'Tourism' 164 spring 2016 by Tourism Society

Corporate Member

Editorial

Knowledge: gain, share and benefit

Contents Tourism and the Brexit Debate: Should I stay or should I go now? 4-5 Tom Jenkins MTS, Chief Executive Officer, European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) Tourism Changes: Tourism in England – DCMS changes underestimate domestic tourism needs Ken Robinson CBE FTS MTMI

The UK Hotel Industry: 2015 review and outlook for 2016 7 Michael Jones FTS, Managing Director, Delta Squared P.I. Ltd, and Robert Barnard MTS, Partner (Hospitality and Leisure), BDO Consulting

Is it that time already? Four years have passed since the 2012 London Olympics and we are now building up to the next mega international sporting carnival, in Rio this summer. The Olympic Park, previously an expanse of derelict sites and polluted waterways in East London, has been transformed into a fantastic public amenity with regular sporting events and new housing. This determination to ensure that the benefits of the Olympics continued long after the closing ceremony was one of the main reasons London won its bid to host the Games, and is one of the many areas where the British administrative team has been advising its Brazilian counterparts. This sharing of experience is a fine example of the collaborative nature of tourism – we are all competing for business but are keen to see our fellow competitors put on their best show and leave their visitors with the best impressions of their stay.

Olympics: Looking forward…looking back Patricia Yates, Director of Strategy & Communications, VisitBritain

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Funding for Tourism: There’s money out there… Kurt Janson MTS, Policy Director, Tourism Alliance

Funding in Scotland: Would a tourism levy fill the gap? John Donnelly, Chief Executive, Marketing Edinburgh

Inbound Trends for 2016 Richard Nicholls, Head of Research and Forecasting, VisitBritain

Aviation: The Airline Industry in 2016 Colin Stewart, Chairman, Foreign Airlines Association

Customer Service: Britain’s Tourism iceberg Stephen Spencer MTS, Stephen Spencer & Associates

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Case Study: National Trust – #lovethecoast campaign in partnership 16-17 with Dr. John Cooper Clarke Mark Scott, Marketing Agency Director, National Trust

First impressions last, as a clever advertising executive once said, and it pays to make sure that the standard of your welcome makes that desired impression. This applies at all stages of the visitor’s journey – even the cabin crew welcoming passengers aboard as they leave the country on their flight back home will contribute to the overall welcome received. Stephen Spencer, writing on page 14, describes the connection between the quality of the welcome and productivity, and how this promotes sustainable jobs. The importance can be appreciated when you consider that a 1% increase in productivity can result in an extra £1.43bn in tourism revenue.

Student View: Tourism Society – University of Greenwich Andreea Ireland, Tourism Management, University of Greenwich

The Older Traveller: Challenges for operators, clients and marketing Ylva French FTS

Crisis as Catalyst: The case of Ebola in Sierra Leone Benjamin Carey FTS, Managing Director, Dunira Strategy

An interview With… Noel Josephides FTS

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Wales: A History of Theme Years in One Object… Peter Cole FTS MTMI, Director, Cole & Shaw

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Tourism in Historic Cities and Towns: Historic centres can still be up to date David Chetwyn, Chairman, Historic Towns Forum

Town Centres: The rights and wrongs of town centre PR Catherine Warrilow MTS, Managing Director, Seriously PR

Focus on… European Travel Commission Eduardo Santander MTS, Executive Director, European Travel Commission

Tourism Consultants Network: 2015 – A year of exploring and expanding Roger Goodacre FTS, Chairman, Tourism Consultants Network

Destinations and Product Marketing: Demand side, supply side, incentives and the ‘holy grail’ Ken Robinson CBE FTS MTMI , Chair, Tourism Society Think Tank

Small increases in effort, then, can produce large gains. Increases in understanding, especially of visitors’ motivations, are also important. Knowing just why they choose to travel where they do is an elusive element in the marketing puzzle; DMOs can do their best to promote the appealing characteristics, interesting activities and intriguing culture in their area but after that it is up to the customer to decide which destination is for them. These drivers will be explored at the Tourism Symposium on June 6th and 7th in Birmingham. Greater insight into the deeper workings of the tourist mind would give the industry an edge – and we would all welcome that.

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Event report: Prospects 2016 Gregory Yeoman FTS, Executive Director, Tourism Society

Membership News

The Back Page: Chairman’s View Hayley Beer-Gamage FTS MTMI, Chairman, Tourism Society

Gregory Yeoman FTS Executive Director gregory@tourismsociety.org

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Issue 164 Spring 2016

Tourism and the Brexit Debate

Package travel – in need of new regulation twentieth-century position, nationalism A few minutes beyond Roscrea on was a pathology. It was the refuge of the N7/T5 road between Dublin and monsters, and had been responsible for Limerick, a discussion on the problems of tens of millions of untimely deaths. We nineteenth-century Irish land reform was were entering a world where nationalist interrupted. A retired Chicago policeman impulses were corralled into the fleeting with an uncluttered brain, heart of gold narcosis of sport. Nationalism existed and limbs from huge portions of meat and to give local colour to trade, culture or potatoes, weighed in with his opinion. cuisine. It was axiomatic that supra-national “I’ll say this,” to everyone both forward bodies would be successful and that such and behind him on the coach, “You guys success would be virtuous. never give up without a fight.” Being the sort of man with whom people naturally agree, he took the silence as assent. “The Brits hang on until the last minute. You are good at that.” He added, throwing a coda over his shoulder: “Fighting.” That this had no relationship with Gladstone’s Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act 1870 barely troubled the rest of the clients. They were, no doubt, grateful for the interruption. It had more to do with the lingering impression of Portlaoise prison than the sublime landscape of Tipperary as it morphs into the Shannon valley. The non-sequitur left me, the guide, holding a microphone as if in a Beckett play. I was saved by a crow colliding with the windscreen: one of the many predictable unexpected events that would occur on a tour of Ireland thirty years ago. “They have,” announced the (Scottish) driver, “suicidal tendencies.” It was his dour way of telling a joke. The policeman’s remark deserved an equally oblique retort. Viewed from a mid-

No-one then foresaw the changes that occurred in the ensuing twelve years. The Berlin Wall fell. Germany was unified. Eight further countries that had been part of the Eastern Block were absorbed into an enlarged EU. A single currency was introduced. A borderless travel zone within Europe was created, with a consequent single visa. The economic transformation was not restricted to the new, postcommunist, entrants. Ireland underwent economic and social transformation: “the banana republic without the bananas” became the Celtic tiger with Dublin a magnet leisure city. Today such wonders are forgotten and enthusiasm sounds very thin. Throughout Europe, nationalism is now mainstream. The Front National has 50% of France’s MEPs. In the UK, one in five votes in 2015 went to parties of a nationalist bent. That is a lot of swing voters: a crucial battleground where power is won or lost. This is why David Cameron offered a referendum on the EU.

Issue 164 Spring 2016

Credit Boggy – fotolia.com

Should I stay or should I go now?

The debate requires a narrow view; a view determined by self-interest. And viewed from a tourism point, the UK as a destination has not benefitted from EU membership. Whilst the inhabitants of the UK have leapt at the chance of holidaying on the Continent, there has been scant reciprocity. Britain’s balance of payments in tourism was broadly in balance until the mid-1980s, but since then it has soared. And the huge benefits extended by the EU to visitors to the Schengen and Euro zones, have not been directly enjoyed by incoming visitors to the UK. All this, of course, is entirely down to the UK and its behaviour. Even Farage cannot blame Brussels for the comparative attractiveness of Ibiza and Skegness. But there are two regulatory nightmares that have Europe’s fingerprints all over them. The first springs from an almost hysterical aversion of politicians to pictures of sunburnt clients left stranded on a beach. This lies deeper than thought. It triggers in television viewers reactions akin to Robinson Crusoe and Dunkirk. Governments feel responsible and legislators culpable: a dire situation where Things Have To Be Done. The UK is particularly vulnerable. During the Icelandic volcano air fiasco, Gordon Brown (who was neither responsible nor culpable) ordered three warships down to Santander to “rescue” British holidaymakers. This included Ark Royal,

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It was to avert this sort of high farce that the Package Travel Directive (PTD) was introduced in 1989. It ensured that consumers would no longer be stranded by bust tour operators. It made anyone selling a package post a bond, take responsibility as principal for the product and have sufficient cover for repatriation. But it also locked the European industry into national silos: each consumer seeks reassurance from their national bonding authority. There is almost no interEuropean trade in package services: Belgian operators do not sell to Spaniards, Italian Operators sell little to the French. With the exception of a few giant operators exercising efficiencies of scale, the market remains fragmented. So as an EU measure it is stunningly anti-communitaire. It also stifles innovation. Because of the costs (administrative and financial) of conforming to its protocols, it has acted as a barrier to new entrants coming into the market. The good news for consumers was that the internet did not recognise national boundaries, and companies could encourage clients to self-package outside the remit of the PTD. Since 2000 nearly all the growth in the travel industry in Europe has been online. Conventional operators, with good reason, cried foul. It was already clear in 2000 that forcing one group of operators to conform to a Draconian set of rules, whilst being liberal to another, was unfair. So in 2015 Brussels passed a reform to the law. They chose not to pull back the legislation, but extend it. So the PTD now captures online travel agents as well. This has been described as a “levelling of the playing field”: it levels one corner of a field that is constantly changing. How it works with online players based outside Europe is unresolved. That it does not affect the way in which search engines do business – now the dominant intermediary - is a disabling fault. This is European legislation that is damaging, and asymmetric in its application. The impact of the Tour Operators Margin Scheme (TOMS) is in a different league.

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an aircraft carrier whose fighters were presumably out of commission for health and safety reasons. They named the exercise Operation Cunningham, a gesture which must have sent the former First Sea Lord, victor of Matapan and Taranto into a spin on the sea bed. Never mind, the Keystone Cops were determined to perform Gilbert and Sullivan. One of the many troubles of this exercise – apart from the name – was that the Iberian peninsula was not a desert island, and the Spanish service economy was not Von Rundstedt and the Panzergruppe Von Kleist. Faced with the prospect of spending 24 hours eating naval curry on a flight deck in the Bay of Biscay, most families opted to wait for the next ferry.

It was introduced as an entirely sensible simplification of the way in which tax was allocated. If you were running a tour in more than one country, rather than registering for VAT in every country that you did business in, you left the VAT as paid in the countries visited and calculated the VAT due on the margin where you were based. Businesses had to register for VAT once, and fill in one VAT form. As an accounting option, it worked well. As a compulsory measure its impact has been spectacular.

preferable to the EU.

When taxing a margin, TOMS is not a levy on profits, but an imposition on all the investment and process of adding value in a business. Every cost of sale (from commissions, advertising, marketing and reservation) and all overheads are taxed by this, wherever they are incurred. So high are these charges, that TOMS represents a charge of two or three times the normal net margin. Taxes have to be paid, and so the charge has to be absorbed, but there are significant ways round this.

TOMS needs reform. PTD needs reform. Would leaving the EU would make this better? The UK will surely be under its sway if we were outside the EU: most of our inbound customer base will be using these schemes. We cannot reform them from the outside: we have to fight for reform from within.

Firstly, TOMS is not payable on holidays taken outside the EU. So there is a huge tax advantage in selling non-EU vacations. Secondly, VAT is not payable on air travel. So if the package contains an air ticket, a lot of the margin can be enshrined in the “air portion” of the holiday, thus reducing the taxable margin considerably. So there is further advantage in selling “land-air” packages. Thirdly, TOMS is very difficult to levy (it is effectively not payable) if the business does not lie within the EU. So any business selling to non-EU citizens really has to be based outside Europe. Furthermore – if applied correctly – it renders conference and incentive operators all but unviable, insofar as their customers cannot reclaim the input VAT. TOMS punishes exports, gives tax breaks to imports, artificially promotes sun destinations and is in many areas unworkable. Fifteen years ago I attended a conference where the tax implications of accession were outlined to travel representatives from Eastern Europe. The Polish delegate openly wept when he realised what this would do to his industry. I could only counsel moving to Kaliningrad. An ex-Soviet military base seemed

Issue 164 Spring 2016

In the blizzard of absurdity created by this tax, there is some shelter. The UK has, since 2012, allowed wholesale travel companies to opt out of TOMS and claim full relief. That it did so on the instructions of the European Commission, who has subsequently been forced to change its mind, is an epic tale for which we have no space here. But the upshot has been that UK wholesalers have enjoyed an extraordinary level of competitiveness on world markets.

And the UK manages its affairs every bit as badly as the EU, with extra expense and blood: The Poll Tax, ERM, CSA, the PFI, the NHS database, the Dome, the Afghan, Libyan and Iraq wars, HS2, Hinckley Point and (from a tourism point of view) the Olympic games. These are blunders from which we should learn, yet show no sign of doing so. From outside the Brexit debate looks vile. When things get difficult in a relationship (and Europe is in trouble) you do not need someone to say they are “thinking about” divorce. The UK is not the only country with secessionist elements, but we are the only one to play that card. It changes the relationship, and not for the better. But it is happening. Which brings us back to the policeman from Chicago. His nationalism was, naturally, deeply sympathetic to Ireland and suspicious of Britain. But his experience had taught him grudging respect, and he was prepared to bury his misgivings. He was also, in passing an opinion, “staying out of it”. He knew better than to get involved in a domestic fight. Which is where we are. We can take some consolation that Chicago policemen know a lot about fights. But what we really need is something to draw the sting from the debate. We need some dozy feathered carrion.

