Let’s Go Culture in Westmorland & Furness
Helping businesses maximise world-class cultural assets.
Cumbria Tourism is delivering a high-profile marketing and promotional campaign to showcase world-class cultural attractions in Westmorland and Furness, thanks to £91,918 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The campaign will run through to February 2026 and aims to increase visitor numbers and engagement, raising the profile of Westmorland and Furness as an outstanding cultural destination and helping to kickstart year-round tourism.
If you operate an arts, heritage or culture venue or attraction, or are running a cultural event, in the Westmorland and Furness region and would like to be involved in the Let’s Go Culture campaign, please email ashaw@cumbriatourism.org
Why is cultural tourism important?
According to VisitBritain research, visiting museums, art galleries, castles and historic houses are all within the top seven activities undertaken by international visitors. The UK also ranks 5th for culture out of 50 nations in The Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index 2024, underlining its importance for attracting overseas markets.
There are 2075 people employed in creative and cultural sectors in Westmorland & Furness and 70% of residents ‘attended an arts event, museum or gallery or participated in an arts activity at least once in the year’ (Source: Westmorland & Furness Council Cultural Framework January 2025).
The Cumbria Visitor Survey showed that 19% of people visiting Cumbria went to an art gallery, artistic/cultural exhibit or museum (rising to 27% of staying visitors and 35% of first-time visitors). 4% also watched performing arts – this figure is 5% in Westmorland & Furness.
Cultural assets create a strong sense of place, not only adding economic value but bringing positive social impacts around health, wellbeing and community too
The tourism industry and culture sector can work hand-in-hand to create memorable visitor experiences which encourage people to return again and again.
A dedicated Let’s Go Culture page on our visitor-facing website www.visitlakedistrict.com is helping inspire both residents and visitors around the Westmorland and Furness cultural offer. You can also use this content to weave into your own marketing materials.
Top Tips to Attract Cultural Tourists
- Create awareness of ‘things to do’ and unique experiences by posting about cultural attractions and events on your social media feeds, and share content from facebook.com/LakeDistrictCumbria
- Have a ‘things to do’ page on your website and include hyperlinks to local attractions.
- Use good quality imagery on social and websites. Cumbria Tourism members can download imagery from our Media Library free of charge.
- If local attractions have a ‘where to stay’ (accommodation) page, ask them to link to your property. Reciprocal links can help your SEO rankings.
- To attract the attention of people motivated to visit by culture, include a ‘places to visit’ or ‘events’ section in your e-newsletters.
- Download our cultural itineraries below and add them to room folders, or hand them out to guests who ask for ideas on places to visit and things to do.
- Appeal to ‘warm contacts’ by advertising in Cumbria Tourism’s culture and heritage e-newsletter.
- Contact your local attractions and discuss joint promotions. For example, it might be possible to have an arrangement on ticketing that then allows you to run special offer, such as a theatre break.
- Increase the knowledge of your front-of-house staff by attending familiarisation visits arranged by Cumbria Tourism or contact attractions direct to arrange a date for your team to visit. Many attractions are happy to offer this service free of charge.
- From exhibitions celebrating iconic cultural figures of the past to contemporary arts events, Westmorland and Furness has everything to keep your guests entertained. Keep up-to-date with events here
We’ve also put together a series of itineraries promoting ideas for cultural days out across the area, to give your guests and visitors suggestions on things to do.
Video Spotlights
Let us introduce you to some of the wonderful venues featured in the Let’s Go Culture project.
View and Download the leaflet
View the leaflet and if you want to download a pdf copy, just click the download link in the top left-hand corner.
Group and Coach itineraries
A range of cultural itineraries to give you an insight into the wide variety of things for groups to see and do across the region.
Help your guests find their perfect days out with our cultural itineraries.
Don’t just take our word for it…
The Let’s Go Culture project is funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and is supported by Westmorland & Furness Council.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus