Liverpool leaders to maximise UNESCO World Heritage status following Bordeaux trip

A delegation from Liverpool has flown out to Bordeaux, France, on a mission to create a closer working relationship between the two UNESCO World Heritage cities.

Investment firm Peel and the city’s destination marketing organisation, Marketing Liverpool, led the group.

The assistant project director for Peel’s Liverpool Waters, Ian Pollitt, and Marketing Liverpool director Chris Brown were joined by Samantha Campbell and Rob Burns of Liverpool City Council’s urban design and heritage team.

The delegation met Bordeaux’s cultural and international relations officials, including the Deputy Mayor responsible for tourism, after first making contact with the French port city at last year’s MIPIM property festival.

Further talks on forming a close cultural tie-up took place at MIPIM 2016 between Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson and Bordeaux Deputy Mayor Virginie Calmels.

As part of the trip, the Liverpool delegation got the chance to learn more about how Bordeaux has maximised the opportunities presented by its UNESCO World Heritage status, and how it built its visitor and events offer around its status as a Wine Capital.

The four-strong delegation also heard about Bordeaux’s regeneration plans, fuelled by next year’s launch of a high speed rail link to Paris that will slash journey times between the two cities by almost 90 minutes.

Ian Pollitt said: “This was a very interesting visit, not just from a heritage point of view which was the purpose of the visit, but also in terms of the scale of development activity around the city of Bordeaux and the Bordeaux Port Atlantique.

“We have a lot of similarities and a number of exciting links between Liverpool and Bordeaux were discussed with great enthusiasm.”

Chris Brown commented: “During the visit a clear interest emerged to work together based on the similarities that exist and the desire from both to develop a stronger relationship and over the next few weeks we hope to finalise projects that we want to work on.

“Our links are already strengthening evidenced by Bordeaux’s participation at last week’s International Waterfront Forum at IFB2016, which provided an early opportunity to demonstrate the intent that we have to work closely together.”

In Bordeaux, the Liverpool leaders visited a number of key spots around the city, including its Architecture and Heritage centre and port.

At Bordeaux’s new wine museum, Cite Du Vin, the group met the Deputy Mayor in charge of tourism, Stephan Delaux.

He said: “We were very pleased to welcome a delegation from Liverpool and are very happy with how things are progressing.

“We will soon have great plans to share, starting with a River Festival in 2017 with a reinforced tourism cooperation to prepare a major event during Bordeaux Fête le Vin in 2018.”