Kent’s tourism megaphone suddenly switched off
Plus KCC set to sell off five sites for housing, latest donations to Kent MPs, a questionable descent, news in brief, and more
The collapse of an organisation tasked with marketing Kent to the world might not sound like the most important of issues. Still, the loss of Visit Kent this week profoundly impacts scores of small businesses that form part of the county’s £4bn tourism sector. Further down, we have news of five sites that KCC are proposing to sell off to become housing, the latest donations to Kent’s MPs, a questionable descent, news in brief and more.
Kent’s tourism megaphone suddenly switched off
From the outside, Visit Kent looked like little more than a cheery website and an events guide for our county. Castles, coastal walks, beer festivals, and theatre all featured heavily. A nice bit of PR fluff for the so-called Garden of England.
In reality, it was the county’s coordination machine for selling itself. Tourism, by its nature, is messy. Thousands of small operators, a patchwork of councils, heritage bodies, hospitality providers, and festivals, all shouting at once. A destination organisation attempts to turn that noise into a sellable story.
Visit Kent did that job for more than twenty years. It ran the campaigns, pitched Kent to potential visitors, courted organisations, and quietly stitched the sector together. It produced visitor data, trained businesses, and gave everyone from breweries to museums a chance to ride on the back of a county-wide brand. Perhaps most importantly, it kept the calendar we used ourselves to find events worth flagging in this publication.
That all ended yesterday when Visit Kent ceased trading. Insolvency firm Crowe has been appointed to liquidate. The website is now dominated by a simple message pointing people to them.
This isn’t just Kent’s problem. Visit Kent sat under Go To Places, the umbrella body that also ran Visit Herts. Go To Places itself has gone into liquidation, taking both operations with it. It is also unclear what happens to the organisation's more local subsidiary sites, like Visit Medway, Visit Canterbury, and Visit Gravesham.
The economic stakes are clear. Tourism in Kent is worth around £4bn each year and supports about 11% of jobs. The big attractions can still buy advertising. The smaller players, like local museums, craft workshops, and markets, relied on Visit Kent to be visible.
Kent County Council called the collapse “a significant loss to the county.” Paul King, the Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Coastal Regeneration, put it bluntly: “This is a sad day for Kent and will undoubtedly impact the profile and marketing reach of our great county as a tourist destination. The Garden of England is a national treasure, but it still has to stand out in a hugely competitive market for people’s time and money and Visit Kent has served as an important champion in that regard.”
He also pointed to the funding picture. “Government reductions in funding to Visit England have had wide reaching repercussions, and investment Visit Kent as our Local Visitor Economy Partnership had anticipated from Government has therefore regrettably not come forward. The visitor economy of Kent is likely to suffer, impacting hundreds of local businesses as a result.”
King confirmed KCC would be writing to the government and added: “We continue to be incredibly proud of Kent’s offer to visitors, and are determined that we find a way forward, with partners, that this can continue to be recognised.”
Ashford Borough Council put out its own statement promising to “work closely with all stakeholders and partners throughout this transitional period.” Other districts will likely say similar things, but the reality is that until a new body appears, each council will be left fighting its own corner for attention.
The knock-on effects of organisations like Visit Kent disappearing create more challenging conditions for the county. Much as we like to poke fun at them, media mentions will fall, so that’s less of the Telegraph declaring Folkestone the ‘new Brighton’ or the Mirror optimistically comparing Ramsgate to Amalfi. The county becomes harder to package as a single offer, with smaller operators struggling to be found by more casual visitors. The odds are that everyone will spend more to reach fewer people.
Tourism marketing is slow work. Relationships are built over years. Campaigns need to run year after year before they stick. A sudden collapse risks wiping that slate clean, and whoever comes next may have to start from scratch.
KCC has said it will fund a replacement organisation. That was announced today, so details are thin at the moment, with no name, no structure, and no timetable. But there is at least a commitment that Kent will have a county-wide voice again, but as always, the details will matter as to how successful an operation it will be.
Kent hasn’t gone quiet. The events and attractions remain, and a replacement body is promised. The task now is to rebuild the megaphone fast enough to keep Kent’s story in front of the potential visitors to our county who provide so much to our economy.
Latest donations to Kent MPs
The Register of Members’ Financial Interests is where all MPs must register donations, gifts, and hospitality they receive. On the most recent update to the register, some Kent MPs have had some pretty substantial additions to declare:
Tom Tugendhat (Conservative, Tonbridge) received over £2,500 from Sulnox Group, an environmental science and technology company, to cover airfare for attending a board meeting in Greece.
Kevin McKenna (Labour, Sittingbourne and Sheppey) is receiving communication support to the value of £500 each month from June until the end of the year from Homes for Britain Ltd.
Tony Vaughan (Labour, Folkestone and Hythe) was paid over £2,000 for work he completed as a barrister before he became an MP, and another £381.60 for 48 minutes of work he completed in July.
Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat, Tunbridge Wells) received four donations from private individuals totalling £4,450.
Like what you’re reading? Send it to a friend in Kent, or even that neighbour you only sort of like.
