CHESHIRE tourism has been given a £300,000 grant from the Arts Council England and Visit England.

Cheshire East Council, Cheshire West and Chester Council and Warrington Borough Council will share the grant to enable them to work with the tourism sector under the ‘cultural destination’ banner.

The grant comes as the county celebrates increasing popularity and a stronger visitor economy.

Rachel Bailey, leader of Cheshire East Council, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded funding to promote Cheshire and Cheshire East as a cultural destination and we look forward to delivering our three-year programme.

“Cheshire already enjoys a visitor economy worth nearly £3 billion, while across the county our cultural venues and organisations make a huge contribution to our quality of place and offer many reasons to visit.

“The announcement of cultural destination funding is a real vote of confidence in our strength and potential.

“It will help to support closer working between the two sectors that will contribute to our economic growth through both the cultural and visitor economies.”

Cheshire East Council acted as the lead applicant for the funding pot and the announcement was made by ACE on Tuesday, January 10.

All three authorities were able to prove they had the partnership capacity to meet several criteria.

These included an increase in the numbers and range of people experiencing the arts and culture in local destinations to boost the visitor economy, increased income leading to greater sustainability and resilience for culture and tourism businesses, repositioning of culture as a prominent part of the visitor offer and a commitment from public and private sector partners to continue working in partnership to support cultural tourism.

The bid set out objectives to strengthen and develop the UK’s cultural and visitor offer.