Tom Jenkins MTS l Chief Executive Officer, European Tour Operators Association (ETOA)

Tourism changes – a personal view

Tourism in England – DCMS changes underestimate domestic tourism needs Abolishing England’s independent Tourist Board is a mistake. After, and despite, detailed discussions with DCMS, I consider their decision effectively to abolish England’s national tourist Board and compromise its industry support services, to be unjustified, detrimental – and seemingly undemocratic. I take a close interest in how well Government sponsors our fragmented industry, to optimise the benefits in this increasingly competitive world, having started in tourism before the 1969 Development of Tourism Act that created the British Tourist Authority (VisitBritain) and the national tourist Boards of England, Scotland and Wales. The newly announced Discover England Fund (£40m over 3 years – see box) is potentially very beneficial and has deflected attention from the structural changes. The rearrangement neuters the VE Board into a purely advisory status, making changes and net redundancies in England roles. This is described as only an administrative rearrangement as VE staff are technically employed by VB. This was done after an industry outcry prevented the abolition of the England Board at the time of devolution, so DCMS re-routed the England funding via VB, and transferred VE staff to VB employment. This fudge of the DoTAct was barely legal, but it has been a workable administrative arrangement with VE able to function as an independent entity, within limits set by

DCMS. VisitEngland’s necessary role has wide support. In 2011 the Penrose Strategy concluded: “No matter how many local tourism bodies eventually emerge, and regardless of the areas they cover or the groups they form, we will also need a national body to develop and promote English tourism in parallel with VisitScotland, VisitWales and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board”. Last year the Triennial Review of VB and VE concluded that they “should be formally separated, with VE retaining its full range of industry-related functions”, except overseas marketing, which quite reasonably was returned to VB. John Whittingdale’s DCMS Select Committee concluded: “with sufficient resources, VisitEngland is well placed to move more decisively into the organisational vacuum left by the abolition of the Regional Development Agencies and the Regional Tourist Boards, and could better coordinate the disparate efforts of some 200 local Destination Management Organisations.” When recently challenged in Select Committee, the Minister said that the changes “have the support of a silent majority of the industry”. Not true - consult the industry and see. Being pleased about the new £40m is not the same as wishing to lose England’s national Board. DCMS justifies abolishing VE because separation would be too costly (due to unexplained “backroom issues”). That could be a valid

The “Discover England Fund”: DCMS explained that as VB brings visitors to Britain they should manage them once they are here. So they prescribed the £40m over 3 years (£6m, £12m and £22m) to be allocated on a matched basis to “bookable product”, in 3 or 4 itineraries, built on new alliances, and marketed to inbound visitors. UKinbound members already create and deliver such products. In general, what needs to be bookable, is now, online, and getting easier. Most inbound tourism (vfr, business and education/study) cannot

reason for maintaining the status quo, but not abolition. VisitBritain is excellent at what they do, marketing tourism to Britain overseas. They could do much better given adequate funds. The GREAT imagebuilding campaign is very helpful, but more tourism benefit would result if the Cabinet Office let VB decide where, when and how the money should be spent. Domestic Tourism is key. But 80% of the volume and value of tourism in England is domestic. England’s tourism businesses exist because of domestic demand. The industry needs support services, help and guidance. Since the abolition of RTBs and RDAs, there has been no functioning network in England’s tourism industry. Local Authorities funding is reducing, LEPs are not tourism-savvy, and very few DMOs are safely viable. VE did a good and valuable job within the constraints dictated by DCMS. Now England expertise is cut and subsumed within VB, to be directed by their Board on which sit England’s principal domestic competitors. Maintaining the England “brand” is all very well, but there’s much more to developing tourism than marketing. Sorry DCMS, the changes are misguided. England’s tourism businesses need better support services, not reduced resources and redundancies. Short term subsidies for inbound bookable itineraries are an inadequate substitute.

be greatly influenced, and most leisure trips are limited and inflexible. Of course some benefits will result but no evaluation of the benefits has been done. How will this be allowable under ‘state aid’ rules? Much greater value for money would be generated by reinvesting part, just as the Triennial Review and the Select Committee advocated, on better central services under a knowledgeable England Board, albeit under VB’s competent umbrella.

Ken Robinson CBE FTS MTMI

Issue 164 Spring 2016

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The UK Hotel Industry

2015 review and outlook for 2016 Does this tell us that the industry is in all-round good health, or that the property investment side is becoming increasingly divorced from the operational side of the business, and is more the beneficiary of continued low interest rates and limited supply in key locations? And does this matter, except to financial institutions? We think it does; with the banks and others keen to divest themselves of arguably ill-judged investment in hotels and hotel groups in secondary and tertiary locations, good operators with good trading performance are finding properties sold out from under them. And there are other significant challenges in the operating landscape which threaten profitability. So what were the main features of 2015 and what is the outlook for 2016? In revenue terms 2015 was a pretty reasonable year (BDO Hotels Research); RevPAR (revenue per available room – the industry standard measure) grew in the UK by 6.1%, with regional hotels up by 8.1% and London up by 2.9%. London occupancy remained fairly flat (82.3% Nov YTD) not quite reaching 2014 levels. Regional occupancy continued to grow to a record-breaking level of 76.7% (Nov YTD). However, while average room rates and RevPar in the regions also remained below pre-crisis figures they showed a clear recovery tendency. The Rugby World Cup pushed strong increases for Cardiff and Birmingham, two of the top performers in 2015, and additionally record-breaking passenger numbers in Britain’s airports pushed airport hotels to post very positive figures. 2016 is set to be another year of RevPAR growth for UK hotels, with the strongest growth again expected for the regions. London is likely to remain strong with average room rates rising and flat occupancy levels. However, 2016 is also expected to bring many uncertainties. The IMF forecasts (January 2016) show that the UK’s GDP will have grown at 2.2% in 2015 with similar growth forecast for 2016; the unemployment rate, at

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Christian Schwier – fotolia.com

2015 was a record year for UK hotel investment.

5.1% (Dec15) isn’t expected to rise and Consumer Prices grew only 0.2% in December. Exchange rate movement is likely to cause more headaches to the industry. If the Euro remains weak this will be a challenge for hotels, which will struggle to attract more visitors from a key source market: the Eurozone. Meanwhile the strength of the dollar will likely attract more US visitors, but the arrival of tourists may also be affected by the lack of major sporting events. Recent events in Paris suggest that further terrorist attacks and general uncertainties about security may also discourage travellers. London hotels experienced a difficult month in November, with occupancy down by 6.5%, following the attacks. Security and the impact on airports, ferry and rail terminals remain major issues. And there are challenges for hoteliers outside the macro-economic environment. The competitive background is increasingly complex both in terms of the traditional competition (the brand v. independent scene and the continued growth of the serviced apartment sector) but also the emerging and/or disruptive entrance of Airbnb et al, Hostels and ‘Capsule and Pod’ properties. Further challenges come from continued pressure on operating profits from unwelcome increases in distribution costs, costs of Data Protection and PCI compliance and brand affiliation/franchise or management company costs. In some

Issue 164 Spring 2016

cases revenues have to support not only conventional costs such as wages, but online travel agency (OTA) commissions of up to 20%+ of revenue, brand costs, management company costs and a financial return for the owner. That’s a lot of mouths to feed. Hoteliers will also need to wrestle with a requirement to upgrade or replace obsolete technology, either mandated by the brands and consortia, or merely to efficiently service the independent hotel customer who is increasingly using alternative booking and shopping channels. So it can be seen that even against a relatively healthy revenue outlook for 2016, profitability will continue to be under pressure. Profit margins in 2015 are still significantly behind those achieved 10 years ago and the industry, and particularly the regional and independent sector, must address productivity issues and the cost of distribution. Technology is critical here too, to streamline working practices and connectivity costs; additionally thorough reviews of brand affiliation costs will be important for many businesses. While investment in London hotels (largely a property play) and the budget sector (largely a profitability play) look healthy, other sectors will continue to struggle to attract investment. Improving profitability would begin to address that issue and perhaps at least outside London, operating performance will continue to forge a closer relationship with asset value.

Michael Jones FTS l Managing Director, Delta Squared P.I. Ltd, and Robert Barnard MTS l Partner (Hospitality and Leisure), BDO Consulting

Olympics

Credit: www.London2012.com

Looking forward…looking back

Happy spectators at the London Olympics in 2012 learn as much as we could from them As the Olympic and Paralympic Games head to Rio this year, it is a good time to Their most important lesson – which we cast our memories back to London 2012. have since passed on to Rio, Tokyo and Sochi - was that the tourism opportunity Our athletes will be hoping to hold on to for any Games starts well before the their titles – and Brazil will be hoping that Opening Ceremony and that we needed they can repeat some of Britain’s success to have our strategy in place by the time in using the Olympics as the engine for a Beijing was underway. They also warned major boost in tourism numbers. us that an Olympic Year often sees a fall in visitor numbers so we decided to focus Learning from others on sustainable long term growth in visitor As VisitBritain’s Chris Foy wrote for this numbers. publication in 2010, we knew that the Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympics Games offered a once in a generation in 2010, just two years before the London opportunity to put London, and Britain, in Olympics, and were as generous as our front of the world. We were determined Australian counterparts had been in to make the most of the kind of exposure which would usually cost billions of pounds sharing best practice. They told us that negative publicity from local media would and to learn from the people who had continue until just before the start of the done it before us. event, but that we should hold our nerve When London won the bid for the Games because it would be fantastic in the end. in 2005, it was commonly accepted that Which, of course, it was. the 2000 Sydney Games had set a new benchmark for the quality of the events Before the Opening Ceremony and the way in which they could be used At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, we worked to boost tourism. closely with stakeholders including the A VisitBritain delegation met senior British Olympic Association, hosting the members of Tourism Australia and Sydney GB House together. We also held a series 2000 shortly after the bid was won to

Issue 164 Spring 2016

of events to raise the profile of Britain with the media and get them excited about the stories they would be able to tell from London. From 2011, we were able to use the GREAT campaign to brand our Olympic activity, as this was explicitly designed to prepare the ground for the Olympics and then build on it to promote Britain as a place to visit, invest and study. The Government understood the scale of the opportunity available and was determined to provide us with the resources we needed to make the most of it. For VisitBritain it was vital that we use the Games to promote all of Britain and encourage people to look beyond London, a view shared by the organising committee and enshrined through the London 2012 Nations & Regions Group. Membership of that group enabled us to communicate effectively with tourism businesses across the country and overseas about Games developments and business opportunities. In another lesson from Australia, VisitBritain worked closely with the organising committee to propose iconic locations around the country for the torch relay to visit – Rio, too, will be following

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Credit Rio 2016/Alex Ferro

Olympic sailing training in Rio this lesson. With Samsung, the torch relay presenting partner, we created a visitor app and secured a global endorsement for British tourism from David Beckham, a Samsung Games ambassador. We ensured that all of our colleagues overseas were pitching Olympics-based content to the rights broadcasters in their markets, as well as targeting the media who would be in Britain during the Games period. This preparation work alone secured 17,000 items of international media coverage of Britain worth more than £2 billion in the first six months of 2012, before the Games had even begun. During the Games While the Games were on, VisitBritain, with our colleagues from VisitEngland, VisitScotland, Visit Wales and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, hosted a GREAT-branded information point in the main media centre. We handed out over 10,000 items of GREAT branded collateral – pin badges, memory sticks, pens, mugs and even rain ponchos – to accredited media during the Olympics and Paralympics. We also worked with nonaccredited media – the travel and lifestyle press who would be writing about the atmosphere around the Games. 14 GREAT branded events were staged during the Games, each focusing on one of the seven GREAT tourism pillars (culture, countryside, food, heritage, music, shopping and sport). 40 GREAT branded short films showcasing London 2012 venue locations and major UK tourism destinations were made in conjunction with the BBC and distributed to broadcasters around the world to use in their Games-related programming. Of course, Games-time was not just about sport, as a huge amount of business was done around it. We hosted a World

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Travel Leaders Summit during the Games, which showcased the UK’s ability to host major events and provide unique visitor experiences. We worked with London & Partners on a fair pricing and practice charter for tourism businesses. Subscribers committed to fair and equitable terms and conditions, and it had a strong take up from the attractions sector.

2012, when the Games took place. But across all of 2012, we saw a slight increase of 1% - better than had been forecast, and better than Beijing and Athens, which both saw falls in their Olympic years. Since then, we have seen a steady rise in visitor numbers to 2014’s record-breaking 34.4 million and we expect 2015 to have exceeded that.

