Cornwall’s new pitch to the world: the UK’s Fifth Nation

Cornwall has always known what makes it different. Now the county wants everyone else to know it too.

A pitch to the rest of the world

Cornwall Council has launched its first International Strategy, a plan to raise Cornwall’s profile abroad and push its case as somewhere worth investing in, studying in, and visiting differently. The Council is framing Cornwall as the “Fifth Nation” of the UK, pointing to its language, traditions and heritage as the things that set it apart from anywhere else.

The strategy has three broad aims. It wants to grow the economy by promoting investment opportunities to private and public sector backers both inside the UK and internationally, and by helping local businesses grow. It wants to build a welcoming international student experience around Cornwall’s universities. And it wants to position the county as a global leader in low-carbon experiences, for visitors and residents alike, as tourism shifts toward something more sustainable and less confined to the summer season.

One brand, one website

Behind the strategy is an effort to agree a single, unified brand for Cornwall, something the Council is working on with partners to shape how the county is seen from outside. That brand is meant to sit underneath future campaigns aimed at investors, visitors, students and workers.

The first visible piece of it is a new website, cornwall.uk, built to give outsiders a single view of the county, from investment opportunities and ambitious local businesses to the networks that support them and the universities that draw students in from overseas.

What the Council leader says it’s really about

Councillor Leigh Frost, leader of Cornwall Council, said the strategy sets out the partnership approach that will underpin the county’s dealings with the rest of the world, calling it “a statement of intent about Cornwall taking a bigger role on the world stage.”

“Our future is rooted in who we are, our culture, language and heritage, and it is driven by collaboration, innovation and economic opportunity,” Leigh said. “We are already pioneering new industries from geothermal energy to lithium extraction and space technologies, and our universities attract students from all over the world.”

“Cornwall has so much to offer and this is about making sure we do all we can to promote Cornwall in the right places, and to the right people so we can build a global reputation for innovation, education and creativity.”

The industries doing the talking

The strategy leans on what is already happening on the ground to make its case. Geothermal energy, lithium extraction and space technologies all get a mention as evidence that Cornwall is already pioneering the kind of industries an international investor might want a piece of, alongside universities already pulling in students from beyond the UK.

Whether a new brand and a single website are enough to change how Cornwall is seen from Brussels, Boston or Beijing is the harder question, and one the Council has only just started trying to answer.