St Neots has secured its place in a newly accredited national tourism partnership, following confirmation that Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has been awarded Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) status by Visit England.

Discover St Neots, the town’s dedicated destination website, is named as a founding partner of the new LVEP Collaboration Agreement, signed by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. The partnership, convened by Mayor Paul Bristow, brings together destination organisations, local authorities, businesses and cultural partners from across the region with a shared ambition to grow the visitor economy.

Richard Slade, part of the team that developed and manages Discover St Neots and who sits on the Heritage and Tourism Working Group, driving the partnership forward, said:

“This is a significant moment for St Neots. Being named as a founding LVEP partner means the town is recognised at a national level as part of a serious, coordinated effort to grow tourism across the region. The work we have done to build a professional destination presence for St Neots has contributed directly to that. It puts the town in a strong position to benefit as the partnership develops and new opportunities come through.”

The LVEP status, awarded following a collaborative bid, gives the region direct engagement with government and access to the national LVEP Growth Programme, linked to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s emerging Visitor Economy Growth Strategy. The visitor economy across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough already contributes an estimated £2 billion annually and supports around 40,000 jobs.

The Heritage and Tourism Working Group is now progressing the conditions set by VisitEngland, including a Destination Management Plan, an LVEP Board, and a formal partnership agreement across all member organisations.

For St Neots, the accreditation strengthens the case for continued investment in destination marketing and positions the town as part of a growing regional brand network that includes Huntingdon, with further Huntingdonshire towns in development.