Peterborough’s Tourism Reset Takes the Regional Stage
Discover Peterborough will join destination organisations from across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough at the region’s first Visitor Economy Conference, sharing the story of a city that has rediscovered its appetite for tourism and is now entering a new phase of investment and collaboration.
Peterborough’s renewed focus on tourism will move onto a regional stage this month when Discover Peterborough joins the first Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Visitor Economy Conference at Peterborough Cathedral.
The conference on Tuesday 29 September will bring together destination organisations, tourism businesses, visitor attractions, cultural organisations and public-sector partners from across the region, with Discover Peterborough taking part in the Meet your Cambridgeshire & Peterborough LVEP session.
The timing is significant for the city.
Over the past year, Peterborough has established a new destination platform, brought together an independent Tourist Board and restarted a city-wide conversation about tourism, culture, heritage, visitor experience and place.
That renewed activity is now being followed by a significant change inside Peterborough City Council itself: the creation of a dedicated Head of Service for Visitor Economy and Tourism.
The Council describes the post as a new role created to lead its work in supporting and growing the visitor economy. Its published remit includes working closely with the Tourist Board, helping to further develop Discover Peterborough and representing the city within the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Visitor Economy Partnership.
For Discover Peterborough, the creation of that role is one of the clearest signs yet that the work of the past year has helped rebuild confidence in Peterborough’s tourism potential and created the conditions for further investment.
Tourism is becoming part of Peterborough’s growth agenda again.
Discover Peterborough began with a practical challenge: make the city easier to discover and give Peterborough a clearer, more confident visitor identity.
That quickly developed into something broader. Visitor information was connected with history, culture, events, transport, heritage, business and placemaking, while the independent Peterborough Tourist Board created a forum for organisations across the city to contribute to the conversation.
The new Council role marks a further step.
Rather than tourism sitting between different services without dedicated senior ownership, Peterborough City Council has created a specific Visitor Economy and Tourism service within its Growth and Regeneration structure.
Its published brief is explicitly outward-facing. It is intended to build partnerships, develop programmes capable of attracting public and private investment, work with local businesses and institutions, support Discover Peterborough and connect the city into the regional LVEP.
The Council has also indicated that the wider team may grow as its involvement in tourism expands.
For a city that only recently began rebuilding a coordinated destination offer, that represents a substantial change in ambition.
A visitor offer with far more range than many people realise.
Peterborough’s challenge has never been a shortage of interesting places. It has been connecting them into a destination that feels coherent, visible and easy to explore.
Independent delivery, independent advice and new public-sector capacity.
The new Council service does not replace the structures developed over the past year. It adds another layer of capacity to a visitor economy that is increasingly being built through partnership.
Discover Peterborough
Peterborough’s independent destination management organisation, responsible for destination content, digital infrastructure, visitor information, campaigns, storytelling and practical delivery.
Discover how it works →Peterborough Tourist Board
An independent advisory forum bringing together perspectives from attractions, culture, business, education, heritage, transport, public life and the wider visitor economy.
Explore the structure →Peterborough City Council
The Council is now building its own dedicated Visitor Economy and Tourism service, adding senior leadership and public-sector capacity to the wider partnership.
A regional destination-management partnership operating within VisitEngland’s national LVEP programme.
Local destinations working within a regional framework.
LVEP stands for Local Visitor Economy Partnership. VisitEngland created the programme to strengthen the way destinations across England lead, market and manage their visitor economies.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough partnership brings destination organisations and public bodies together around issues that are easier to tackle collectively, from visitor research and skills to investment, accessibility, sustainability and regional marketing.
Local destination organisations remain important within that structure. VisitEngland itself describes Destination Organisations as bodies that contribute to management and marketing while working with LVEPs so local priorities are represented.
That is particularly relevant for Peterborough. Regional collaboration can open doors, but the city still needs its own destination knowledge, identity, relationships and visitor infrastructure.
Discover Peterborough will bring the city’s experience into the regional discussion.
The conference programme combines the new regional destination structure with national tourism policy, visitor research and major investment projects. Discover Peterborough will join other destination organisations in the LVEP Q&A session.
Discover Peterborough will share how local storytelling, destination infrastructure and cross-sector partnerships have helped bring tourism back into the city’s wider conversation.
The discussion will consider how destinations can work across boundaries while retaining the individual stories and strengths that give people a reason to visit them.
With new Council capacity, an independent Tourist Board, a growing destination platform and regional partnerships taking shape, Peterborough enters the conference with more infrastructure behind tourism than it had a year ago.
The conversation has changed quickly.
A year ago, much of the work was about rebuilding the basics: bringing organisations together, creating a clearer destination identity and giving visitors and residents somewhere useful to discover the city.
Peterborough now arrives at its first regional Visitor Economy Conference with an independent destination organisation, an independent Tourist Board, a growing bank of visitor content and digital infrastructure, and a City Council that has created a dedicated senior tourism role of its own.
For Discover Peterborough, that progression matters because it shows that destination work can do more than generate campaigns. It can help change the way a place thinks about its own potential.
The next phase will be about turning that renewed confidence into stronger visitor experiences, better connections, longer stays, greater local spending and a city that is increasingly comfortable presenting itself as somewhere worth discovering.
Peterborough has restarted its tourism story. Now it takes that story into the regional conversation.
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Visitor Economy Conference 2026
The first regional Visitor Economy Conference will bring tourism, hospitality, culture, heritage, business and destination partners together at Peterborough Cathedral.
Registration has now closed
8:30am to 3:30pm
Peterborough Cathedral
Minster Precincts
Peterborough
Further information
Read more about Peterborough’s destination-management structure, the Council’s new visitor-economy role and the national LVEP programme.
- Peterborough City Council · Head of Service - Visitor Economy and Tourism · the published description of the Council’s new senior tourism role and its remit.
- VisitEngland · Local Visitor Economy Partnership Programme · the national framework for LVEPs and Destination Organisations.
- Discover Peterborough · About Us · the roles of Discover Peterborough and the independent Peterborough Tourist Board.