City looks to recover tourist numbers and change its image after nerve agent poisonings

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A team of consultants has been brought in to try to “rebrand” Salisbury as it attempts to recover from the novichok poisonings.

The consultants are to be asked to look into ways of changing people’s perceptions of the city to reverse a drop in visitor numbers.

Footfall is down almost 14% on 2017 and attractions including the cathedral, Salisbury museum and Playhouse theatre are all reporting declines in visitor numbers.

Pauline Church, Wiltshire council’s cabinet member for economic development and Salisbury recovery, said the global perception of the city needed to change.

“Salisbury is world-renowned, but not for the reasons we would want it to be. I think what we need to do is almost rebrand. We are going through exactly that. We have employed consultants who are doing some work to get under the skin of Salisbury,” she said.

She said the consultants would try to define the city and suggest how it could be marketed differently in order to change perceptions. “We’ve got the most beautiful city but there’s so much we can do,” Church added.

At a public meeting at city hall, Wiltshire council said all the locations in the centre of Salisbury that were cordoned off following the attack on the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, and the subsequent poisonings of Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, had been decontaminated and were safe.

Two of the main locations, Zizzi restaurant and the Mill pub, which the Skripals visited before they collapsed in March, are due to be reopened by Christmas.

Wiltshire council is hoping a series of events, including food markets, a literary festival and a Christmas ice rink, will help restore confidence and encourage visitors to return.