In the lead up to the Games, our focus had been on the international media to ensure that while they were here, they presented the best possible image of Britain to the world – so raising the aspiration of potential travellers to visit Britain. As soon as the Games were over, it was up to us to seal the deal with consumers, so we shifted to communicating directly with them the day after the closing ceremony, with a £13.5 million ‘GREAT Britain – you’re invited’ campaign using celebratory images from the closing ceremony.

Lessons for future Olympic cities VisitBritain, and our strategic partners, have already made use of the lessons we learned in London, applying them to 2014’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and to last year’s Rugby World Cup. Glasgow saw record visitor numbers in 2014 and Britain had a record October in 2015, showing the impact that large sporting events can have.

The tourism legacy The key shift in perception we wanted to achieve was in welcome – to show that Britain is a modern, warm and friendly country which overseas visitors will find welcoming. We succeeded. The Nations Brand Index, which tracks perceptions of 50 major countries, showed a significant improvement immediately after the Games. Britain moved up one place in overall national brand to 5th out of 50. Our welcome rating increased three places to 9th. These changes have been sustained. The latest NBI 2015 showed Britain’s overall brand remaining at 3rd. The CAA’s 2015 survey showed that the percentage of international visitors who said they felt extremely welcome in Britain has more than doubled in the last five years. As we had been warned, Britain saw a fall in visitor numbers during July and August

Issue 164 Spring 2016

We have also shared our experiences with our successor NTOs. Embratur, VisitBritain’s Brazilian counterpart, was given access to our media centre in London and we shared a large amount of information immediately after the London Games were over. The GB House in Rio will be GREAT branded to provide a hub for British business and culture and we look forward to seeing how the Brazilians will follow London. The Tokyo organising committee have been particularly keen to learn from VisitBritain. Our Destination PR team in particular have shared a huge amount of expertise with them. Most recently, we met representatives of the Japan National Tourist Board again to discuss how they could link the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Olympics, given that we have hosted both so recently. Like Britain, they are keen to use both to encourage visitors to travel more widely around their country, demonstrating the success of our work.

Patricia Yates l Director of Strategy & Communications, VisitBritain

Funding for Tourism

There’s money out there… There is no denying that there have been considerable cuts to public funding of tourism since the recession started.

To make matters worse, council funding of tourism activity has also declined significantly – from £122m in 2007/8 to £85m in 2014/15 – with further cuts likely in future years as councils continue to face declining budgets. However, while these traditional sources of public funding for tourism have decreased, there are a number of new funding sources that have sprung up that tourism organisations need to understand and be linked into. First, and most obvious, is the new Discover England Fund that was announced as part of the Comprehensive Review. This is a £40m fund split over three years (£6m for year one £12m for year two and £22m for year three) and is to be used for English Product development to attract overseas visitors to areas outside London. While the details of how this fund will operate are still being developed, the Tourism Alliance is taking the view that the three to four large projects that VisitBritain is planning to undertake should be thematic in nature. If this happens, then this will be a very useful Fund for Destinations to become involved in. However, this is by no means the largest pot of funding available for Destinations. The Coastal Communities Fund, which gains its funds from the licenses to use the Crown marine estate, has allocated £119m to 218 projects spread across the UK since 2012. While the last allocations from the original fund were made at the start of 2015, the Government announced on 8

Kurt Janson MTS l Policy Director, Tourism Alliance

Credit: Family Holiday Association

Despite the recent good news in the Comprehensive Spending Review that core funding for VisitBritain and VisitEngland will be maintained over the next four years, this announcement cannot disguise the fact that the combined budgets for VisitBritain and VisitEngland have fallen by 47% – from £55.1m in 2007/8 to £29m in 2014/15. This is the highest level of expenditure cuts to any responsibility funded by DCMS.

£90m is available from the Coastal July 2015 that there will now be a second Coastal Community Fund (CCF) that will operate between 2017/18 and 2020/21. This new Fund will have at least £90m to distribute to projects that support the development of seaside destinations. Like the Discover England fund, the details of how the new CCF will be allocated are not yet known but it is not hard to guess how this will happen. One of the acknowledged failings of the original CCF allocations was that they were not strategic but rather they were made to a series of somewhat random projects. In response to this problem, DCLG has established a series of 116 ‘Coastal Community Teams’. These teams are a local partnership between the local authority, businesses and interest groups who have an understanding of the issues facing their area. They have been charged with developing a Coastal Economic Plan for their area and it doesn’t take too much of a leap to think that the allocation of the new CCF funding will be on the basis of these plans. Therefore, it is very important that tourism businesses become involved

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Community Fund in the development of these plans if they are to access this funding in future. The third significant source of funding for Tourism is through DEFRA’s Rural Development Programme. This programme is funded via the Common Agricultural Policy and comprises a number of separate components which together equate to £3.5bn between 2014 and 2020. Within this there are two components that are open for tourism-related activity. Firstly, the EAFRD Growth Programme, which is being delivered by LEPs. This consists of £20m specifically targeted at rural tourism projects, as well as a further £96m for rural SME support and £24m for rural business training. The second component is a further £138m that is being allocated to local rural business Groups (called LEADER groups) which is available for use at the local level on a range of projects including rural tourism development. So while the tourism landscape is changing rapidly, there is still funding out there if you know where to look.

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Funding in Scotland

Would a tourism levy fill the gap? There’s no escaping that for Edinburgh to sustain and grow its reputation as a world-leading destination, a new funding structure is now critical and the status quo untenable.

The need for increased levels of sustained investment is widely recognised and agreed in the industry. The Scottish Tourism Alliance stated that to enable quality marketing of Scotland’s destinations and help raise the quality and overall destination appeal, more funds are required. When it comes to Edinburgh, I couldn’t agree more. Scotland’s capital city makes a major and disproportionally large contribution towards the Scottish Government’s economic strategy, the Cities Strategy, and the National Tourism Strategy. According to the Scottish Government, Edinburgh delivers 26% of the total £4.7bn contribution tourism brings to the Scottish economy. VisitScotland reports more than 60% of all overseas visitors stay in Edinburgh during their time in Scotland. To give this some perspective, figures published by VisitBritain show in 2014 Edinburgh attracted 1.62m overseas visitors. That’s around 2.5 times more overseas visitors than the next most popular destination, Glasgow, even with the boost of the Commonwealth Games that year. Edinburgh is the gateway to Scotland. It is absolutely in the national interest to increase, or at very least maintain, investment to ensure future success. The more we invest, the more we grow, to the wider benefit of all. It’s a virtuous circle. Where future investment comes from is the biggest challenge facing the tourism sector today. It’s been suggested that it should fall with industries, agencies and local authorities to foot the bill. However,

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Public spending cuts have seen the marketing budget for Scotland’s capital city reduced by 30% over the last four years. While our budgets shrink, our competitors are investing millions of euros extra in destination promotion. We’re in immediate danger of falling far behind.

Hogmanay in Edinburgh with ongoing public funding cuts, limited private sector support and increased competition from other city destinations, this is not only a restricted solution, it’s unrealistic. The next stage must be a consultation with tourism businesses and organisations. We need a clear, balanced and thoughtful debate, considering the merits and disadvantages of every option on the table. Only then will we agree the best solution available. Potential options such as a Transient Visitor Levy, or possible tax-raising powers under discussion with current City Region Deal negotiations, should not be instantly dismissed before full deliberation. In the absence of public money, where does the industry see this much needed support coming from? As the Scottish Government look to devolve powers, it stands to reason that this should be reflected in local councils. This is not just about tourism, but improving infrastructure, connectivity and encouraging the public and private sector to better engage with shaping the future of the city they live and work in. Edinburgh is home to the world’s biggest arts festival and the iconic Hogmanay celebrations. Would a minimal peak

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season levy, a charge visitors willingly pay in the majority of other European city destinations, dissuade them from visiting? No-one can predict with any certainty. There is a lot of speculation within the industry. At this stage, none is evidence based – it’s an opinion. It has been a decade since any robust survey fully examined a tourism levy. Now is the opportune time to reprise a new survey for today’s visitors. I’m a passionate believer that any revenue generated must be reinvested directly into enhancing visitor experience and bringing tourists into the city – and in turn, Scotland. VisitScotland has likewise indicated they are not averse to a levy, if monies raised go back into city promotion. With an appropriate level of funding in place, Edinburgh would at last be able to afford global destination marketing campaigns, protect and build on our cultural and heritage offering, support existing festivals, and create new events to entice visitors during the quieter shoulder months. A transformation within our industry is needed and Marketing Edinburgh is looking forward to being at the heart of the debate. Only by working together will we shape the successful and properly funded future Scotland’s tourism offering rightly deserves. John Donnelly l Chief Executive, Marketing Edinburgh

UK Outlook

Inbound trends for 2016 What does 2016 have in store for inbound tourism to the UK? We expect Britain to build on its good performance last year in attracting ever more visitors to our shores. 2015 looks set to be confirmed as a record-breaking year for inbound tourism to the UK; VisitBritain are expecting growth in visits for the full year of around 3% to 35.4 million, comfortably ahead of the previous best in 2014. Some major markets are providing strong growth; data from the International Passenger Survey for the first nine months of 2015 show visit numbers up 7% yearon-year from the USA, 9% from Spain, 13% from India and 37% from China. We expect 2016 to show even stronger growth with a further 3.8% increase in the number of visits. Crucially, prospects for tourists’ spending is looking better, too. In 2015 Britain was hampered by the strong pound and the value of inbound spending is down slightly. But for 2016 we forecast a 4.2% increase in visitor spending. One of the main developments we have watched in the early weeks of 2016 has been the sharp fall in the value of Sterling, particularly against the Euro and US Dollar – the two currencies that provide half of all the UK’s inbound revenue. With a UK base rate rise now a distant prospect and speculation about the possibility of Brexit, January has seen downwards pressure on the Pound Overseas tourists’ budgets will stretch further and value for money perceptions will improve. As ever, one of the main drivers of tourism prospects is the state of the global economy.

North America are steady.

opportunity.

There is a risk that stock market problems will spill over into the real consumer economy but we have not reached that point yet.

We have produced a Shakespeare is GREAT guide, promoted information for the travel trade on our website and are engaging with potential visitors on social media.

The low oil price will provide a short term boon for disposable incomes for consumers in most countries as it directly affects their household finances. Some economies are under pressure but as of Q3 2015 Britain was still seeing growth in visit and spending numbers from the Gulf region. And a low oil price should mean lower air fares for travellers, too. Looking beyond the hard stats and global economic factors, what events can Britain look forward to in order to engage visitors this year?

2016 has started nervously here, with the oil price crash fuelling stock market jitters in China and across the world.

2016 is one of the few years this decade that does not see the UK play host to a major international sporting event on the scale of the Commonwealth Games or Rugby World Cup.

But while there is a lot of worry about the global economy – the Chancellor warned of a “dangerous cocktail of new threats” – short-term economic prospects for most of Britain’s key markets in Europe and

Instead, this is a year of literature. 23rd April marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and VisitBritain is working with the British Council to make the most of this

Richard Nicholls l Head of Research and Forecasting, VisitBritain

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2016 also sees the 100th anniversary of the birth of Roald Dahl, the 150th of the birth of Beatrix Potter and the 200th of Charlotte Bronte. This is also a year of nature. While the UK is often associated more, in the minds of international markets, with its heritage and cities than its countryside, perceptions of the UK’s natural beauty are improving according to the GfK Nation Brands Index. Our colleagues at VisitEngland are promoting 2016, the 300th anniversary of the landscape architect Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, as the Year of the English Garden. We know from the International Passenger Survey that 54% of holiday visitors to the UK go to a park or garden on their trip. From a less challenging exchange rate to a host of anniversaries of Great Britons to celebrate, VisitBritain sees plenty of reasons for optimism about inbound tourism in 2016.

