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Mini-guide to Bradford launched to help give city centre businesses a boost

A NEW free mini-map and guide has been launched to boost local businesses by helping visitors and tourists find their way around Bradford city centre.

The Small Guide to a Big City has been produced and paid for by Bradford Business Improvement District (BID), the limited not-for-profit company funded by more than 600 levy-paying businesses and organisations to help promote and develop the city centre.

The guide, which folds down to about the size of a business card so it can be slipped into top pockets, purses or even wallets, will be available to pick up free from outlets across the city centre including the Tourist Information Centre, hotels, shopping centres, Bradford University, the Cathedral and visitor attractions.

As well as the city centre map, it includes potted guides to some places to shop, bars and clubs, restaurants, child friendly attractions, hotels, heritage sites and entertainment venues, as well as telling visitors where they can buy the new Bradford City Centre Gift Card, which was launched by the BID to promote the city’s shops and attractions.

Nikki Chadburn, the BID’s business engagement officer, said: “The Small Guide to a Big City does exactly what it says ‘on the tin’ – it provides a handy, easy-to-pocket and easy-to-carry snapshot of what the city centre has to offer.

“It’s designed to help people find their way around quickly and to give people new to the city a simple and straightforward overview of what they can find here.

“It is just a snapshot: there is so much to offer in the city centre that we couldn’t hope to cover every shop, every bar, every place to eat and every attraction to see.

“But we want to make it as easy as possible for people who come to the city centre and are not familiar with it to find their way around.

“We hope that by helping to make their visit effortless and uncomplicated we can encourage them to keep coming back!”

BID manager Jonny Noble said: “Part of our mission is to bring more people to the city centre to spend money in our shops and hostelries, to visit our leisure attractions and enjoy our fabulous architecture and rich heritage.

“The more we can do to make it accessible to everybody, the more the chance we have of visitors returning – and of them telling their friends, relatives and neighbours that Bradford is a great place to be and a great place to spend their time.”

Promoting the city is one of the four key pillars of Bradford BID’s five-year business plan, along with cleaning, improving perceptions of safety and organising and supporting events to bring the streets alive.

“A recent survey of levy-paying businesses showed that one of their priorities is to improve the marketing of the city to the outside world, regionally, national and internationally,” said Mr Noble.

“Much of that task falls to Visit Bradford and Bradford Council but we’re determined to do our bit to support those efforts as well as to make sure that when people get here they have the best possible experience and we hope the Small Guide to a Big City will prove to be an important – if modest-sized! – tool in helping to achieve that.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Perry Austin-Clarke .