New Quick Guide to the Town Centre for ‘Drop By’ Visitors Launched

The guide provides a handy easy to use map and gives a short outline of the main attractions that visitors can see by foot including the Abbey Ruins, Abbey Gardens, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, the new Bury St Edmunds Guildhall, Greene King Beer Café and Moyse’s Hall Museum among others.

The A5 guide also tells visitors about the entertainment, shopping and food and drink in the town as well as encouraging them to go beyond Bury St Edmunds to explore neighbouring wool towns and Newmarket. The guide has been produced with the help of Tourist Information Officer Tracy Elliott and Volunteer Tourist Information Officer and Bury St Edmunds Tour Guide Stephen Moody and designed by Bec Bacon of Bury St Edmunds-based design agency The Design Office.

Sue Warren, Brand and Marketing Manager for Bury St Edmunds and Beyond, said: “The new visitor guide has been produced in response to a request from the staff and volunteers at the visitor information points in the town and is aimed at visitors who drop by and who may not know about the wonderful history and the many things to do within walking distance of the town centre.

“We hope that this will help ‘drop by’ visitors as well as those who have already planned their visit via our online visitor guide in the form of our website and perhaps residents who want to staycation and rediscover some of the wonderful attractions on their doorstep.”

Bury St Edmunds and Beyond, a private sector-led, not-for-profit, membership organisation formed in 2017, is the official tourism marketing organisation for Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding area. It is funded with both private and public-sector funding.
It promotes the town through marketing campaigns, fresh and engaging content, social media, PR and works closely with other nearby destinations to drive visitors to its website to showcase all that Bury St Edmunds and surrounding area has to offer. It offers a route to market for tourism businesses in the area (our members) and aims to increase overnight stays.

Bury St Edmunds and Beyond’s Founding Destination Partners include: St Edmundsbury Borough Council, Bury St Edmunds Town Council, Our Bury St Edmunds BID, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Greene King, National Trust, and Gough Hotels. These organisations, along with our members, share the vision that, by working together, we can build a more compelling package of reasons for a visitor to choose Bury St Edmunds and Beyond as a visitor destination and in turn increase the value of the tourism economy and thereby the local economy.

Cllr Jo Rayner, St Edmundsbury Borough Council Cabinet member for Leisure and Culture, said: “'I welcome this really interesting and useful guide, which beautifully illustrates the quality of all that Bury has to offer. It invites visitors to discover the tremendous depth of our heritage, which we are so proud of and very happy to share.”

The Guide compliments the online visitor guide which is the Bury St Edmunds and Beyond website.

Tracy Elliott, Tourist Information Officer at St Edmundsbury Borough Council, said: “The Bury St Edmunds and Beyond website is doing a great job encouraging tourists to visit us. The Apex Tourist Information Centre is looking forward to offering this new visitor guide, it’s convenient, easy to read and also contains a map which will help visitors make the most of their visit.”

The new guide will be available at the visitor information points at The Apex, St Edmundsbury Cathedral Shop, Moyse’s Hall Museum and the Town Council Offices, as well as hotels in the town.

Stephen Moody, who volunteers at the visitor information point at the St Edmundsbury Cathedral Shop and is one of the Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides, said: “We see a lot of visitors who drop by the town who have not planned their trip in advance or who are passing through. Very often they have a few hours to spare and want to know what attractions we have here in a quick concise way so this guide is very much welcomed by those of us who man the visitor information point at the cathedral shop and more importantly the visitors.

"The guide showcases many of the wonderful attractions in the town and whets the appetite of visitors to come back again to see more and explore beyond Bury St Edmunds. It was great to work with Bury St Edmunds and Beyond and this compliments their brilliant new website which enables visitors to plan their trip in advance and the work they are doing to bring visitors into the town and beyond."