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Aviation

The Airline Industry in 2016 There are a number of key areas within Aviation where activity this year will have important effects. Airline Consolidation Significant consolidation has taken place in the airline industry in recent years. The new breed of ‘Mega Airlines’, including BA & Iberia, Air France & KLM, Lufthansa, Swiss & Austrian, is now dominating the market in Europe. The story reads the same across the US, with mega-mergers over the past decade, reducing nine large U.S. airlines to four: American, United, Delta and Southwest. This trend is likely to continue as airlines look to expand their global reach and benefit from economies of scale. We are also starting to see the consolidation of network carriers and low cost airlines, for example with AIG adding Vueling and Etihad working with Air Berlin. So what does this mean for the passenger? Marketing strategists will say the more competition, the better the deal for the consumer. And that more supply means cheaper prices. Well, that all depends… We’re not talking about a cheap commodity with low barriers to entry that is easily copied, but rather, about multi billion pound investment requirements for new aircraft in an already heavily congested global market. Consolidation doesn’t necessarily mean that prices will fall. Whilst there will always be great deals on offer, we can’t automatically expect fares to drop and particularly not during peak periods of travel. Why the need for A4E? Who would have thought; network carriers sitting side by side with low cost carriers to provide a unified voice (and a loud one at that!), to campaign for the adoption of a new Aviation Strategy for Europe…? I have no doubt that we will see many airlines sign up to support the five founding members of Airlines for Europe. For the first time we see the biggest players across the continent come

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together, and I believe this is the first step in facilitating real change. Scottish APD implications and timescales Any decision on Air Passenger Duty in Scotland will only be reached after a robust consultation. Promised by the end of March, it is very unlikely any response will actually be provided before the Scottish election in May. Much like the vast majority of industry spokespeople, I am keen to see a transition to a fairer tax for all across the whole of the UK. If a total abolition is unlikely, then a 50% reduction is needed to help maintain the UK’s competitiveness. Recent analysis by PwC shows that removing APD would boost British GDP by 1.7% and create 60,000 jobs by 2020. Runway capacity delay Having been involved with the Terminal 5 project in the build-up to the Government’s planning application decision (a decision that took over five years for a terminal building and associated facilities, all contained within the airport’s existing boundaries), I am, unfortunately, not convinced that the current government has the political will-power to move fast on this. Following the news in December that the decision on the Heathrow vs. Gatwick debate is to be delayed, all signs indicate this matter will be pushed into the

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long grass for as long as viably possible. The airline industry’s frustration is palpable. Even if a decision was reached in summer 2016 on LHR or LGW there would still need to be a full planning inquiry and it is anybody’s guess how long that might take, so we are looking at 2025 at the very earliest before any new runway is launched. Passenger trends Passengers today are much more internet savvy and value focused, searching for the best prices online and placing trust in airline consolidators such as skyscanner. FAA members have noted how airline brand loyalty is increasingly being replaced with cost-saving where the price-driven leisure passenger is concerned. And whilst the expectations of business passengers are rising, they also actively seek value for money. Air travel will thrive in 2016 in what will continue to be a deal-led marketplace. Resilience of the industry The airline industry continues to be one of the most dynamic and resilient in the world. Wars, threat of terrorism, global economic crisis and extreme weather have all pushed air travel to its limits, but it continues to come back stronger and each bump along the road provides opportunities for change and evolution; something that is happening at an everquickening pace. Colin Stewart l Chairman, Foreign Airlines Association (FAA)

Customer Service

Britain’s tourism iceberg During last year’s generally excellent Tourism Symposium, I was left feeling distinctly uncomfortable following a panel discussion entitled “Connecting to Quality”.

In my view, this situation is akin to a persistently looming iceberg, which threatens to hole the good ship GREAT Britain below the waterline. If we are really so average when it comes to Service (which after all is the source of feeling Welcome), we should not take comfort from our overall ranking. As we all know, Service drives satisfaction and loyalty, and if we are not delivering world class Service we cannot take our current popularity for granted. So what is the solution to this particularly British problem? I’d suggest that avoiding the iceberg must start with acknowledging it is there. For example, during the Symposium we received an update on plans for the newlycharitable English Heritage. Investment was promised in conservation, visitor facilities and marketing; however, no mention was made of Service or developing people. Yet, English Heritage, its counterparts in the rest of the UK, and the National Trust should be in the vanguard of a national commitment to driving up the standard of Welcome. If this sounds a tall order, I’d point out that Scotland is already a long way down this road: initiatives such as the industry-led Pride & Passion movement exhorted and supported Scottish tourism businesses large and small to think differently and improve Service quality, in order to reap the benefits of delivering on VisitScotland’s promise of a warm Welcome for every visitor.

Credit Boo Productions

It was the contrast between Britain’s ranking (three in the world) as a ‘Nation Brand’ (behind Germany and the USA), and our ‘Quality of Welcome’ placing (13th then, 11th now) that made me sit up in my seat. Whilst London 2012 unsurprisingly boosted our ranking, we have now fallen back to where we were in those dark, pessimistic, pre-Olympics days.

Happy teams Tourism is now the UK’s seventh largest export industry by value, and its third largest services sector. As such it is surely too valuable an industry to put at risk. World Host training has reached 160,000 people in the UK over several decades – yet the industry employs over three million people! Even though many large employers have in-house training for Service, there is clearly a gap here. The concerted focus on London 2012 (with 100,000 undertaking World Host) undoubtedly made a difference – after all, we made it into the global top ten for Welcome – yet we are now back where we started. The Five-Point Plan for Tourism, announced during 2015 by David Cameron, might just have the potential to change the game. The £40m Discover England Fund (to be matched by industry) could be partly used to reposition Tourism and Hospitality as the best industry to work for, with the best career opportunities, and the best employers. Such a campaign would reflect the excellence of our product, and channel our national pride in the pursuit of Service

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excellence in a way only recently seen during London 2012. There have been some other significant developments concerning Tourism and Hospitality over the past few months. Taken together, I believe they add up to an unprecedented opportunity for the sector: n In tandem with the announcement of the Five-Point Plan came the setting up of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Visitor Economy, greeted by Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the BHA, as “a terrific opportunity…to sustain pressure on both parliament and Whitehall to deliver further economic success for the UK through the powerful potential of hospitality and tourism”; n The Chancellor, George Osborne, announced the introduction of a new National Living Wage – although it was greeted with less than total enthusiasm, with some major employers predicting job losses and higher prices to customers; n Another Osborne announcement – an Apprenticeship Levy to encourage investment in training, was also met with concern. The APPG announced it would

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conduct an inquiry into the apprenticeships and skill development landscape within the industry, including the impact of the Apprenticeship Levy; n A report (The Skills and Productivity Problem) by workforce development charity People 1st found that low productivity levels need to be urgently addressed in the hospitality and tourism industry, with high levels of employee turnover; n Business Secretary Sajid Javid ordered an investigation into the “abuse” of tipping in restaurants, following reports that some restaurant chains are regularly holding back some of the tips meant for their staff. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, famed restaurateur Danny Meyer is spearheading a challenge to the whole notion of tipping. His Hospitality Included initiative - abolishing tipping altogether, rolling hospitality charges into the cost of items on the menu, and raising wage levels for staff – is intended to level the playing field between back and front of house service positions.

theme), which in turn creates sustainable, worthwhile jobs and careers. The People 1st report highlighted the fact that 122,000 retail and food services employees will be held back in their careers by a lack of so-called ‘soft’ skills, and revealed the startling estimate that a 1% increase in productivity could drive an additional £1.43 billion revenue to the industry. I will be accused of over-simplifying here – however, it seems obvious that a betterpaid, higher-skilled workforce, in a more coordinated sector with a unified, inspiring vision, would be more than capable of delivering that additional productivity. To put it in perspective, that 1% uplift would deliver more than 14 times the estimated (by People 1st) cost of the Apprenticeship Levy Scheme. The conclusion, then, is that we should embrace these challenges as an industry with unprecedented energy and focus:

So, why does this plethora of policy announcements, enquiries and new costs for business represent an opportunity?

n The National Living Wage is an opportunity to start changing the image of Hospitality and Tourism from a lowwage, low-skill sector to an exciting and rewarding profession;

The Five-Point Plan for Tourism may have been a document chiefly celebrated for its succinctness, but at its heart lie some key challenges which are actually deeply interconnected, namely:

n We must ensure that the Skills : Productivity equation (including the benefits of improved retention and engagement) is communicated to employers effectively and relentlessly;

n Quality of Welcome

n There should be a national campaign to communicate the benefits of improving Service delivery: from improving sales and customer loyalty to making GREAT Britain a friendlier country to live in. In parallel with this, there should be greater robustness around setting

n Skills and Jobs n A better-coordinated Sector The opportunity lies in recognising that Quality of Welcome (i.e. Service) drives Productivity (another Osborne

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targets for, and monitoring the impacts of, new recruitment, engagement and training initiatives; n We should see ‘improving the Quality of Welcome’ as an opportunity to re-imagine what the total GREAT Britain experience should look (and feel, and smell, and sound) like. As an also-ran in the global Welcome stakes, there is no point repeating what we’re already doing and expecting different results. Let’s imagine how we create a Welcome that is worthy of our top three global brand status; n Crucially, in making our next move – to realise the vision of an aspirational, high-pay, high-skills, high-productivity Tourism and Hospitality industry – we must ensure that the vision and strategy are not driven by the APPG and industry leaders alone. Our appeal to the best and brightest to join our industry and embrace every opportunity within, will only be heard if it is authentic, coherent and compelling, and communicated in ‘their’ language. In the midst of organisational changes at VisitBritain and VisitEngland, and global pressures that are as unpredictable as they are volatile, such a focus must prevail if the prize is not to be lost. The Five-Point Plan calls for a unified vision and course of action. Here is the opportunity to coordinate our efforts to create a coherent, compelling narrative around Skills, Welcome, Productivity and Sustainability, appealing to visitors, employers and employees alike. Changing course is vital if we are to avoid the iceberg. Since we don’t know how far away it is, time is not on our side. Stephen Spencer MTS l Stephen Spencer & Associates

Case Study

National Trust – #lovethecoast campaign in partnership with Dr. John Cooper Clarke Last summer was the fiftieth anniversary of the National Trust’s coastal fundraising appeal, Project Neptune. It gave us the opportunity to raise awareness that, as well as the buildings and countryside the Trust is best known for looking after, our charity also cares for 775 miles of beautiful, iconic and vulnerable coastline.

Our approach to the campaign was to focus on what the coast means to the nation. Rather than talking about coastal erosion, we’d focus on coastal emotion: talking about, celebrating and involving the public in what is not just 755 miles of coastline but, in fact, 775 miles of their memories. We just needed a way to bring that approach to life… In the National Trust archives, we found that when Neptune first launched, the poet John Betjeman had gifted a poem One and All to the Trust, decrying the state of the coast and the need for the appeal. Half a century on, we decided to follow up this poem with an ode celebrating the great strides we’ve made since and what the coast means to people today. To make this a truly participatory campaign, we would get the public to help write the poem. We’d work with a poet to write the initial verses, then ask the public to share their feelings about the coast, using #lovethecoast, in order to inspire the full poem, written for the public, by the public. We just needed to choose a poet to kick things off – someone who’d grab the

Credit National Trust

These miles of coastline include the White Cliffs of Dover, the Gower Peninsula and the Great Orme – places so iconic or important, we couldn’t imagine being without them. The challenge with this campaign was not only to reawaken and increase understanding of the National Trust’s role in protecting the UK’s shores, but to also remind people that it matters.

attention of the media and public and challenge perceptions of the Trust.

spikes that ensured momentum and public participation.

Dr John Cooper Clarke, famous for his unique poetry and delivery, which swept the punk rock scene in the late 1970s and early 80s, was our first choice. His work had recently been used in an episode of the Sopranos as well as on an Arctic Monkeys album, and we felt that his striking words and look would be perfect for the campaign. Importantly, he also had a connection with the power and majesty of the coast, a love which had begun as a child.

Neptune Rises The #lovethecoast campaign kicked off with an enormous image of Neptune, the Roman God of the Sea, projected on the White Cliffs of Dover, and a video was created of him coming to life to announce the Trust’s vision for coastal access over the next 50 years in a bold and imaginative way.

It’s not hard to see why people love the coast but it was up to the National Trust to remind those who had stopped going, via the ‘Nation’s Ode to the Coast’, that we have fantastic and important shores on our doorstep. The idea of the Nation’s Ode to the Coast became the lynchpin of a multi-stage communications campaign, extending for six months from May to October 2015, across paid, earned and owned media channels. The idea gave us the chance to tell one story in many ways, creating a series of

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Neptune’s rising kicked off the campaign with a bang, garnering attention in 21 national publications, both online and in print media. Launching The Nation’s Ode to the Coast Dr John Cooper Clarke began by writing the opening stanzas of what would become ‘The Nation’s Ode to the Coast’. This swiftly led to the National Trust inviting people across the UK to send in their contributions for the poem of why they love the coast. The creation of a poem by the people for the people was designed to reawaken the nation’s love of

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the coast and increase their propensity to visit the coastline over the summer months and beyond.

Creating coastal conversations To continue the #lovethecoast conversation, the Trust worked with an independent psychologist to produce a study demonstrating the benefits of a coastal walk. National and regional news, as well as picture coverage and conversations, followed with walkers of long and short walks experiencing positive changes in happiness, calmness and sleep quality, among others. Furthermore, the Trust worked with YouGov to explore the different ways in which the nation is connected to the coast, finding the British coast to be a big contributor to quality of life and well-being. Meanwhile, within our social communities the conversation continued – in all we recorded over 20,000 conversations around the hashtag or about the coastline we protected. Many of these posts were such inspiring,

The Shellsphere

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Neptune launches the campaign powerful memories or experiences, which celebrated what the coast can represent, that we wanted to do more than just retweet or share people’s content back to them. So we worked on turning these contributions (with the authors’ permission), into original and bespoke pieces – from black and white sketches, to new video shorts, to commissioned photography. Many of these creations resonated so well with the audience that we began to pay to take them outside of our immediate community, and one of their favourite sketches ended up reaching just over 2.5million timelines in a week (a record for the Trust). We earmarked spend for promoting coast content on Facebook but we waited to see which posts had the best engagement organically before allocating budget. By using this approach we received some phenomenal results in terms of overall engagements and cost per engagement (some of the best we have seen to date for our national campaigns). Completing and celebrating the Ode The last phase of the campaign saw

Credit National Trust

Touring the nation with ‘Shellsphere’ As we progressed, the #lovethecoast campaign developed further and saw The National Trust launch a 4D, full sensory coastal experience pop-up in seven cities across the UK and Northern Ireland. By walking inside the giant shell members of the public were able to see, smell, hear and taste the sea, offering an experience like no other. This encouraged hundreds of fresh contributions to aid John Cooper Clarke’s penning of the ‘Ode to the Coast’ and further spread the message of the importance of caring for the British coastline.

