Hampshire’s Top Attractions Getting Ready to Welcome You Back

Visitor attractions across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are gearing up for a hopeful summer following the latest government guidance. 

Over the past 12 months members of Hampshire’s Top Attractions, a 65 member strong collaborative marketing consortium, have experienced an array of emotions as the pandemic has forced them to close, pivot and look for alternative income streams. 

The latest announcement has provided a much-needed light at the end of the tunnel, allowing the attractions to work on reopening plans and summer activities.

During the closed months, Hampshire’s Top Attractions social media channels have remained positive and upbeat with the message of looking forward to brighter times and planning ahead. 

With the staggered opening dates of the 12th April, 17th May and 21st June, there is optimism that tourism will recover particularly with the expectation of staycations, for which Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are perfectly placed to offer. 

Looking ahead Hampshire’s Top Attractions will be helping visitors to the county to plan their days out and save money with over 20 discount offers for attractions, all of which are detailed on their website www.hampshireattractions.co.uk. 

There’s also plans for a Festival of Hampshire’s Top Attractions in June which will celebrate the diverse range of attractions and give them a much needed boost.

The pandemic put a number of key launches and events on hold but it is finally great news for attractions such as Paultons Park who after 10 months from the planned date, will be launching Tornado Springs, a new themed world for the Romsey attraction which reopens on the 12th April.

Rob Griffiths, Head of Marketing and Communications at Paultons Park says, “We are looking forward to re-opening the park for 2021 and welcoming guests back to enjoy a visit to our brand-new land, Tornado Springs for the very first time. We’ll continue to work in line with local and national government restrictions to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for all.

After a quiet few months we are looking forward to seeing our wonderful guests again – it’ll certainly be worth the wait!”

Ensuring visitors feel safe is top priority for all the attractions, and the indoor Winchester Science Centre has seen a positive response to their safety measures.

Sarah Bull, Head of Marketing at Winchester Science Centre comments, “Our charity places the health, safety and enjoyment of our visitors and staff as its number one priority. As an indoor, hands-on attraction we have had to adapt the way we do things as a result of the pandemic. Alongside our usual cleaning programme we have reduced our capacity, introduced timed entry, placed sanitising stations next to our most popular exhibits and introduced weekly fogging (a well-established non-toxic disinfectant spraying method used in hospitals that is harmless to humans but kills 99.99% of bacteria). 

We are working with our visitors to create a safe and enjoyable day out and their response has been overwhelming, from the numbers of people we saw return following the first lockdown to the positive comments we’ve received about our safety measures.

We can’t wait to see visitors in the Science Centre again following this latest lockdown. From 22 May we’ll be coming back with a bang, literally, with a brand new free live science show called Sound Detectives - an adventure to uncover the truth about natural and unnatural sound, filled with explosive live science!”

Hampshire’s Top Attractions will also be promoting the events and activities taking place across Hampshire. There is clearly an appetite for people looking for experiences and The Watercress Line is already planning to repeat the Steam illuminations in 2021. 

Jules Johns, Marketing Manager at The Mid Hants Railway 'Watercress Line' said, "We had an amazing response to our Steam Illuminations event we held in December 2020 with a lot of positive feedback from both visitors and local residents saying the colourfully lit train was a real joy to see and cheered them up during the tough times happening with Covid-19. People seemed so happy to be out of the house and the event ended up selling out, with requests for tickets this year!"

The event was the first of its kind for the steam railway with over 15,000 passengers visiting within the 16 days and an incredible audience reach of over 61 million!

Hampshire’s Top Attractions will continue work in a collaborative manner to not only support the recovery of the tourism but also to help families plan fun days out across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. 

For more information on days out visit www.hampshireattractions.co.uk