Feasibility Study into the Development of an Online Tourism Packaging Solution

The Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership (the LEP) leads the growth of the Cheshire and Warrington economy through a powerful partnership between the private, public, and voluntary sectors to make the sub-region the UK's healthiest, most sustainable, inclusive and growing economy. As part of the LEP, Marketing Cheshire (MC) is the sub-region's Destination Management Organisation/emerging Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP), responsible for positioning Cheshire as a great place to live, work, study, invest and visit, working in partnership with the sub-region's three local authorities and tourism and hospitality businesses.

Marketing Cheshire is looking to assess the potential to develop a new way of promoting and selling short breaks in Cheshire West and Chester. Working with a number of rurally based attractions and accommodation providers (led by the Ice Cream Farm), there is an appetite for businesses to work together to create new packages for visitors, combining attractions with accommodation to provide good value packages for families looking to do something fun. We are looking to appoint a provider to develop a feasibility study to include a commercial case, potential suppliers and clear recommendations. The output from this feasibility study, should the conclusion be that an online packaging solution is viable, will then form the basis for a request for additional funding, to procure and implement the solution.

We would like to explore the feasibility of developing a new platform which brings together experiences, attractions and accommodation as bookable packages. This could be either as recommended packages (similar to secretescapes.com) or as a pick and mix type option allowing the customer to create their own packages.

If you have any specific questions concerning this document or the process for submission of your proposal, then please email through to: [email protected] no later than noon on the 29th September. Only questions submitted to this email address will be answered. Queries received after this date will not be accepted and will not be responded to.

It would be most helpful if queries could be submitted in one email rather than piecemeal. If any question or request for clarification is considered to be of material significance, both the question and the response may be issued for review by all potential providers in a suitably anonymous form. All communication received from potential providers will be treated in strict confidence but are subject to this paragraph.

The closing date and time for the receipt of submissions is 15:00 hours (3pm) on Friday 6th October 2023. 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.