Visitor Experience Masterplanning Consultants | PSC

 

Heritage options appraisal
Visitor Centre Feasibility Study
Kent Heritage Attraction Consultant

Visitor Experience Masterplanning Consultants

We work within multi-disciplinary teams including landscape architects, ecologists, chartered surveyors and architects to develop visitor experience masterplans for visitor attractions, nature reserves, country parks, forests and coastal destinations, turning a site’s potential into a deliverable visitor experience masterplan, including a supporting action plan

Each masterplan draws on site context analysis, policy and planning contexts, market trends, benchmarking against comparable sites, stakeholder consultation and primary visitor research. We test the options using a bespoke scoring matrix, so clients can see where to prioritise future investment.

Our masterplanning services cover

  • Stakeholder, visitor and community engagement
  • Strategic and planning policy context
  • Market assessment and demand analysis
  • Identifying product and service opportunities
  • Options appraisal and scenario selection
  • Phasing for delivery and operation
  • Masterplan preparation, often working alongside landscape architects, ecologists, quantity surveyors and architects

Projects we have worked on

  • Broadland District Council: Prepared a development masterplan and supporting business plan to develop Broadland Country Park
  • Buckinghamshire County Council: We prepared a visitor experience masterplan to improve the visitor experience and the long-term business prospects of Langley Park, where Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown designed part of the landscape
  • Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council: Community, visitor and stakeholder engagement to support the preparation of a masterplan and supporting financial analysis to transform
  • Gnoll Estate Country Park. Latterly, worked with the Council team on a successful funding application to the Levelling Up Fund – securing over £12m in development funding
  • Forestry England: Bedgebury National Pinetum covers 130 hectares of land at Bedgebury Forest, which sits within the High Weald AONB. Working as sub-consultants to landscape architects, Planning Solutions Consulting’s work focused on stakeholder engagement, conducting a module of primary research, reviewing existing visitor data, and carrying out a market assessment to help inform the development of the landscape masterplan
  • Natural Resources Wales: Prepared a visitor experience masterplan for Afan Forest Park, a mountain biking destination, including advising on delivery and future governance options
  • Hampshire County Council: Prepared a visitor experience masterplan for Titchfield Haven National Nature Reserve
  • Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council: Prepared a masterplan and supporting business case to transform the offer at Cefn Coed Colliery Museum and create a gateway visitor centre hub to the Valleys Regional Park
  • Cadw: Working with Arad, we prepared a 10 Year Commercial Masterplan for Caerphilly Castle, with supporting financial analysis, which secured £10m in funding
  • Tourism South East and Havant Borough Council: Working in a multi-disciplinary team (architects and landscape architects), we produced a destination masterplan for Hayling

We can also produce the supporting business plan.

What makes us different

Visitor experience masterplans succeed or fail on whether they can actually be delivered and whether they are financially sustainable over the long term. Through our sister company, Planning Solutions Limited (PSL), we not only advise on visitor attractions and tourism businesses; we also operate them. That day-to-day operating experience helps shape the visitor experience master plans we produce.

PSL manages:

  • Conkers — discovery centre set within 120 acres, including a covered amphitheatre
  • Kent Life Heritage Park — celebrating rural life across Kent
  • Cotswold Country Park and Beach — seasonal country park and water sports destination
  • The Royal Esplanade Hotel — 70-bed hotel on the Isle of Wight
  • Burton Bridge Brewery and the Burton Bridge Inn
  • National Brewery Centre (formerly the Bass Museum), managed 2010–2022

Producing a visitor experience masterplan: How can we help?

Whether you’re producing a new visitor masterplan, reviewing an existing one, or need a feasibility study to test the vision first, we’d be glad to help. Contact Richard Linington on 07866 742628 or richard@pslplan.co.uk to discuss your project.