “We are looking forward to welcoming visitors to The National Brewery Centre.”

“We have been overwhelmed by the level of support in the town and from the industry as a whole. We’ve assembled a fantastic team here in Burton and they have all been working very hard to get everything ready.

“I’m sure that the visiting public will be pleased with what we have done to the site. Brewing history will come alive.”

‘Pepper’s Ghost’ – a holographic presenter starts off the tour, leading visitors on an entertaining journey through the evolution of brewing, from its ancient origins right through to the present day. After this introduction, visitors can explore the hundreds of displays, artefacts and exhibits that are located around the site, including a vast scale model of Burton in 1921 – showing the true extent of the mighty capital of brewing at that time.

There are six performers on site who, in authentic period costume, recreate real characters from the town’s history, including: Michael Thomas Bass II, brewery workers, a school mistress and an inn keeper. They will stay in character and interact with visitors, taking them back to a bygone age – offering an insight into life in Victorian times.

Adults will be able to sample four different ales in a beer tasting master class – learning how the different ingredients and techniques can influence taste, aroma and appearance.

Transport played an important role in the development of the industry and it is well represented at The National Brewery Centre. The mighty Shire horses, Major and Trooper, will be in the Centre’s stables during weekends, school and Bank Holidays. People will be able to get up close and meet the magnificent creatures.

There’s a collection of vintage vehicles that have been used in the brewing industry, from fire trucks to a 1920s Daimler in the shape of a bottle that was originally used to deliver advertising materials to pubs.

Steam enthusiasts will appreciate the No.9 Locomotive and Directors Carriage alongside a mock-up of a Victorian station platform. There’s also a working Robey steam engine that was once used to power a maltings.

After fully exploring all that the Centre has to offer, visitors can relax in the café, or dine in style in the Brewery Tap bar and restaurant. The restaurant offers a high-quality gastro-pub menu that is sourced from fresh local produce, where available.

There are also a range of ‘Beer Bites’ available which are a similar concept to Spanish Tapas. These dishes have been designed as the perfect accompaniment to the selection of six real ales on offer – many of which will have been brewed specially for the Centre by the on site White Shield micro-brewery.

It is planned that this brewery will be moved into a new area of the site so that it can become part of the visitor experience. This is expected to take place during the late summer months of 2010 and it will enable visitors to see at first hand how some of its famous real ales are created.

Steve Wellington, head brewer, said “I’m absolutely delighted to see the Centre open. We’ll now have the opportunity to recreate some real ales for visitor in the new William Worthington Brewery– many of which won’t have been commercially available for decades. Visitors will also be able to see the process of brewing first hand whilst in the old Joiners Shop, where the new brewery will be located. It really is a very exciting project and one that that I am proud to be part of.”

Leading beer writer and historian, Pete Brown, whose latest book called Hops and Glory, retraced the route of Burton’s famous India Pale Ale (IPA) from Burton to Calcutta. He commented: “Burton-on-Trent is the spiritual home of British brewing, renowned around the world as one of the most historic and important brewing sites on the planet. In recent years it’s been heartbreaking to see this legacy seemingly being lost. The National Brewery Centre is a giant step in restoring Burton to its former glory.”

Graeme Whitehead of Destination Staffordshire, the Destination Management Partnership (DMP), commented: As the primary marketing agency for tourism in Staffordshire, we much regretted the closure of the previous visitor attraction on this site. So we are overjoyed that it is to be re-opened with a wider scope and appeal and in the capable hands of operators, who we respect and know will make the new centre work. The Centre will prove, I’m sure, to be a key addition to the already strong and broad range of Staffordshire’s tourism product.”

Roger Protz, editor of the Good Beer Guide, who campaigned for the museum to be re-opened, said: “Britain has a fascinating brewing history and Burton-on-Trent has been at the heart of British brewing for centuries, first with Burton Ale then India Pale Ale and pale ale – beer styles that transformed brewing on a world scale. That history will now get the attention it deserves with The National Brewery Centre, which highlights the key role of Burton in developing Britain’s unique beer styles.

“But the centre is about more than history — it’s also about the future, too. The revival of both real ale and craft breweries in the Burton area chime with the opening of the centre. As well as audio-visual displays and artefacts, the centre will have a living, working brewery producing beer of the highest quality. There will be rooms and suites for meetings, seminars, conferences and research. I urge all who love and treasure British beer to use the centre to the full.”

Further details can be found at the website www.nationalbrewerycentre.co.uk