Photo above: Cookery Workshops at Chequers Kitchen Cookery School in Deal is one of 16 visitor experiences on the programme
White Cliffs Country – the tourism and visitor arm of Dover District Council – has announced that 16 businesses from across the district, including the towns of Deal, Dover and Sandwich, will be offering new visitor experiences, having been accepted onto the Interreg EXPERIENCE programme launched this week by Visit Kent.
EXPERIENCE will provide new and exciting Covid-safe opportunities for visitors to White Cliffs Country and Kent, with a range of innovative visitor experiences that meet the growing demand for experiential tourism. With a clear focus on sustainability,
EXPERIENCE aims to boost off-season tourism by delivering experiences that can be enjoyed all year round and which use seasonal opportunity to their advantage.
The project, which has been part-funded by Dover District Council, has been well received from the tourism industry within White Cliffs Country. Businesses have been working hard to develop a variety of inspirational activities to engage visitors in the post-Covid world, and which follow visitor trends for personalised and local tourism experiences that can be enjoyed safely.
In Dover District, the businesses accepted to the EXPERIENCE programme and their corresponding new visitor experiences are:
Barnsole Vineyard – to offer a new wine tasting experience
The Bay Trust – to offer new off-season workshops
Bell Hotel – to offer a new Medieval Weekend in Sandwich
Betteshanger Park – to offer new creative activities, based on the natural environment and Kent’s mining heritage within the park
Bright Moon Tai Chi – offering Chi Gong and meditation on Deal beach
Chequers Kitchen Cookery School – cookery workshops in partnership with accommodation providers
England Plus Tours – clifftop and seaside history and wildlife walks
History Project – offering immersive ‘Smugglers’ evening tours in Deal
Kent Craft Hive – offering tile-making creative experiences using local plant material
Keep Your Fork – offering wellbeing walks for women
Land Train – offering a tour highlighting historical places of interest and promoting local businesses
Princes Golf Club – offering golf with a professional plus a yoga or foraging experience on site
Sandwich Guildhall Museum – to offer tours of the Guildhall with afternoon tea
Vinoteq and Dover Tales – to offer a journey through the forgotten history of Dover’s role in the wine and spirits trade
Ten Mile Collective – to offer creative workshops in Dover
Wild Kitchen – to offer foraging for wild food on a bicycle tour.
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Future visitors to White Cliffs Country can now look forward to new and creative ways to experience the natural landscapes, beautiful countryside, striking coastline, fascinating history and heritage, traditional culture, sporting opportunities, outdoor activities and food and drink with which the unique destination is so richly resourced.
With further news on White Cliffs Country EXPERIENCE projects to follow, in addition, rural tourism businesses within White Cliffs Country have been developing products for Kent Downs AONB’s Countryside Experience Development Programme. The programme supports businesses, organisations and individuals to develop sustainable rural tourism experiences in the Kent Downs AONB and along the North Downs Way, to encourage visitors all year round. An announcement on successful applicants is due to be made shortly.