Pauline
Forums Admin
Tourist offices in the Cotswolds, and the rest of the United Kingdom, are very good. Some are government run, others are run locally and staffed by volunteers. In Painswick, my next door neighbor is a volunteer at the tourist office (closed in the winter), and she knows everything about this area.
But the Cotswold Tourism websites are disorganized. The area called the Cotswolds goes into six counties (but is mostly in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire), so there is a Gloucestershire Cotswolds website and an Oxfordshire Cotswolds website. Plus some of the local councils have their own Cotswolds sites (counties are divided up into councils - for example, Stroud District Cotswolds).
To top it all off, the Cotswolds AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), who really runs this area also has a website.
>>> I think this problem is about to be solved. The councils in the Cotswolds are going to work with the Cotswolds AONB to create on tourism website (and one set of brochures I hope). I think this will be Escape to the Cotswolds.
Article: New Plan for Tourism Growth Across the Cotswolds, Feb 2014
This is very good news because although the Cotswolds is well known in England (and somewhat of a national joke because so many wealthy people have second homes here and everyone forgets that it is mostly a real area with regular people), it is not well known outside of the UK and it should be. The Cotswolds is a fabulous vacation destination.
Photo from the Cotswold Way National Trail looking north-east to the Painswick Valley.
But the Cotswold Tourism websites are disorganized. The area called the Cotswolds goes into six counties (but is mostly in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire), so there is a Gloucestershire Cotswolds website and an Oxfordshire Cotswolds website. Plus some of the local councils have their own Cotswolds sites (counties are divided up into councils - for example, Stroud District Cotswolds).
To top it all off, the Cotswolds AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), who really runs this area also has a website.
>>> I think this problem is about to be solved. The councils in the Cotswolds are going to work with the Cotswolds AONB to create on tourism website (and one set of brochures I hope). I think this will be Escape to the Cotswolds.
Article: New Plan for Tourism Growth Across the Cotswolds, Feb 2014
This is very good news because although the Cotswolds is well known in England (and somewhat of a national joke because so many wealthy people have second homes here and everyone forgets that it is mostly a real area with regular people), it is not well known outside of the UK and it should be. The Cotswolds is a fabulous vacation destination.
Photo from the Cotswold Way National Trail looking north-east to the Painswick Valley.
