Council and Peak Wildlife Park mark English Tourism Week
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council has marked English Tourism Week (14 -23 March) by paying a visit to popular visitor attraction, Peak Wildlife Park at Winkhill near Leek.
Cabinet Member for Leisure and Tourism, Councillor Matt Swindlehurst - who also sits on the board of the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) - paid a visit to the highest zoo in the UK as it looks forward to celebrating its 10th anniversary later this year.
The park has been expanding and is one of only four wildlife parks and zoos in the UK to look after polar bears, alongside a wide range of other animals including penguins, red pandas, lemurs, the African spurred tortoise, otters, meerkats, deer from Vietnam and over 20 wallabies, which have a long association with the Moorlands.
Matt heard from park director James Butler about the work the park does to conserve its many rare animals, its important education work to help children and students understand the natural world and the threats it faces, and its growing apprenticeship programme working with Derby College to help young people make a career in zoology and visitor attraction management.
Councillor Swindlehurst said: "It was a good opportunity to recognise one of our key attractions in the Moorlands and hear about their hopes for the future including attracting more visitors by public transport.
"With 5.9 million visitors a year to our area, 5,049 people employed in tourism and tourism contributing £540 million to our district economy, Peak Wildlife Park is a key part of our `visitor offer`.
"Along with Alton Towers, our other attractions and accommodation providers, the Park helps make compelling reasons to visit the Staffordshire Moorlands."
James Butler said: "Matt's visit was timely as next Thursday we are up for two awards at the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Tourism Awards 2025 as Large Visitor Attraction of the Year and for Rising Star - Patrick Brown, one of our invaluable apprentices.
"It's important we play a part in the local visitor economy as a significant employer and an enterprise keen to work with other places to stay and accommodation providers, where we can all help grow tourism in this beautiful part of Staffordshire."
English Tourism Week is organised by Visit England and aims to highlight the huge contribution English tourism makes to the UK economy and to kickstart the spring/summer season.
Staffordshire Moorlands has seen some of the highest growth figures for visitors in all of Staffordshire in recent years, partly as a result of more people enjoying the countryside and visiting rural attractions, not to mention the enduring appeal of Alton Towers Resort.
The Council recently unveiled a new website www.discoverstaffordshiremoorlands.co.uk
Published 17 March 2025
Share this page
