Reasons for rebranding:
- Poor transport infrastructure – 5 hours to get to London for example – poor train services and lack of bus services due to rural aspects
- Low wages – average weekly wage in Cornwall was 25% less than the national average
- Unemployment
- Ageing population – economically active move away for better employment – ageing people move there in retirement to be at coastal locations – ‘brain drain’
- Decline of industry – tin mining – fishing stocks were over-exploited
Rebranding schemes and results
- Water sports centre at Watergate Bay – aimed at young age groups – surfing is one of the main activities – has also increased interest in Watergate Hotel (employment doubled there after the opening of the sports centre) – makes it a more interesting place, more activities for young people to do there, people may be encouraged to come back
- Creation of a ‘knowledge economy’ – universities have joined to combat ‘brain drain’ – schemes to get graduates in the area into quick employment following their graduation to stop people moving away to work
- Greater investment in arts, culture, heritage etc – makes the area more interesting so attracts more people there – can then improve the economy
- Diversification of farming – employing the tourist aspect more to improve the industry economically – Legg’s Farm Shop got an additional £600,000 in revenue in 3 years after being formed and appealing more to tourists
- Eden Project botanical gardens were created in 2001 – within 6 months, it became the 3rd most visited attraction in the UK – 400 permanent jobs initially, and 75% of the employees had been unemployed before so this was very beneficial for the economy – however, the popularity of the Eden Project resulted in quite a lot of traffic congestion – the area’s carbon footprint grew significantly which would not give a positive image or perception of the area
- South West Theatre was created in the early 2000s, but went bankrupt in 2004, so a lot of people lost their jobs – not a positive image as services could not be retained, so the rebranding efforts in this sense were not wholly successful