Credit National Trust

The first verses of the poem became the voiceover to our TV and cinema commercial, which depicted a range of people enjoying a wide variety of beautiful and majestic National Trust coast.

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Dr. John Cooper Clarke complete ‘The Nation’s Ode to the Coast’, inspired by all those contributions throughout the summer. A beautiful, visually striking piece of film was released to unveil the final Ode. It featured 17 contributors speaking the poem, alongside National Trust rangers, volunteers and, of course, Dr Clarke. The film has reached nearly a million YouTube views to date. It performed strongly in terms of engagement – with average view durations of 84% – exceeding National Trust’s average of 65%. Our ongoing brand tracking also reported that it had shown effectiveness in driving advocacy. To judge how well the PR campaign had performed, The National Trust worked with an independent research company to assess preconceptions before the campaign regarding the Trust’s work and after. The research revealed a strong shift in perception, with those surveyed being quick to recognise the Trust’s work looking after the coast and protecting the UK’s shores for generations to come, after seeing the coverage and final ode to the coast video. The target was to generate conversation and awareness around the National Trust’s role in protecting the British coastline and this certainly came to fruition with over 360 pieces of coverage across national, consumer and online publications. The campaign reached a phenomenal number of people, started conversations with millions on BBC Radio 2, appeared in print in the Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Times, among others and spread through social media with influencers like Bear Grylls taking part in the conversation. The campaign as a whole became not only a celebration of the work the National Trust does to look after coastline but also a celebration of the nation’s unwavering connection to the shoreline, leaving a legacy for the next 50 years. Mark Scott l Marketing Agency Director, National Trust

Student View

Tourism Society – University of Greenwich My name is Andreea Ireland and I am vice-president of the Tourism students’ group of the University of Greenwich. I am a full-time student at the university, in the second year of studying Tourism Management. I became a member of the students’ group two years ago.

Credit: © Britainonview / Britain On View

Every three years the main coordinators of the group are elected by the students and in September last year I became the vice-president, joining Priscah Masube (president), Kinga Kiss (secretary) and Georgia Letts (events coordinator) on the organising committee. The university’s Tourism students’ group is a student-led organisation. It was established five years ago, and its aim is to develop in all students, whether they are studying tourism or not, an interest in this subject and at the same time give opportunities to learn about the subject outside of their degree in a sociable way by exchanging knowledge with other students. We have members from all undergraduate years and also masters students, all studying tourism. Nevertheless we welcome anyone who has an interest in tourism as well as travelling. We have already organised a few events and there are much more to come. Some of the events are just social so students can meet one another; some involve closely working with a charity or business or inviting a guest member of a particular tourism company. Our first event was in November last year. One of our lecturers, James Kennell FTS, told us about an interesting network event coming up for invited tourism students from Slovenia. We gladly took over and helped him with the organisation and welcomed the students. It was a great event as we arranged different activities around our campus and discussed the differences between UK and Slovenia. London was very popular with our visitors, and they will definitely come back in the summertime. Also we were invited over to Slovenia for a future visit or social event.

Andreea Ireland l Tourism Management, University of Greenwich

Flamsteed House, Royal Observatory, Greenwich Another very successful tourism event was in December. We contacted the Family Holiday Association and decided to do some fundraising for Christmas. All the members of the group got together and decided to bake homemade cakes, which we then sold at the Student Union bars in Greenwich and Avery Hill.

Our trip will be for just four days as some of us could not take too much time off from university or work, and as well as looking forward to seeing Reykjavik and some surrounding areas it will be a very good opportunity for some students to make some preparations for future university projects and exams.

Both bars are close to students’ campuses, easy to get a good meal and a drink – students love to spend time there as it is a great atmosphere and easy to meet different students from other faculties. We started at around midday and by around 6 o’clock in the evening we had sold all the cakes and had managed to raise £70.

However, as I mentioned earlier we are planning on inviting guest speakers from the tourism industry.

Another particularly exciting event we are planning is a social trip to Iceland which will take place at the beginning of March. We wanted to offer the opportunity for our student members to tick off one of their main bucket list items and proposed several trips to Europe or Iceland. Iceland received the most votes so we decided this would be a great time to go.

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Previous guests have talked about current tourism issues or the benefits of tourism in the UK and the students find it inspiring talking in person to a guest speaker. Hearing directly from people currently in the industry helps us develop the information covered in our lectures and can inspire us by guiding us in finding good subjects for our dissertations. For more information and future tourism events, you can follow us on our Facebook group page: https://www.facebook.com/ groups/1634801203426653/.

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The Older Traveller

Challenges for operators, clients and marketing “All those with sticks get off the coach first and follow me to the lift at the far end of the building. Everyone else join Steven up three quite steep flights of stairs to the top gallery.”

Pensioners are the new world travellers, but how is the travel industry coping with the additional demands they bring mobility and hearing problems as well as weaker bladders? And the fact that they may well overestimate their own fitness. By all accounts (from the older travellers I meet on my trips) some do it better than others. On a cultural tour of the South of France involving 17 galleries in 7 days, some found it difficult to get on and off the coach quickly. And some needed taxis to get back from restaurants just a 15-minute walk from the hotel. They had been warned on the website and in the joining instructions, with a self-assessment involving chair stands, a step and agility test, as well as: The minimum level of fitness required is that you ought to be able to walk briskly at about three miles per hour for at least half an hour, and undertake a walk at a more leisurely pace for an hour or two unaided. One member on this tour found himself barred from future bookings. Had he ignored the fitness test, or had the company failed to make reasonable provisions for their older travellers? Some people complained when on an afternoon tour there was no loo stop not to mention a cup of tea. And they were not all “old”. Activity holiday companies such as Exodus and Explore realise that they can’t afford to lose the thrill-seekers who have been with them from their earlier years. So they offer more culture and less adventure. Some over-60s will still be fit enough for their walking tours but the lowest grade of “Leisurely”, as I discovered a few years

Credit ARochau – fotolia.com

Was anyone offended by this rather blunt instruction from our tour manager, as we arrived at Salts Mill on a cultural tour of Yorkshire? I looked around – everyone (most of whom had seen better days) was happy - and followed their leader.

Customers need to know their limitiations ago, is far from a stroll in the park: You would normally walk for two to five hours during the day and daily ascents will likely be around 300m to 500m, perhaps with the odd day ascending around 600m. Many travellers having roughed at the cheaper end in the past when younger are now looking for more comfort. Tour operators such as Ramblers Worldwide Holidays are responding with ever higher standards of quality hotel accommodation, wider selections of holidays, plus, greater flexibility on all tours – two levels of walking every day – to suit couples or friends who don’t enjoy the same level of fitness. Hostels with narrow single beds or guest houses with sagging mattresses are definitely out for the over-60 traveller. And what about the cruise market? This is where the older traveller traditionally ruled the roost and most, such as Fred. Olsen, offer excellent service and pre-booking information for less mobile travellers. Others appear to aim for a younger market; messages can get mixed when websites show mainly children in the pool and young people at the bar. Is this a case of the young marketers forgetting which side their bread is buttered? Consider the demographics (and wealth) of the over 60s: not only is there a

growing number of them overall, there are over a million more women than men! These women, sometimes widowed, or just independently minded, want to travel. Jules Verne Holidays have got the message with no single supplement on a range of tours. Marketers should think about those images of smiling youthful grey-haired couples – where are the lone travellers? We know the problem. The media’s obsession with ‘youth’ has only increased and most people see themselves as they were 20 or 30 years ago, whatever their bones are telling them. Marketers tap into this dream in everything they sell. But take a look at the Saga Holidays’ website – the one tour operator openly targeting the older traveller. The emphasis here is on destination images with just a few people of indeterminate age in soft focus. So some things are getting better – the introduction of wireless tour guide systems for example - others are trickier, including travel insurance. But group tour operators must make positive provisions for older travellers, acknowledging the special needs which come with age. At the same time, it is only fair that the over-60 travellers, particularly on group tours, recognise their own limitations! Ylva French FTS l

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Issue 164 Spring 2016

Corporate Member

Crisis as Catalyst

The case of Ebola in Sierra Leone “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”.

As always happens in a post-conflict situation, hundreds of development workers arrived, and innovative community enterprises sprang up to deliver magnificent tourism products. Pioneering operators started to explore and tourism recovery began. The elegant French market that had been the mainstay in the 1980s had been lost to Southeast Asia, and so the focus was on Anglophone markets of Britain and North America. Ironically this was to a large extent due to historic connections via the TransAtlantic Slave Trade, which had cemented the triangular relationship between West Africa and the British Empire and its Colonies across the Pond. These countries offered sanctuary to refugees from the civil war, whilst the UK’s Special Forces are credited with bringing the Civil War to an end by so decisively over-reaching their mandate. The result was three enthusiastic markets for a country that remained one of the economically most impoverished in the world. The largest was the Sierra Leonean diaspora, key component of the VFR sector that acquired an important ambassadorial role. The second market reflected growing interest in ancestral tourism, especially with the discovery of remarkable anthropological and cultural links between the Gullah of Georgia and South Carolina in the United States and the Krio speakers of Sierra Leone, most of whom are descended from slaves abducted from West Africa; the USA’s First Lady Michelle Obama is a member of this group. The third group was the pioneering travellers that have recognised the attraction of Sierra Leone as an extraordinary destination. As a result, tourism in Sierra Leone grew steadily and investment from Europe and North America flowed in, as well as from East Asia and the Middle East. When in August 2014 the World Health Organization belatedly declared an

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Credit Benjamin Carey

Until recently, many people thought there was still civil war in Sierra Leone; in fact it ended in 2001.

Sierra Leone – ferry to Outamba-Kilimi National Park beautiful and extremely hospitable. British international public health emergency, medics have become a critical market for eight months after the start of the Sierra Leone. As well as wanting to hold epidemic in Guinea, tourism in West scientific conferences about Ebola and the Africa collapsed. At time of writing, Sierra medical response (MICE tourism), they Leone had reported 14,122 cases with a also want to meet up with local colleagues fatality rate of 28%. These represented with whom all physical contact was half (49%) of all cases, but only one third prohibited throughout the epidemic (VFR) (35%) of fatalities, indicating that Sierra and above all they want to finally explore Leone’s response to the epidemic was the the country that they briefly glimpsed and most effective, primarily led by medical fell in love with (leisure). volunteers from Britain. Dunira Strategy, which specialises in destinations emerging from crisis and has previously completed two assignments in Sierra Leone, was commissioned by the World Bank last December to produce a post-Ebola tourism recovery plan for the country. This immediately began with a rapid field assessment before Christmas to determine product availability and institutional capacity after almost two years in which 80% of hotel accommodation had been closed and all but two airlines had been suspended. Following consultation and analysis, we are now working with stakeholders to develop the strategic response. An unexpected benefit of the Ebola epidemic is that many journalists and young professionals discovered that (a) Sierra Leone’s civil war ended long ago and it is now perhaps the safest country in West Africa and (b) Sierra Leone is

Issue 164 Spring 2016

Activities include surfing, mountain biking, birding, primate watching, mountain treks and deep sea fishing; with glorious cuisine, Sierra Leone is back on the tourism map. Responsible UK operators like Overland West Africa are already back, visas are available online, fledgling Fly Salone is flying direct from London Gatwick with a whopping 46kg allowance, and independent travel writers like Nick Redmayne are filling pages with white sandy beaches, fresh lobsters and extraordinary cultural heritage. Sierra Leone could have been destroyed by Ebola, and it has suffered, but Ebola has become a catalyst. The recovery of tourism will accelerate social and economic development, showcase the country for investment, protect national parks from environmental degradation and provide outstanding holidays for British medics and their friends. Benjamin Carey FTS l Managing Director, Dunira Strategy

Interview with...

