Salisbury to spend £500,000 on rebrand after novichok nerve agent attack

Government set up £3.7m fund to help city recover from poisonings in March

Visitors numbers have dropped 12 per cent (Getty/iStockphoto)

A slump in tourism following the novichok nerve agent attack has prompted officials in Salisbury to set aside £500,000 for a major advertising campaign in an effort to draw visitors back to the city.

The number of tourists has fallen by 12 per cent since the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March.

New national and online adverts are planned for early next year and around 1,000 Salisbury residents and business owners have been surveyed for ideas on boosting the local economy, according to Sky News.

The money earmarked for Salisbury’s rebranding exercise comes out of £3.7m fund set up by the government to help the city recover from the attack.

Councillor Pauline Church, part of the South Wiltshire Recovery Team, said officials were keen to revitalise high street shopping and “expand and diversify” the city’s cultural offering.

“For Salisbury and Amesbury we’ve had a really tricky year since March and now it’s all about looking forward,” she said.

In the aftermath of the attack in March, Wiltshire Council introduced free car parking in the city centre to combat the drop in footfall in the shopping district.

Jason Regent, owner of Regent Tailoring, said it had been a difficult year for small businesses in the city.

“As events unfolded, more and more of our figures were dropping and for a small business with no one behind you, it could have easily crippled us,” he told Sky News.

“I think people in Salisbury have forgotten about it already – it’s the people out of Salisbury who haven’t,” he added. “I would say hand on heart, it is safe to come and experience some of the beautiful things here.”

Investigators believe the two men suspected of putting novichok on Mr Skripal’s front door on 4 March returned to Russia hours after the attack.

Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, caught on CCTV, are suspected of novichok attack (EPA)

Although Mr Skripal and his daughter recovered, Dawn Sturgess died after she and partner Charlie Rowley came into contact with novichock in Salisbury on 30 June.

In September, Theresa May told the House of Commons the operation was approved at “a senior level of the Russian state”.