This week, the students on KMTV's Year In Television course are talking all things tourism, looking at what visitors to the county can experience and enjoy.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Made in Kent live on KMTV. I'm Azaria Gale and this week we're
00:28looking at tourism. With the sun slowly returning to our skies, the Garden of
00:32England is getting geared up to bloom once more, hopefully to welcome a new
00:38wave of tourists to its streets. But first we asked the residents of
00:42Rochester if they believe Kent's businesses are doing enough to encourage
00:46and sustain tourism in the county. Here's what they had to say. I think it's quite
00:51tourist friendly, yeah. I think it's got quite a few sites. I think it's brilliant, yeah.
00:54Tourism is definitely good for the county. It brings employment, good jobs, good
00:59restaurants, etc. I think it's an incredibly tourist friendly area. Yeah, obviously
01:05people coming here spending money is always good. I think bolstering the
01:08historical significance of the South East, obviously there's a lot of history here.
01:12Rochester's a beautiful part of Kent, but there are also lots of others. If you go down to Canterbury, just down the road, it's a very similar sort of city. Lots of students and those
01:23students bring with them a lot of tourism. Locals provide the constant amount of income and tourists, obviously there's waves. You get Christmas boom during the
01:33Dickens Festival and the other festivals that are here, and they're really stressful busy
01:36times. Obviously they make a lot of money, but yeah, it's very stressful. It's not as
01:41well publicised as it was 20 or 30 years ago. Any tourism is great for local
01:46businesses. I'm not a local business woman, but I think I would be
01:50incredibly happy if I knew there was a festival about to take place. They used
01:54to use adverts on the underground, things like that, and promote the festivals and
02:00things a lot more than what they do now. For me, the benefit of tourism is global
02:05education, world education. When the festivals are on, it's so busy, it becomes a
02:12bit irritating. It's a great way of enabling people to find commonalities
02:16rather than differences. And in the current political climate, really, that's what we need more than anything else.
02:23Let's have a look at a business that has taken advantage of the city's rich historic past and turned it into an immersive experience for locals and tourists alike.
02:32Canterbury Historic River Tours gives people the chance to take in the captivating views around the city, all while travelling along the River Stour. Alex Abrahams went down to speak to them to find out more.
02:43Canterbury Historic River Tours have been operating since the 1930s, providing award-winning guided tours on the River Stour.
02:51So the business that we run here is obviously a tourism-related business. We offer fully guided tours. They're 45 minutes long. We go up and down about a mile stretch of the River Stour in the beautiful city centre of Canterbury.
03:03On top of seeing a lot of beautiful historic sites, we also get to see stunning wildlife and nature while we're on the tour.
03:10The tour guides row the boat for you, so you really just get to sit back, relax and listen to the history of the city. It's all based on the local history as well.
03:17So we try and give you a bit of a grounding in the city that you're visiting, or maybe the city that you're living in.
03:22Peak season, is what we call it, would be between about July and the very end of August, the start of September, so effectively the summer holidays.
03:31On the very busiest days, we've got boats of 12 people, you're rowing eight tours a day. That's not even to mention what the sales people are doing up on the bridge there.
03:42As well as historic tours, they provide relaxing evening tours, city walking tours and educational tours for schools.
03:49Compared to other businesses, the most unique part about ours is that we are a rowboat company. The other companies are punting companies, so that's something you'd see in Cambridge or boats in Venice as well.
03:59But ours are converted from old lifeboats, so they're extra safe. Also, we're a little more accessible, so some people laying down on a punt, that's not really possible for them.
04:07So sitting down on one of our bench seats makes it just a little bit easier for some customers, and we like to pride ourselves on that.
04:13Understanding the history of a given area just helps you feel better in touch with it.
04:18So if you're a local, if you've grown up here, that has its own merits and benefits, but even if you're moving here from somewhere else, it can help you feel more connected to the community.
04:26It can help you get yourself better integrated and comfortable, I suppose.
04:31Now here's Sean giving us an idea of what you can expect from one of these historic tours.
04:36We start off and we see the King's Bridge behind us, a very, very old bridge dating back to the 12th century.
04:43After the King's Bridge, we head up towards the Franciscan Gardens, a very, very beautiful set of gardens founded by St. Francis of Assisi, or his followers at least.
04:51We come past the beautiful Weaver's House here, founded by the Huguenots that came to Canterbury during the French Wars of Religion.
04:57After that we head past the Marlowe Theatre, named after Christopher Marlowe, in my opinion the best playwright in English history.
05:02Then we of course make our way back up to the jetty where we finish and we talk about the ducking stool that you can see from Canterbury's High Street,
05:08and we tell you all about the misconceptions and the real uses of this stool.
05:12Alex Abrahams for KMTV.
05:16If you prefer something a bit more adrenaline inducing and on dry land, Arthur Navarro-Allen has just the thing for that as well.
05:23A hub for motor racing in the middle of the Kentish countryside, Bugmore Park has a history stretching back over 60 years, with many famous names attached.
05:34What started as a collaboration between the Royal Engineers and the Boy Scouts has blossomed into an international affair.
05:40Many legendary names are tied to the club, from John Surtees to Lando Norris, with the likes of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton in between.