Noel Josephides From his early days in holiday villa rentals Noel Josephides FTS has built up over 40 years of tour operating experience and has seen Sunvil grow and survive through many industry wobbles. Elected chairman of ABTA in 2013, he has put this experience to good use and the organisation remains a strong and recognisable brand. Tourism Society Executive Director Gregory Yeoman spoke to him. GY: What was your route into tour operating? NJ: Like most of us who entered this industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s I arrived by mistake. On leaving university, I worked as a trainee buyer with C&A Modes, then imported lemons from Cyprus for a wealthy property developer. Alongside marketing his lemons, I sold the villas and apartments he was building in Cyprus. I appointed John der Parthog, my business partner to this day, as a sub-agent and he suggested I join him, as property sales were doing well at the time. We soon realised that there was more money to be made from renting the properties to holidaymakers and we thus pioneered self-catering holidays in Cyprus in the early 1970s. GY: Do you have anyone who has been a real inspiration in the industry? NJ: I have only ever worked for Sunvil in the travel industry so never came under the direct influence of any of the grandees within the major players. We found our own way and therefore did things very differently. I respected VFB Holidays and its MD Mike Bruce-Mitford. They were way ahead of their time in terms of quality and customer care and were frequently voted top of Holiday Which? consumer polls; their systems were excellent. The company and its values sadly disappeared when it morphed into Travelzest. GY: How has the style of holiday

offered by Sunvil changed over the years? NJ: We were way ahead of our time in terms of offering fully flexible, fly-drive (even in Namibia and Costa Rica) and multi-centre holidays. The style of our holidays has not changed - rather, this kind of holiday is now in fashion. I wish we could coin a name for what Sunvil does that’s more appropriate than ‘package holidays’. Package holidays are what we do and have always done - but certainly not packages in the currently perceived commodity sense. GY: What are the latest new destinations for Sunvil and what is their appeal? NJ: There are few truly new destinations left in the world. The days when we were the first to fly to various islands in Greece or when we introduced the Cape Verde islands, Namibia and the Azores to the UK market are long gone. Now we concentrate on refining and developing and adding value to existing destinations. There are many exciting and interesting aspects still to discover in countries in Europe and our Africa and Latin America holidays are put together by true experts, passionate about what they’ve discovered for our clients to enjoy. GY: How have you survived as a successful medium-sized ‘middle of the road/non-niche’ tour operator when so many others have failed or been swallowed up by the largest operators? NJ: I, too, often wonder how we have survived. We had a very serious fraud in 2007, and we didn’t get back all the money so that has made life difficult. We are still here because we share pain and pleasure with our staff; we have diversified; we have a loyal clientele; we have never been greedy or milked the company. We don’t pull the wool over clients’ eyes. We have never prepared the company for sale and we offer holidays that we would

Issue 164 Spring 2016

enjoy rather than those that would bring the highest returns. We take a long-term view. We are proud of what we have achieved in one of the most competitive and cutthroat markets. Our good name is everything. GY: Regarding sustainable/ responsible tourism. Are too many operators just paying lip service to the concept? If so, what’s to be done about it? NJ: The travel industry has had to be dragged into understanding the importance of sustainable tourism, and a relatively small number of companies, together with organisations like ABTA and The Travel Foundation are leading the way in making this happen. Sooner or later, the industry will be forced to think about long-term sustainability because legislators will do the same, whether it is to do with environmental impact, energy efficiency, employee welfare or supporting the local economy. GY: What do you think will be the most significant factors for business in 2016? NJ: 2016 will be challenging because the world is so interlinked; matters move faster and faster. Social media, review sites, the web in general are turning everyone into a journalist. Unrest in the Middle East will continue to have a knock-on effect on the travel industry. What will happen to sterling due to the fear that the UK may leave the EU? I am very pro the UK staying within the EU. What will happen to fuel prices? How much extra flight capacity will be poured into the Western Mediterranean because of the problems in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey? The travel landscape at the end of 2016 may well be very different to that at the beginning. GY: The media is often criticised for its over-dramatic reporting of events in holiday destinations.

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Can their approach ever be changed? NJ: The media will never change because disaster stories sell newspapers. The media attack on Greece in early 2015, advising their readers that there were shortages that would affect their holidays, was totally unjustified and shameful. How many in Greece lost their jobs as a result of what the UK media said, which put people off travelling there? GY: You have a reputation for being honest with travel journalists. Has this ever backfired? NJ: The media do tend to sensationalise my comments but I still believe that it’s important to be honest. I am more careful these days but, when something is so obvious to anyone with the least iota of intelligence, how can you pretend otherwise? Journalists aren’t stupid and they don’t respect you if you try and spin. GY: Aside from the obvious link of providing people with holidays, what brings the inbound and outbound industries together? NJ: The two complement each other. Without aircraft flying out carrying UK citizens who wish to holiday abroad there would be no capacity to bring foreign tourists into the UK. ABTA has pointed out that overseas holidaymakers generate £34.4 billion in UK spend before they go on holiday. Whether inbound or outbound, the contribution in terms of indirect taxes, Air Passenger Duty, Income Tax, National Insurance and VAT is worth many billions to the UK economy. The importance of the outbound part of the travel industry is at last starting to be recognised by politicians. GY: You have been pretty vocal about how the ‘sharing economy’ can be unfairly weighted against legitimate tourism companies. What’s the solution? NJ: I began to see the impact of the “sharing economy” about three years ago. Nobody believed me when I said that this ‘concept’ would have a dramatic effect on our industry and should be regulated. Two years ago, when I first started attending ABTA regional meetings I would ask members if they had ever heard of Airbnb; only a handful of individuals had. I felt I had to be vocal on the subject. The travel industry has been sleepwalking towards disaster by not registering its impact in the same way that none of us grasped the effect that the no-frills carriers would have on tour operator management of

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Kioni Harbour on Ithaca, Greece capacity. There are tax and safety issues and companies like Airbnb and Uber have nothing to do with a sharing/barter economy. These are enormous moneymaking machines, distribution systems like the rest of us, and the “sharing” term should never have been applied to them. It’s too late to fight back now as the regulators have afforded them breathing space to grow. They will, in time, be regulated like the rest of us. Stories of the problems at “sharing economy” properties can now be found almost daily in the press. It’s not universal praise as it was two years ago. I predict that sooner or later Airbnb will be forced to collect taxes on behalf of its hosts and pass the proceeds to HMRC. The organisation is now too big to ignore. GY: The reforms to the Package Travel Regulations have been underway for a long time. What are the main developments that ABTA is hoping to see in the new legislation? NJ: ABTA has served the industry well in Brussels. It is a much-respected organisation there and it is listened to. There were some rather wild proposals in the early versions of the Directive and ABTA was very instrumental in bringing common sense to the new legislation. There is no doubt that we will have much more of a level playing field once the Directive has been implemented in 2018. We will see increased consumer protection and, at the same time, traditional tour operators will see OTAs and even airlines which arrange packages having to comply with the regulations. GY: Has ABTA a future? If so, why and how? NJ: ABTA has never been more central to the travel industry than it is now. The Association has advised, helped and regulated our sector for over 65 years and will continue to do so. ABTA is acknowledged as a superbrand. No other

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body within the industry has the resources to fight the many regulatory battles we face. Our Association has professional staff and a wealth of knowledge. To be regulated entirely by Government is anathema; we would regret such a move. Some ask me what ABTA does for them and complain that they are wasting their money being members. Well, nobody is forced to join and every company is free to leave - very few ever do so of their own volition. The fact is that the ABTA badge gives respectability and, in this fast moving and partially-regulated industry, Members need every bit of support they can get. GY: What has ABTA got to offer UK destinations? NJ: ABTA has many UK operators as Members and works very closely with VisitEngland. It also chairs the UK Tourism and Leisure Group which runs the Travel Brit Awards, the only award ceremony exclusively celebrating travel agents selling domestic products. The awards celebrate and recognise agents who support domestic tourism as well as showcasing some of the wonderful domestic products on offer. GY: What still excites you about travel as you head to the office in the morning? NJ: The Sunvil team and their sheer enthusiasm for, and belief in, what we do. Our customers, both longstanding and new, who send us highly motivating feedback on their holidays. The many committed people with whom we work overseas - their ideas and the buzz they deliver. Travel is a fascinating jigsaw of people and places; fast moving, risky, unpredictable and with many challenges – regulation and sustainability in particular – added to the exotic mix. After 46 years, I still love it and I hate to think that I will ever be too old to be part of it!

Wales

A History of Theme Years in One Object… (with apologies to Neil McGregor.)

The pristine quality, redundancy and modest price seemed to be a somewhat pointed critique of Wales’ first national attempt at a tourism theme year, held relatively early in the life of Wales Tourist Board – whose brainchild it was. But in this one small mundane object many of the elements we would now associate with a ‘Years of…’ approach are present: the implicit urgency of a twelve-month shelflife; a shared logo and title that transcends the destination and sectoral brands and unites disparate partners; an instant ‘sense of place’ in this case aided by positive use of Welsh language; an attempt to tell a previously unexploited or neglected chapter of the national story, albeit one backed up by a credible offer; a somewhat breathless and didactic approach to interpretation; reaching out to new markets at home and abroad; localised and relevant manifestations of a national campaign; partnership/ sponsorship from a private sector brand also embedded in the destination. The Festival of Castles might appear a bit of an obvious theme for Wales, after all we have 641 of them in a country of only 3.5m people, but at the time these were murky political waters with the same castles, especially the Edwardian ring

awareness at the forefront:

Much more importantly in 1984, Cadw was created as the organisation which not only looks after but presents, interprets and promotes the heritage in Wales.

n Engage and mobilise Scottish businesses through Homecoming Scotland 2014

Of course, the penny soon dropped for many residents and visitors that (even in the land of Merlin) the Castles were not all going to magically disappear on 31st December 1983 and they could happily visit them in 1984 and beyond so the driver ‘in year’ had to be the associated events, exhibitions, limited edition merchandise etc which used the castles as their backdrop.

Against a £6.2m investment the official evaluation calculates a relatively modest additional 326,000 overnight visitors (6.5m overall) but contributing overall £136m value to the national economy. However, in the year of the independence referendum the real prize for Homecoming 2014 had to be the enhancement of national identity at home as well as reassurance and reputationbuilding overseas.

A heady mix of politics and profit were also at play in Scotland’s Homecoming initiative in 2009 with the clear objective of appealing to the Scottish diaspora and prompting a visit ‘now’ rather than ‘sometime’. The ‘why 2009?’ was Rabbie Burns’ 250th anniversary with four other key themes (all with resonance beyond tourism for study, business and inward investment) in support – Culture and Heritage, Innovation, Golf and Whisky. A programme of events stretched conveniently from Burns Night in January to St Andrew’s Day at the end of November. The highlight was the Clan Gathering in July, and additional revenue was calculated at £53.7m across 400 events. The perceived success of Homecoming prompted Wales and Ireland to develop their own versions ahead of Scotland’s second run-out of the format in 2014, by when objectives were being set with events, community engagement and wider

Issue 164 Spring 2016

To develop a strong portfolio of activity for 2014 that would: n Deliver additional tourism visits and revenue for Scotland n Develop Scotland’s event portfolio and build capacity in the industry n Engage, inspire and mobilise communities across Scotland through Homecoming Scotland 2014

n Enhance Scotland’s profile on the international stage

2014 also saw the Centenary of Dylan Thomas’ birth, which prompted Wales to create a calendar of activities and events

Dylan Thomas Monument, Laugharne

Credit BasPhoto – fotolia.com

There it was languishing in a quiet corner of e bay: Vintage Beermat – Wales 1983 Festival of Castles (Never Used) £5.59.

around North Wales (now a proud and welcoming World Heritage Site), seen by many at the time as constant reminders of colonisation and imperialism. Rightly we now look for ‘legacy’ as an outcome from this kind of approach – back in the 1980s we followed up with a rather halfhearted ‘Year of Heritage’ campaign, an early warning, if any were needed, about the difficulties of maintaining marketing momentum once you go down this road.

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‘The vision was to deliver a high quality, all Wales and beyond, event and educationled festival to mark the centenary of Dylan Thomas’ birth. The key targets drawn up at the outset in terms of global media coverage, development of a digital community and attendance at high quality events were achieved in a ‘Team Wales1’ spirit of collaboration and co-operation that transcended the Welsh borders and projected Wales across the world as a centre of creativity. During 2014, Dylan was immortalized as a Royal Mail Stamp and a Commemorative Coin issued by The Royal Mint, included in the ‘Icon’s range’ of whiskeys by Penderyn and inspired a special Brains2 Brewed Ale. Thomas’s work was quoted everywhere (including in Space!) in one of the year’s biggest movies, was trending on Twitter on his 100th birthday and the Guardian named Dylan Thomas as one of their ‘Heroes of 2014’.’ Interestingly the quality and ‘purity’ of the Centenary were strictly controlled with competitive mechanisms to develop/ support 18 key events which were then heavily marketed but with an emphasis in growing the on-line reputation of Dylan Thomas and Wales. The majority of targets were related to media and social media impacts and the main prize was 18

under the DT100 label. Dylan is a really interesting case study as his reputation in Wales was at best ambivalent and interest largely localised to West Wales, yet in literary and creative circles at home and abroad, especially in North America, he is a legend. It was precisely those markets who were not yet putting Wales on their destination list other than hit-and-run visits to Hay Festival. The evaluation report sums up the year’s outcomes:

Mountain biking adventure in Wales networked hours of output from BBC. shared content and activity calendar to back up the themes. Importantly the Bravely, ahead of settling on a refreshed positionings chosen are credible for destination brand, Visit Wales has Wales – for example there has been announced a series of ‘Years of…’ with significant and highly publicised investment Adventure in 2016 to be followed by in the Adventure product eg ZipWorld, Myth and Legend in 2017 and the Sea Bike Park Wales, Surf Snowdonia, but in 2018. Unlike the parallel Year of the adventures can be creative, cultural and English Garden ‘next door’, celebrating culinary as well as active. In Visit Wales’ Capability Brown’s tercentenary, these own words: “We want to: are not necessarily based on specific locations, characters or anniversaries but n galvanise the tourism industry rather conceived as capacious marketing n give the media a fresh hook and ‘envelopes’ which help destinations in reinvigorate the Wales brand globally Wales, the industry and their potential n energise the people of Wales customers to create, organise, process and n provide a focus for investment make sense of what could otherwise be a disparate and diverse range of experiences n inspire target markets to think differently on offer. Specifically the approach tackles and attract new visitors to Wales now head on the market misconception that n become a leading European adventure Wales may be beautiful but there is destination, offering experiences that are nothing to do. Years have seasons and safe, sustainable and ethical rhythms which are reflected in a universally n welcome adventurers of all ages, abilities and interests.”3 Happily there is still room for anniversaries within the broader programme. The centenary of Roald Dahl, born in Cardiff, will fall during this year with a range of special activities but crucially this is not having to carry the thematic weight of the whole year. But the adventures of the imagination he created are ripe for our ‘family explorer’ target markets.

