Alison Duckworth, the former head of marketing at the Liverpool Culture Company and The Mersey Partnership, has joined Marketing Cheshire as its director of tourism.
Her post has been jointly funded by Chester Zoo and Chester Racecourse and is part of a drive to raise the profile of Chester as a visitor destination and to grow the county’s visitor economy.
“Alison’s appointment is a significant commitment for Marketing Cheshire in its drive to raise the profile of Chester and Cheshire. We are grateful for the support, commitment and investment of our partners Chester Zoo and Chester Racecourse, which will enable us to really drive this agenda forward and help us to put Chester on the map as a national and international visitor and business location,” said Clive Sykes, chairman of Marketing Cheshire.
In the 90’s Duckworth was at Staniforth Communications, before taking up the role of marketing and licensing manager at the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games. Later, as head of marketing for the Liverpool Culture Company, Duckworth was responsible for launching its Capital of Culture programming.
Most recently, she’s been running her own consultancy, Epona Marketing, where her clients included Marketing Lancashire, Lakes Culture and Marketing Cheshire. Duckworth also provided business development support for Weber Shandwick and was interim head of tourism marketing at the North West Development Agency.
“I’m delighted to join Marketing Cheshire at such an exciting time for the organisation. Chester is a unique and diverse city, home to leading visitor attractions, award winning accommodation, a renowned history and heritage, as well as an increasingly popular shopping and food and drink proposition. I’m looking forward to bringing my experience of building strong destination brands to Chester, and helping to maximise the city’s contribution to the wider Cheshire visitor economy,” she said.
