Short notes from the meeting and a series of action points:

Items discussed/Updates

- Luke's meeting with TIB had been positive in many respects.  TIB somewhat reassured about our objectives and agreed to involvement/collaboration on some of our Action Plan points.  Those present agreed it would be a good idea to have a further meeting with the TIB.

- National Park information board and town map. Idea of a town map to aid visitor orientation went down well at recent meeting with TIB. Since the meeting we have discovered there is already a BBNP sign in the car park so funding a new one may be difficult. 

- Improvements to Public Toilets - need to establish whose responsibility this is.  Worth spending some time on as it is a key priority and is something which it was felt could be accomplished in a relatively short timescale.

- Promotional activities - Alison and Amy felt concept of an "audit" was a little dry.  Had brainstormed and come up with plenty of ideas on how to better promote Hay - eg a regular events listing in printed broadsheet format.  Concept of a walking festival had also come up (this has been mooted in the past) which would tie in with idea of Hay becoming a Walkers are Welcome town.  The idea of a printed town map and/or a pared-down version of the brochure needs careful consideration.  Could be more efficient (economically and environmentally) but would compete with brochure for advertising space. 

Key priorities (based on the Action Plan)

1. Organise a Walking Festival as sister festival to the successful Crickhowell Walking Festival, with date for 2010 pilot being 25/26/27 September.

2. Achieve "Walkers are Welcome" status for Hay on Wye

3. Investigate feasibility of "Hay at a Glance" leaflet inc town map (similar to Brecon and Llandovery)

4. Investigate feasibility of visitor info board/town map

5. Produce events listing broadsheet

6. Set up a regular meeting for local tourism businesses

7. Discuss the future of the town website with interested parties (Giles, TIB, Hay Town Council and others)

8. Take steps to improve public toilets

Specific Actions

PLEASE READ - if you weren't at the meeting your name may still appear below!

Alison & Luke - Set a date to meet with the TIB to discuss the key priorities of the group (as above)

Anna & Luke - Approach David Thomas who organises the Crickhowell Walking Festival to get advice & expertise.

Luke - Find out what's required to achieve Walkers are Welcome status

Nick - Investigate options/funding for visitor info board/town map

Nick - Prepare precis of Hay Visitor Survey findings to be presented at Open Meeting.

ALL - Continue to promote Visitor Survey as number of responses has dropped off markedly in recent months.

Anna - Find out costings/potential funding for " Hay at a Glance"

Alison & ?Lisa Marie - Put together a prototype for the events broadsheet

Amy & ?Miguel - Get ball rolling on a regular business networking event.  Set date for a launch event & book speaker?

Luke - Approach Giles re website.  Let him know HTG position and invite to Open Meeting to answer questions from floor.

Anna - Raise issue of public toilets with Gareth Ratcliffe

Alison - Reword Points 1 & 2 of Action Plan to take account of the different emphasis we're placing on the promotional activities (ie get rid of the word audit!).

Anyone from HTG (prob Anna) - present 3 key points about HTG at the BBNP Tourism Conference on 3rd March (let Nick or Anna know if you are attending and would like to do this or have any particular thoughts)

Dates for your diary

The date of the next meeting will be Tuesday 9th March at 6.30pm at The Swan.

The Open Meeting will be on Thursday 25th March at 7.00pm at The Swan

The proposed dates for the Walking Festival are Sat 25th - Mon 27th September