Lunchtime Meeting - 12.45pm - Speaker Lee Lucks and Graham Mitchell, Oswestry Borderlands Tourism - Zoom

Oswestry Borderland Tourism Ltd was recently awarded a grant from the Mary Hignett Bequest Fund to develop the Oswestry Ambassador Scheme.

This is an online, modular learning journey, due to be launched early 2022. It will be free to participants to enable everyone to learn more about the history, arts, culture and people of Oswestry.

By increasing local knowledge via the Ambassador Scheme, anyone who has an interest in Oswestry’s arts and heritage will then be able to share their expertise. This will not only benefit people working and volunteering in the local visitor economy but also anyone who enjoys learning about Oswestry through an online Ambassador scheme for Oswestry.

The Oswestry Tourism Ambassador scheme has had the initial set up funded by a DARG grant via Shropshire Council for the web site and initial 10 modules plus OBT funding for staff time to research and create the web site content.

As the scheme gathers pace, we want to vary the initial heritage modules and continue to broaden the scope of the scheme to attract many more ambassadors. We are requesting funds to cover one of the extra modules that will showcase Oswestry’s vibrant arts scene. Oswestry has a wide variety of local artists and the module will be an introduction to the artists, venues and events. We believe once locals and visitors are made aware of the many venues for local art and the variety of artisan products that are available, this will bring Oswestry’s arts programme to a wider audience and help to support the artists.

The Ambassador Scheme is part of Oswestry Borderlands Tourism wider aim of supporting our tourism and related businesses by encouraging more visitors, who bring in much needed local spend. This is particularly relevant with the rise of the Staycation and the more diverse offering Oswestry has to showcase, the wider the range of visitors we can attract.

As the scheme develops, we will source more funding to create extra modules to continue our Ambassadors’ interest.