Siri, define ‘descent’
We’re trying to take a week off from writing about flags, but our eyebrows were raised by a story on KentOnline that claimed anti-immigration protestors had ‘descended’ on the Holiday Inn in Ashford.
That ‘descent’ in full:
By our count, it’s seven people with flags outside a hotel. Seven. If that qualifies as a descent, we’ll be breaking news on the next great descent upon the lunch queue at one of the county’s Greggs.
KCC set to sell off five sites for housing
Kent County Council is preparing to offload a bundle of land and buildings it no longer wants. Five sites, from old school grounds to farmland held in reserve for projects that never happened, are set for disposal at next week’s Policy and Resources Cabinet Committee, with developers expected to eye them for housing.
The biggest is in Hextable, where the former Oasis Academy has stood empty since 2016. The 38-acre site stretches from scrubland and playing fields to a lime tree avenue. Council papers suggest it could take anywhere between 75 and 250 homes, though the South East Dance Studio, still in use thanks to lottery funding, is expected to be excluded from any sale.
A few miles away in Wilmington, the former Rowhill Primary School has been mothballed since 2010. What’s left of the single-storey buildings is in poor shape, and KCC currently spends around £30,000 a year on securing the site. Dartford Borough Council has indicated that around 20 homes could be acceptable there.
Two Tonbridge and Malling sites are also heading for sale. Four hectares of farmland once earmarked for a scrapped road scheme near West Malling are currently leased out for farming at £1 a year. 50 homes have been suggested for the site, with pre-planning advice already being taken. Meanwhile, in Aylesford, a plot off Pratling Street was once meant for a primary school, an idea first floated back in the 1970s. Nothing was ever built, and today it’s used for horse grazing. Advice has been sought on building 49 homes there.
Rounding things off is Gravesend, where 7.5 acres of grassland off Westcott Avenue were once held back for potential school expansion. That’s no longer on the cards, so the land is being pitched as suitable for up to 106 homes.
All five disposals will be considered by councillors next week. If approved, they’ll be marketed from late 2025 with sales likely to follow in 2026.
In brief
🌊 Maidstone High Street is at risk of flooding due to an eight-year-old dispute between Kent County Council and Maidstone Borough Council.
🏘️ Planning officers in Folkestone & Hythe have recommended that councillors approve a 105-home development in Sellindge. The plans include affordable and self-build housing, commercial space, and a school extension.
🏠 In Swale, approval is recommended for a 90-home development in Iwade. The scheme includes 40% affordable provision, but the scheme has over 100 objections. Also in Iwade, plans have been submitted for a new 156-home development in the town.
☀️ Also in Swale, planning officers recommend approving plans for a 65-hectare solar farm development south of Sittingbourne.
🏡 Plans have been submitted for a 66-home development in Wateringbury.
🏗️ Construction of luxury flats in Folkestone, which stalled 18 months ago, leaving two giant concrete towers overlooking the town, is set to get underway again ‘soon.’
👨💼 A new chair of the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation has been appointed. Dr David Prout is a current Pro-Vice Chancellor at Oxford University, but will take up the challenge of accelerating the delivery of new homes in the town.
🚗 Kent County Council spent nearly £80,000 to add red paint and new lines to a ‘turbo roundabout’ in Maidstone.
👮 A Kent Police officer has been dismissed after pleading guilty to assaulting his partner.
🗣️ A Medway councillor found to have bullied a nursery boss has insisted that ‘all is not as it seems.’
🗳️ Maidstone Borough Council will hold a by-election in Harrietsham, Lenham & North Downs ward on 2 October following the resignation of three independent councillors. If you want to be a candidate, you have until tomorrow to put your name forward.
🧑💻 An independent councillor representing Garlinge ward on Thanet District Council has resigned, triggering a by-election for the seat.
🦽 New government funding worth £34m will support disabled people and those with complex health conditions in Kent to find employment. Dartford MP Jim Dickson was particularly enthused about the news, speaking in parliament about what it could mean for his constituents.
💥 Bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled explosion on Westgate-on-Sea beach after a metal detectorist found suspected ordnance.
🔬 A non-profit company developing cancer research tools has opened its first lab at Discovery Park in Sandwich.
🎣 An angler in Ashford is angry about the smell of the River Stour, but the Environment Agency says nothing is wrong.
🧬 Ancient DNA shows two people buried in 7th-century Kent and Dorset had recent West African ancestry, the first direct evidence of such diversity in early medieval Britain.
🤖 Thanet District Council will hold an Extraordinary General Purposes Committee next week to agree on an AI policy. Sure, why not?
💫 The Northern Lights were visible in parts of Kent this week, but as we’re tucked up in bed by 10pm, we failed to see them.
More Currents
In our midweek feature for our paying subscribers, we examined the coalfield history of Kent, an industrial past somewhat at odds with the Garden of Kent branding the county prides itself on.
When Kent was coal country
Kent sells itself carefully. The Garden of England, the White Cliffs, the gateway to Europe, the county of orchards, hop gardens, and cathedral spires are an evocative image. The marketing works, with people outside the county rarely imagining anything beyond chalk downs and seaside piers.
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If KCC had just waited a month or two, they could have got red paint on their roundabout for free...