So, start looking out for that ‘Years of …’ memorabilia which will feed e-bay in 30 years’ time…

Conwy Castle

References 1. Team Wales in this instance comprised Visit Wales, Arts Council of Wales, BBC, local authorities and others 2. In between 1983 and 2014 Brains had concentrated on sponsoring and fuelling Wales Grand-Slam winning Rugby teams rather than more cultural collaborations… 3. http://gov.wales/docs/drah/publications/ Tourism/151204yoa-industry-guide-en.pdf Peter Cole FTS MTMI l Director, Cole & Shaw

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Issue 164 Spring 2016

Tourism in Historic Cities and Towns Historic centres can still be up to date As the only independent UK-based organisation which represents all professional disciplines and all sectors working in the historic built environment the Historic Towns Forum recognises the responsibility we have to conserve, appropriately, our historic built environment for future generations.

There has been much discussion in the media of the decline of the high street in recent years. Internet shopping, economic recession, public spending cuts and a range of other factors have certainly impacted on city and town centres. However, the view that all centres are in decline is a generalisation. The reality is far more varied. Some towns have undoubtedly suffered in the past decade. Well-known high street names have been replaced with pound shops, budget outlets and betting shops. Some high streets have high levels of vacancy. While some parts of the country have experienced economic recovery, others have not. Some towns and cities have adapted and are actually prospering. Increasingly, the success of city and town centres depends not just on retail, but on a wider offer. This includes quality of place and environment. The relationship between quality of environment and an area’s ability to attract investment, population, employment and visitors is all too obvious. Historic environments can be a magnet for tourists and provide an attractive environment for meeting, eating, drinking and for a range of social activities. Recreational and cultural facilities are crucial to a centre’s success. Without playing down the importance of the retail, it is also important to understand the role of social, cultural and recreational facilities in making towns and cities attractive to tourists and day visitors, especially the Internet age. Abingdon in Oxfordshire demonstrates

Dave Chetwyn l Director, Historic Towns Forum, and MD, Urban Vision CIC

Credit gb27photo – fotolia.com

It also recognises that concepts of culture and heritage change, and that the built environment, can, should, and does adapt well to this when understood and handled in the right way.

The Three Graces on Liverpool’s Pier One the importance of recreation, culture and magnet. specialist retail. Every April, the Abingdon Of course, retail is still important. Bike Fest is held and this is growing larger Large-scale retail developments have each year and bringing more and more been criticised for offering the same as people into the town. A farmers’ market chain retail stores. However, many such is held on Mondays, attracting people developments have undoubtedly played a into the town on what would otherwise significant role in bringing in more people, be a quiet day, as well as regular Local from a wider area, as demonstrated by Excellence markets. There is also a large-scale developments in places like prospering music scene, including live Liverpool, Cardiff and Bristol. bands in the square, and an emphasis on However, independent shops also have a food and drink. key role in making centres more attractive. Nottingham has recently rejuvenated its English Heritage’s Heritage Counts 2010 infrastructure; Nottingham Art Gallery found that historic environments tend opened and art was introduced into the to support a greater concentration of Market Square, both as part of a wider independent businesses. Historic centres focus on art. The cultural offer is well like Leek and Macclesfield hold specialist linked to transport, retail and marketing, markets to bring in visitors. and areas such as the regenerated Lace In Cheadle, in the Staffordshire Moorland, Market are popular for living. a year-long project run by Urban Vision Liverpool has a well-developed visitor Enterprise CIC to celebrate the Victorian economy. This really started to develop Architect, Pugin, included opening a with the refurbishment of the Albert temporary visitor centre in a former police Dock, but the City of Culture introduced a station. This helped to achieve a more programme of cultural events, which have than 20% increase in trade over the year. continued and developed since. LargeFor any town or city centre developing an scale events such as the ‘Giants’ (puppets), economic development strategy, culture the Three Queens (Cunard Liners) and and heritage should be key elements. the River Festival bring in millions of There are powerful lessons from the range people each year. The range of cultural of historic town and city centres that have and recreational facilities, together with successfully adapted over the past decade. the City’s unique heritage, is a powerful

Issue 164 Spring 2016

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Town Centres

The rights and wrongs of town centre PR It’s been a mixed few years for our town centres, with the government initiative in the Future High Streets Forum and the Great British High Street Awards, independent closures and a fall in footfall of 4% in December… There are many positive stories to be told and there are of course on-going areas of challenge. I know only too well looking at my hometown of Abingdon that no-one more so than the local people wants to see new investment and growth. So how do we answer that call?

Events are one of the biggest driving forces for footfall into a town. Managed well, they generate more trade, positive word of mouth and an opportunity for retailers to engage with a wider audience. Plus, the local newspapers and radio want to feature local events before, during and after they take place. But are towns capitalising on that opportunity? Here’s an example. One small market town put on a pretty good Christmas extravaganza. One retailer on the main square got involved. One. Snow machine, cookies for the kids, playing carols. Other retailers – some larger chains, some independents, claimed they didn’t need to get involved because they didn’t need more customers. I’m sorry, but what?! It begs the question: what about the town’s PR? Didn’t it warm them up to getting involved? Some of our towns are doing a sterling job of promoting events and news – combining print and online PR & marketing to make sure the dots are joined up and locals find it easy to keep up to date. It’s all very well giving retailers leaflets to display or putting something in the local parish magazine, but people find it hard as a rule to hang onto these things. They end up with that niggle in their mind that it might be tomorrow that the food festival is on, but is it? They go

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The primary aim of PR in our great towns is to understand the customer, answer their pain points and get them back in and championing their local area. Let’s look at the bits we’re really getting right first.

Good promotion will attract the visitors to Facebook. Nothing. They go to what seems to be the town website. Nothing. They eventually find something on a local blog and decide to risk it and trust that the information is right. It’s a big task but news MUST be syndicated across every relevant on and offline platform. And that information has to be easy to digest quickly and has to be authentic – I’ve seen some great examples of town guides written by locals, like Masham in Yorkshire for instance. And for that process to work effectively, having partnerships across the town network is essential – all too often the retailers association, the town management team and the councils are all singing from different hymn sheets. Collaboration across events and initiatives is of paramount importance. At the centre of this should be innovation. The town centres that are excelling in the UK are those who embrace change and take advantage of new opportunities.

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They are the ones who facilitate pop-up shops, give independents a platform, work with schools and associations, ask residents for feedback and take their ideas on board. All of this requires a clear strategic plan. So what next for our towns? It’s all about the people. We need people to collaborate. We need to showcase the people that make our towns great. And I think towns should have a board of local resident advisors – tasked with giving feedback, insight and ideas from their communities, with the good of the town at the heart. When we’ve nailed the PR with the local community, we should be shouting from the rooftops nationally, sharing our town’s remarkable stories, so others want to come and be a part of it too. Finally, if you have time, Google ‘Marketing the uniqueness of small towns’ and read the guide written in 1982 – 34 years on and it is still very relevant and is a refreshing read. Enjoy. Catherine Warrilow MTS l Managing Director, Seriously PR

Focus on…

European Travel Commission (ETC) One of the oldest tourism organisations, the European Travel Commission (ETC) was created in 1948 with the purpose of promoting Europe as a tourist destination in long-haul markets. The organisation was set-up under the post-war Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe’s tourism industry. The first promotional campaign began as early as 1949 and since then the European Travel Commission has been promoting Europe internationally for more than 60 years. ETC is the only European organisation bringing together 32 National Tourism Organisations of Europe, including 24 from EU Member States. The past few years brought a complete restructuring of the organisation, adapting to new times and a deeper co-operation with European Union institutions such the European Commission and the European Parliament. While Europe remains the number one tourist destination worldwide, the European tourism industry is losing its competitiveness. Other regions are creating a favourable environment for welcoming more and more travellers, and by 2030 destinations in Asia and the Pacific will benefit from the expansion of intra-regional travel and will gain most of the new arrivals. In order to remain the world’s first tourist destination, Europe must respond to the shifting patterns in global tourism and to capitalize on the potential of tomorrow’s outbound travel markets. Their expanding middle classes are a growing market for European destinations, whose stakeholders need to ensure the development of a sustainable tourism sector. Tourism generates 9.7% of total EU-28 GDP, employs 25 million people and contributes with more than 351 billion EUR to the European Union’s exports1. Despite these valuable spin-off benefits, tourism in Europe does not receive the importance it deserves on the policy making scene. In response to these challenges, ETC has been very active in its efforts to

Eduardo Santander MTS l Executive Director, European Travel Commission (ETC)

put tourism on the EU agenda and to emphasise its importance, and this had a positive impact on the co-operation with the European Commission which approved, at the end of 2015, a fourth consecutive joint programme of activities to be financed with EU funds for the 2016 ETC operations. ETC embarked in active advocacy activities and in a broader co-operation with the travel industry by building alliances to create advantages for tourism in Europe. ETC believes that one of the most important factors to successfully promote ‘Destination Europe’ and to support the sustainable growth of the European tourism sector is the deep co-operation between public and private stakeholders at continental, national, regional and local levels. In this regard, ETC strongly supports the ‘Tourism for Growth and Jobs Manifesto’, a unique initiative which unites more than 20 associations representing European public and private stakeholders with the purpose of advocating the importance of tourism as a driver of economic growth and social development. Following extensive consultations which took place during the end of 2015, the tourism stakeholders, including the European Travel Commission, identified the EU policy priorities for the sector in the coming years: competitiveness, digitalisation, good governance, joint promotion, reducing seasonality, skills and qualifications, sustainability and transport connectivity. The actions proposed by the stakeholders to tackle the challenges

Issue 164 Spring 2016

of the sector in the coming years include, among many others, smarter Schengen visa policies, EU financial support for the digitalisation of the tourism sector, a new strategy and a work plan for tourism in the EU by involving all tourism stakeholders, the ongoing promotion of pan-European thematic tourism products and the better recognition of relevant tourism qualifications and skills experience throughout the single market. (The full Manifesto text is available at www. tourismmanifesto.eu.) The European travel and tourism sector stakeholders came together to call the European institutions to act on these key common priorities, which seek to ensure that the continent remains an attractive destination and that the tourism sector continues to make a significant contribution to growth and job creation in the European economy. Through its own actions, ETC will continue to raise awareness and understanding among national and European authorities and the general public of the importance of tourism and the need to ensure its development through appropriate common activities. Reference 1. World Travel & Tourism Council (2015), Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2015 European Union, WTTC, London ETC is a Corporate Member of the Tourism Society

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Tourism Consultants Network

2015 – A year of exploring and expanding TCN has grown over 26 years into the biggest trade association for tourism consultants in Europe, and 2015 was an excellent year in the process of consolidation and expansion, when more members than ever participated in the events that we organised. The year began with a successful doublebill in early March, when 14 members gathered in London to hear Silvia Barbone MTS lucidly unravel some of the intricacies of sourcing business from the EC; later, at a sell-out joint meeting with British Expertise, four of our members spoke about the challenges of tourism project management in exotic parts of the world. At the end of that month, we took a small delegation to Riyadh, to speak at the Saudi Travel and Tourism Investment Mart, at the invitation of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, and I’m glad to say that the invitation has been renewed for 2016. In early May, 21 members gathered for a lunch we organised in honour of Liz Terry, who was awarded Honorary Fellow membership of the Society in recognition of her achievement in building up a tourism and leisure publishing business that now sells some 50 titles. Following our instructive fact-finding trip to Brussels in October 2014, 16 members ventured to Madrid in June for a day as guests of UNWTO – another highly enjoyable mix of business and pleasure. UNWTO went out of their way to make us welcome and share information, and I’m optimistic that our active collaboration will lead to valuable joint initiatives in the future. In mid-September, we tested the viability of organising an event for the first time well outside the south-east (where the biggest concentration of members is based), and were surprised and delighted by the capacity attendance of 60 for our conference in York, to discuss the effects of Government policy on tourism development in the north. Our thanks go to John Gallery FTS and Chris Evans FTS for the considerable time they devoted to organisation, and to Kurt Janson MTS

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TCN delegation visits UNWTO in Madrid (Tourism Alliance) for moderating a panel of ten quality speakers. It was also enormously gratifying to end with a full house (nearly 100) for our annual discussion-meeting at WTM, in partnership with UNWTO, where four speakers used case studies to address the question of how destinations can best get results with limited resources. Finally, two services provided that are highly appreciated by members are the circulation of project opportunities, for which our thanks go to Sophie Maulévrier MTS and Chris Evans, and the bi-monthly e-newsletter, courtesy of Gerry Carver FTS. 2016 begins with another award lunch on February 18 for Chris Browne, the first woman CEO of an airline in the UK, and a disaster-recovery conference that we hope to organise in Cumbria in response to the flooding catastrophe the region has suffered. Details of a follow-up visit to Brussels and other opportunities will be circulated in due course. The Tourism Consultants Network has a sharp new logo. While it is clearly linked to the Tourism Society’s ‘parent brand’ logo by the same style and font, it is nevertheless distinguished by its bold red colour and slogan “worldwide experience – world-class expertise”. The colour red is considered by some psychologists to represent a pioneering spirit, leadership qualities, courage and determination; and in Chinese culture it is considered a lucky colour – case closed!

