A GROUP of hoteliers says the time is right to promote Boscombe as a major tourist destination in its own right.

The Boscombe Spa Resort Hotels group, which held its official launch meeting on Wednesday, says it aims to boost business for hoteliers and maximise the area's tourist potential.

It is a response to the ongoing Boscombe regeneration, which includes the newly refurbished Opera House, new-look Boscombe Chine Gardens, Boscombe Spa Village, the Honeycombe Chine development and possibly Europe's first artificial surf reef.

The group has four directors - hoteliers Debbie Payne, Bryn Jones, Alan Sibthorpe and Anne Eyles - involved in setting it up.

Spokeswoman Debbie Payne said: "Our aim is to work together as a collective in order to promote Boscombe Spa resort as a tourist destination within the Bournemouth conurbation.

"Instead of each individual hotel paying out vast sums of money to promote themselves, we will be able to do collective advertising in more publications and on the website for a fraction of the cost."

Boscombe Regeneration was the catalyst to the formation of the collective, added Debbie.

"We are riding on the investment that's happening in Boscombe with regard to the new gardens, the Opera House, Boscombe Spa Village, Honeycombe Chine and the Surf Reef and new beach front.

"The idea is not to compete with Bournemouth but to work together. Boscombe is being revived and we feel we have an opportunity to market ourselves," she said.

At the meetings hoteliers will discuss new ways to work together to promote Boscombe and ideas to draw in the tourists such as collective Valentine weekends, surfing or golfing packages.

An extensive selection of leisure activities is available in the Boscombe area including golf, tennis, football, indoor and outdoor bowling, surfing, skateboarding, cricket and cycling plus a choice of restaurants and cafes, says the group.

Owner of the Park Hotel, Bryn Jones, another director of the group, said: "I think it's the fact that we are all working for each other rather than just working as individuals.

"The support that we are already giving each other at the moment is already massive in comparison to what it was a year ago.

"We now know which other hotels take the same sort of clients as ourselves and if ours is full we pass them on to each other."

Alan Sibthorpe, owner of the Denewood Hotel, said Boscombe's potential as a family resort would be emphasised.

He said: "Bournemouth has nightclubs but Boscombe can cater for the family with the gardens and the Opera House is for older people and younger people.

"Boscombe is a great central point for some really excellent locations - only 40 minutes from Portsmouth, an entry point for Bournemouth Airport, the Jurassic Coast and the New Forest."

Hotelier Anne Eyles said: "There is so much happening here so it was urgently needed. We were fed up of not being recognised in Boscombe."

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