The internal and external perceptions of the North East are becoming increasingly important in stimulating growth in the regional economy. Internally the region has suffered from a lack of aspirations and an aversion to risk, this has stifled growth and restricted the ability of the economy to diversify into new sectors. Externally the North needs to be as appealing as possible to businesses to encourage them to consider the region when they are setting up or expanding.

The region has made a concerted effort to improve its image with several cultural projects including Baltic, Sage and the Angel of the North, these iconic landmarks help to raise the profile of the North East and promote it as a place to live and work. There have been various image strategies throughout the region attempting to raise the public profile and improve external perceptions of the region, these include One NorthEast’s ‘Passionate People. Passionate Places’ campaign, which provides a unified approach. One NorthEast and Northern Way are committed to funding image programmes until at least 2008. The tourism sector relies heavily on the external perceptions of the region and can potentially bring in a large amount of revenue. 

Fact File

• Two thirds of the people in the NE say that the region enjoys a good quality of life, the NE has been consistently ranked amongst the 2 highest rated regions in the quality of life index
• However, younger people in the region are less likely to agree that the NE offers a good quality of life
• Four in ten UK residents agree that the NE offers a good quality of life
• Despite improving its visitor levels, overall the NE still has one of the lowest levels of visitors from within the UK. • Despite strong performance on quality of life statistics, the region needs to develop effective ways of communicating this to the wider world.
• Tourism contributed £1.8bn towards the North East economy in 2004 and generates 30,000 full time jobs.
• Tourism in the region is still concentrated in urban areas, nearly 50% of all UK visitors stay in an urban area.
• Tyne and Wear is the most significant sub-region in terms of the numbers of visitors it attracts (39% of regional total) and expenditure (42% of regional total).