Planning Solutions Consulting Limited are not town and country planners, but rather we specialise in preparing development plans and business plans for a range of tourist accommodation and other tourism projects. We often support planners and other professionals including architects, masterplanners and landscape architects on tourist accommodation projects.
When submitting a planning application for a tourist accommodation project the Council can request as part the planning application the applicant should carry a feasibility study or prepare a supporting business plan. This is used to demonstrate the financial viability of the tourism development scheme and the market demand for new visitor accommodation / bedstock.
Each project is different, but in broad terms our approach includes:
- Site assessment
- Review of strategic policy documents, for example, the Destination Management Plan. This is to help ensure the proposed tourist accommodation project helps to deliver key strategic outcomes
- Market assessment, which would assess the tourism market in terms of long-term trends (occupancy levels being achieved in the region, bednights, spend) and review the residential population living within the two-hour drivetime contour of the development site, which helps to identify the available size of the market. The market analysis helps to identify demand for additional visitor accommodation
- Competitive review, which will help to ensure the proposals for visitor accommodation are distinct in the marketplace or at the very least add to the critical mass of the tourist accommodation base in a positive way
- Financial trading profile focusses on developing occupancy and tariff models and preparing a five-year trading forecast, which could include a sensitivity analysis
- Impacts – it will also be important to set out some of the positive impacts associated with introducing visitor accommodation from job creation through to place making
As a landowner or developer, you may already have developed a specific accommodation scheme or you may be at the early stage of planning the scheme. We can advise on the scale and type of development from a market and operational perspective. One of our directors before setting up Planning Solutions in 1995 was a senior director at Rank Hotels and Development where he played a leading role in developing the Oasis Holiday Village in Cumbria which was subsequently acquired by Center Parcs. Our sister company also manages a number of tourism businesses including a hotel on the Isle of Wight, three visitor attractions and an activity centre. We have found that this practical hands-on operational experience helps to create a significant positive impact when working on tourism development projects and brings a strong commercial realism to projects.
Some of the tourist accommodation projects we have worked on include:
- Gnoll Estate Country Park: Feasibility study and masterplan to identify the opportunity to introduce appropriate visitor accommodation within the country park
- Rempstone Estate: Business plan and development plan to test the financial viability of introduce forest lodges alongside an existing camping business. Please click here to find out more about the project
- Forest Holidays: Site reviews, market assessments and business plans to support the development of their luxury forest cabin product across the UK. Please click here to find out more about the project
- Thanet: Future visitor accommodation strategy across the wider district, to support the development of the visitor accommodation
- Gwent Levels: Feasibility to assess the opportunity of developing low impact and sustainable visitor accommodation
Find out about our other visitor accommodation projects here.
How can we help?
If you are submitting a planning application or thinking about developing a visitor accommodation project and would like to discuss how we could potentially assist you, please don’t hesitate to contact Richard Linington (richard@pslplan.co.uk) or call 07866 742628.