Development and implementation of a destination website

As part of the LEP, Marketing Cheshire is the Destination Management Organisation (DMO) for Cheshire whose responsibility is to market and promote the destination as a great place to live, work, invest and visit. We operate several distinctive brands to cover specific markets, from B2B to B2C. Our consumer facing brand Visit Cheshire is the touch point for attracting over 3m visitors annually to the county. We recognise that a strong digital offering is essential to improving on our visitor numbers, and ensuring we have the systems in place that grow with demand and flex with our specific markets. Alongside our visit brand we hold the rights to 'Meet'; a consumer facing brand for conferencing and business tourism. Marketing Cheshire is a Local Visitor Economy Partnership recognised by Visit England, bringing our visitor economy in Cheshire and Warrington together under a shared vision and set of goals.

The critical infrastructure that underpins the Visit Cheshire brand is visitcheshire.com our destination website and DCMS (Destination Content Management System) which has been the platform for much of our digital offer since 2018 and is our primary marketing tool for consumer activity. Consumer behaviour and expectations of visitors have changed, as has website functionality, technology and design, particularly in the Destination Management industry where websites are inspirational and visual rather than informational. Our current website is nearing end of life at a time when our marketing tools and systems need to be dynamic, flexible, and adaptive to consumer trends. More significantly given our ambitions to make Cheshire a nationally recognisable destination, the infrastructure that underpins our digital offer should match this ambition.

We are therefore looking to appoint a provider to develop a new visit website and DCMS that underpins our destination led digital offer. The output from this project provides an opportunity for the provider to develop a long-term relationship with Marketing Cheshire and support on additional digital projects around visitcheshire.com and our ancillary brands.

If you have any specific questions concerning this document or the process for submission of your proposal, then please email through to: [email protected].

The closing date and time for the receipt of submissions is 15:00 hours (3pm) on the 29th March 2024. Late submissions will not be accepted. Submissions will only be accepted if they are returned via email to [email protected] stating in the email subject which tender the submission relates to. Submissions sent by other means may not be accepted at the discretion of the Local Enterprise Partnership.