Garden's £150m impact on the region's economy

Jul 30 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

THE Alnwick Garden has a £20m annual impact on businesses in the region and is predicted will have made a £150m contribution to the North East’s economy by 2011.

The figures, from the Northumberland Strategic Partnership (NSP) – the Garden’s major funder – also suggest the attraction generates between £10m and £20m in annual gross tourist expenditure locally.

The latest available figures, for the year to the end of March 2007, showed the Garden attracted a record 610,318 visitors, and Alnwick Garden Enterprises Ltd’s (AGE) turnover jumped from £3.75m to £4.26m.

The report into the Garden’s economic effects included the Northumberland Business Survey, which found a third of North East businesses attributed a growth in their turnovers to the Garden’s effect and the additional tourists it attracted to the area.

Around 2.9 million people have visited the Garden since it was opened by Prince Charles in October 2002, putting it ahead of some of the UK’s major National Lottery Millennium, Arts and Heritage projects.

The consultants found the Northumberland attraction pulled in 61,000 visitors per £1m investment compared to 20,000 to the National Botanic Gardens of Wales and 35,500 to The Lowry in Manchester.

The Garden, based on the Duchess of Northumberland’s idea, is run as a charitable trust and AGE is run as a commercial subsidiary. The Garden’s revenue for 2006-7, taking in commercial earnings, ticket sales and charitable donations, was £6.3m.

Since the Garden opened, it has received more than £16.6m in public funding from NSP, regional development agency One NorthEast and the European Union.

Private funders, including charities have provided almost £1.75m in lifetime contributions to the Garden. During 2006-7, its accounts show £2.1m was generated through fundraising.

The duchess said: “The achievements of the Alnwick Garden Trust – the charity that runs and manages the Garden – cannot be overestimated. It has transformed a derelict plot of land into a spectacular, modern and accessible visitor attraction.”

The Garden includes the massive Grand Cascade water feature, the Poison Garden, Treehouse and Rose Garden. The latest addition will be the Cherry Orchard, due to open later this year, which will include 300 Tai Haku cherry trees and a stone and water grotto.

Janice Rose, NSP’s acting executive director, said: “Attractions such as a the Garden have a major role to play in the vibrancy of Northumberland, opening the door to future investment and creating new job opportunities.”