05:48But you don't have to be an F1 driver to get behind the wheel here.
05:52We run a multitude of different experiences here from people that have never sat in a car or a vehicle before.
06:00Some of our youngest drivers actually start from six years old in our Bambino training school,
06:05and we have quite an in-depth training programme for those drivers.
06:09From eight years old, you can just come and have a half an hour session here.
06:13Obviously, there's quite a long safety briefing first before they're out on the circuit,
06:17and the karts themselves actually at that age are actually remotely controlled on their speeds if we need to slow them down, things like that.
06:25And then as people progress through and then the more they get involved in it,
06:29we have different areas of training that you can be involved with with our instructors.
06:33Although we're a motorsport venue, you don't need to have a licence to race here, you don't need to have your own kart.
06:39You can come here, you can book, we supply everything.
06:43We've got the karts, we've got the equipment, the race suits, gloves, helmets, things like that.
06:48And it's just getting that message out to make it clear to people that we're available.
06:52Each day you'd think would be the same, but it's not.
06:56Obviously, each group is slightly different from doing junior races to corporate to 24-hour races, owner-driver weekends.
07:05But yeah, every day, make sure the staff are getting everything sorted,
07:10make sure all the groups are welcomed nicely, make them comfortable,
07:15and then oversee the events on circuit, make sure it's all run properly and safely.
07:20That's the day-to-day operations here, but what overall vision is the company pushing towards?
07:25As a circuit, we actually cover two aspects.
07:29So first up and foremost for us is motorsport.
07:32We are motor racing at the end of the day, but the other side of that is kind of the experience,
07:38the tourism and the leisure aspect of that.
07:41So at different times throughout years, we've had many difficult periods, obviously over COVID.
07:49Being an outdoor circuit, it did help a little bit because we could be slightly more open than other venues.
07:55But when you've got a team of 60 staff and you cannot open for months at a time,
08:01it became a really, really difficult time for us.
08:04Last week, I had somebody fly over just for a weekend, just for two or three practice sessions.
08:11A lot of our events, including the 24, is such a big event on the calendar
08:16that many drivers come from all over the UK, Europe, just to take part in that event.
08:22Obviously, locals will be here during the week,
08:27but the corporate events are coming from London and all over the UK, but yeah, all over.
08:34Obviously, we are always looking to stay at the top of our game and be the best circuit in the country,
08:41if not the world, and that does involve constant development.
08:46The next part of our plan is really based around the driver development programme that we're running.
08:57Kent has even more, plus a long history of tourism in the county.
09:01Earlier, I was joined by Tim Forster to take a closer look at these.
09:06Thank you so much for joining me, Tim.
09:08So how much does a county benefit from tourism?
09:11Well, the tourism aspect is incredibly important to Kent.
09:14As according to data published this year by the Kent County Council,
09:18the tourist sector provides Kent with over 76,000 jobs
09:22and contributes over £4.1 billion to the county's economy.
09:26The council claims that Kent has over 5,000 tourism-related enterprises,
09:31which makes up 9.1% of all enterprises in the county.
09:35The highest concentration of these being found along the coastal areas of Thanet, Folkestone High and Dover.
09:41I hear that you've been specifically looking into zoos and animal-based tourist destinations in the county.
09:48Can you tell me more about that?
09:50Well, it's interesting because the council actually classed these businesses
09:53as botanical and zoological gardens and nature reserves.
09:56And they make up, according to Kent County Council, 0.3% of the county's businesses.
10:02And can you give us some examples of these businesses?
10:05Well, famously, there's the two sister zoos, Port Lim and Howlitz.
10:09The former being opened in 1976, the latter a bit earlier, 1957.
10:14But both parks are sanctuary to over 400 rare and endangered animals.
10:19They're owned by the Aspinall Foundation,
10:21and both parks make a commitment to conservation and preservation, both in Kent and overseas.
10:26It's also interesting to note that both parks surround large estate houses
10:32that share their names, with Port Lim's house being built in 1913 and Howlitz house in 1787,
10:38making it a landmark of Kent's history.
10:40We also have the Buttercup Sanctuary for goats in Maidstone,
10:44which is the only registered goat sanctuary in the UK.
10:47They first started to form when the two owners, Bob and Valerie Hitch,
10:51adopted two unwanted goats back in 1989,
10:54and have since taken on approximately 120 goats in total.
10:58The sanctuary now has become a natural tourist destination
11:01that offers keeper experiences, encounters with animals, and husbandry courses.
11:07And then to one slightly smaller business, but no less important, of course,
11:11is the Fenbell Inn in Norhallows.
11:14It's a simple pub that opened in 1891,
11:17and then in 2017 it was granted a zoo licence by Medway Council
11:21and proudly started the Fenbell Conservation Project.
11:24The pub now houses an eight-acre zoo in the previous pub's garden and beyond,
11:30and has also raised over £9,000 for their charity work and for the conservation of animals,
11:35so it's not a bad place to get fun.
11:37Great, that's really interesting. Thank you so much for joining me, Tim.
11:41Well, that's all from us tonight. Have a very good evening.
11:43See you soon. Goodbye.