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Huge thanks go to Andrew White of Seton Design in Edinburgh, who generously produced this new logo on a pro bono basis for TCN. Seton is a branding and marketing consultancy with over 20 years’ experience in the corporate and consumer sectors, including tourism: www.setondesign.com. TCN: Worldwide Experience – World-class expertise In the past year TCN news has reported on member activity from around the globe: n Kevin Millington – St. Helena n Silvia Barbone – Spain n Peter Wild – Barbados n Robert Travers – Timor-Leste n Tom Buncle – Ghana n Oliver Bennett – ITB Berlin & Expo’15 n Andrew Keeling – Isle of Man n Alastair Stevenson – Wales n Chris Brown – Alexandra Palace n Kev Duxbury – Suffolk TCN Committee 2015-16 n Roger Goodacre FTS - Chairman n Oliver Bennett FTS - Vice-Chairman n Alison Cryer FTS n Ken Robinson CBE FTS MTMI n Chris Evans FTS n Alastair Stevenson FTS n Tom Buncle FTS FTMI n Gerry Carver FTS Roger Goodacre FTS l Chairman, Tourism Consultants Network

Destinations and Product Marketing

Who decides where the family goes, and when? analysis, even on a lifestyle segmentation basis, could accurately predict the ‘what’ and ‘where’ of holiday choice.

The objective for most is how to grow demand, how to increase the volume and value of tourism to their destination, and this generally means winning new customers, beyond those who are satisfied by, and return to, the destination. Until recent years many customers were committed to holidaying in one preferred location, returning year after year to the same area, town or even the same accommodation. Now, most tourists in developed countries are taking advantage of the greater accessibility and affordability of places, and holiday types, and vary where they go, the accommodation they stay in (hotel, self-catering cottage, glamping, canal boat, etc), when they go, and the frequency of visits. The rise of short breaks means many more visits, of shorter duration. Gone are the days when simplistic socio-economic

The topic for the Tourism Society symposium 2016 is ‘The Business of Tourism’, and a key question posed in the pre-event information is: “How do you influence the choice of your destination?”. I was discussing this with destination exhibitors and travel trade intermediaries at World Travel Market last year, and what became increasingly clear is that the more this question comes into focus, the harder it gets to define what is determining customer choice. Some aspects are very clear. First, the customer characteristics: where they live, where they can get to, who will be in their holiday group – ages and mobility, what they can afford or choose to spend, what style of holiday matches or builds on their

Issue 164 Spring 2016

Demand side, supply side, incentives and the ‘holy grail’

past choices, what offers good value, what offers the prospect of kudos when talking to family and friends after their return. Who is the most persuasive decisioninfluencer in a group? These demand-side aspects are matched (or may not be) by destination and product attributes: the image and appeal of the destination, the availability of suitable product, especially accommodation, at perceived good-value prices, convenience of access, safety and security, cultural compatibility or appealing differences, the all-important availability of information and online functionality, bookability, etc. These are the aspects of ‘product-market fit’; long since appreciated, in theory at least. However, destinations are complex, offering many product options and price points, and tourists choose different types of break or holiday at different times, so

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Happy, repeat visitors need little hard information to encourage their decisions. But to win new customers, the destinationproduct-information need is very different. Destination reputation and familiar characteristics are important conditioning factors. This is where the promotional image and marketing programmes of the destination play their important, but predictable, role, laying the foundation for further layers of specific products and features of the locality. Much has been learned about how to incentivise potential visitors, to influence seasonality, to feature events and with price-incentive offers. The net revenue effects of special promotions, especially price-related initiatives, depend on the degree to which they move demand, or actually achieve net revenue growth, rather than just converting what would otherwise be premium revenue visits to lower income and higher cost alternatives, at a different time, or with different content.

Why travel? Thrills

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The multi-facetted destination: some destinations are large enough and have sufficiently well supported promotional budgets to develop chameleon tendencies, aiming to promote different images to different potential audiences at different times. Whether such efforts are truly effective, or merely generate sufficient business to support the expense of special themes and events, is a function of pre-evaluation, realistic appraisal and refinement. They risk a fragmented and confusing image. Some locations persist with events year after year, as calendar fixtures, with inadequate critical evaluation of cost-effectiveness, clinging to their topics and dates in the diary, for fear that ‘the competition’ will poach them. Events may complement but often distort destination marketing imagery and regular programmes, consume scarce management and administration time, and leave visitors who come at other times, before and after, to feel they have missed out. So, if the main factors on the demand side and the supply side are known, surely competent marketeers can correlate them in progressively refined promotional programmes? Well, maybe not. First, there is the issue that became very evident in my conversations at World Travel Market, with destination marketeers from UK, Europe and several well-established international destinations. In most cases there is some annual or relatively recent market research that throws light on the key product-market fit attributes. Most destinations have a formalised marketing strategy, although rarely determined by insightful objective analysis. Although much of the important information is ‘known’, it is often not empirically and comprehensively analysed but is just ‘in the minds of’ the marketing professionals, at the mercy of catchy design imagery and apparently best value media options. The annual programme is mostly repeated with variations rather than re-examined on

Issue 164 Spring 2016

Why travel? Landscape this is a complex task. What is the relative importance and the net revenue potential of each correlating factor?

Most destinations have relatively little influence over the main elements of their overall product; they are what they are, where they are, with various attractions at the heart of their overall image. Promotional programmes necessarily promote the most popular elements. Research shows which visitors respond best to these elements, and as a result, promotion is usually refined to present them in the most persuasive way. The destination and its intrinsic elements form the image, styled so as to reach potential visitors who would probably be disposed to ‘buy’ them, reporting good experiences and value. This process of image and promotional refinement focuses on the most likely potential satisfiable customers, but in so doing tends to miss potential new audiences.

Why travel? Family research-based principles. What has been proven to ‘work well’ is repeated. But what of the rest of the potential? And so to the ‘holy grail’; the most important question for tourism destination marketeers. This results from the discussions at WTM, because there are so many similar products there…similar in the sense of destination style, characteristics, main product elements…whether it be Maldives vs Seychelles, or New York vs Boston, or Costa Brava vs Costa Blanca, or Blackpool vs Brighton, or the Peak Park vs the Yorkshire Dales? The question is also of equal importance, and much easier to analyse for customer choice between similar product elements such as between country house hotels, or B&Bs or Holiday Parks. All marketeers know that building awareness, and even motivation, among potential visitors is not enough. The key is the actual decision, the critical trigger – and the aspects that prompt it, which cause potential visitors to decide between, for them, apparently similar choices. There are psychological factors at play that can only be analysed by specialist qualitative research. This is a matter about which there is almost no published data. It is clear that many elements – image, price, product attributes that match the enthusiasms of potential visitor – are high on the list, but most of the destination marketeers I discussed this with said they felt that whatever these most influential factors are, there is usually something more. The ‘holy grail’ is to understand the final trigger-attributes for new tourist visitors. Define these in relation to the fixed elements of a destination product, and it will be possible to more effectively refine the marketing media, messages and systems to create catalytic elements that influence the final selective choice. Ken Robinson CBE FTS MTMI l Chair, Tourism Society Think Tank

Tourism Symposium 2016

Birmingham - Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th June The Business of Tourism What are the new drivers for tourism today? How do you influence the choice of your destination, whether for business or leisure, for conferences and major events, film and TV locations? Are we making enough of festivals (hi and low brow)? And are we ignoring trends for wellness, volunteering, natural events, and learning experiences? Featuring: new research published at the event a mix of panels, interviews and presentations Venue: Birmingham Repertory Theatre • • • • • •

Topics to be covered include: Attracting visitors through retail Embracing cultural tourism Business tourism – do visitors have a choice? New opportunities – volunteering, wellness, new sports News ways to market – gamification

Plus – time to explore Birmingham’s culture, industry and history on study tours, and a networking supper at the Birmingham Council House Banqueting Suite. Tickets available now through the Tourism Society website http://bit. ly/1NbErS2. Tourism Society members £159 Non-members £179 Prices shown include study tour and supper on June 6th and all-day conference with lunch and tea-breaks on June 7th. Transport and accommodation not included. Birmingham Convention Bureau has set up a dedicated website with a range of hotels near the Symposium venue to make booking your accommodation as straightforward as possible. For full details go to http://bit.ly/1OmOTtO. Organised in Partnership With

Prospects 2016

It’s all about the oil (crude, olive, massage…)

A key factor which would have an influence on tourism performance through 2016 and into 2017 is the price of oil. Richard Nicolls of VisitBritain outlined the possible effects of the current 12-year low in oil prices, with associated low inflation and cheaper fuel among the most important. The perceived increase in disposable income should encourage more spending, and with oil expected to remain cheap for some time to come Nicholls did not foresee any change in this trend just yet. The impact would not be felt equally around the world, though, and he was cautious about performance in India and China noting that with slowing economies these outbound markets would not necessarily maintain their recent levels of activity. Exchange rate benefits would also be unevenly felt. At the moment, a weak Pound gives US Dollar and Euro visitors more money in their pockets, but emerging markets such as Russia and Brazil have weaker currencies which will make the UK less appealing over the coming months. The VisitBritain presentation finished with a comment about the growing importance to travellers of location data which would in turn be valuable to destination marketers interested in tracking their visitors’ journeys. This led on smoothly to Sam Vining’s presentation. Vining, from e-marketing agency iCrossing, suggested that 2016 would be a transformative year with regard to the way people use their connected devices and how companies should interact with them. Key areas to focus on should be app development to provide access to apps directly through a browser, rather than a separate app store, and also creative approaches to handling ad-blocking technology. Vining recognised the good fit between

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Credit: VisitBritain

For this year’s Prospects event held on January 20th at Central Hall Westminster, as well as taking a look at the overall outlook for the UK industry over the coming year we considered two particular sectors – wellness tourism and food tourism – and also considered what the key developments would be in the digital marketing arena.

the tourism industry and content creation. While this relationship did exist, though, he did repeat the need for communications today to be not just B-to-C but also C-to-B. Without content that customers want to engage with and respond to with their own contributions the marketing efforts will be much less valuable and rewarding. Keiron Dodd of Great British Chefs picked up on this theme during his look at the rapidly growing area of food tourism. With more daily social media activity than website visits, it is the active engagement by the customers with the content that is now driving interest. And as well as the beautifully presented recipes on the Great British Chefs website there is plenty of activity in the culinary world generally that is driving interest in food-focused holidays and visits, from the widespread local produce markets to experiential ‘farm to fork’ itineraries where the customers catch and then prepare their dinner themselves. Interestingly, the interest is shifting away from fine dining towards authentic low-key experiences. Michelin stars are less important than local cafés and more relaxed surroundings, but, wherever your visitors are eating, food and travel will still be key

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conversation topics at dinner parties once they are back at home – and the aim must be to encourage these people to become advocates for the destinations. The final presentation, by Max Clapham MTS of BDRC Continental, considered the rise of wellness tourism. This may conjure up images of spa breaks to most people but as Clapham outlined the catchment for wellness is very broad, taking in anything from adrenalin to zen by way of festivals, skin care, forest eco-lodges and surfing. Another unexpected point was that in 2015/16 more men will take a wellness break than women; overall, it is a youth-dominated market but all social classes and all ages are represented. The message to take away was that the ability to pair ‘wellness’ with more or less anything else means that there is no limit to how this growing trend can be exploited. The event was kindly sponsored by VisitBritain, iCrossing, Great British Chefs and BDRC Continental, and was chaired by Alison Rice MTS. A video of proceedings is available at https://www.youtube.com/user/The TourismSociety. Gregory Yeoman FTS l Executive Director, Tourism Society

Annual Dinner 2016 Monday March 21st 2016 at the House of Lords Drinks reception from 7pm Dinner at 7.45pm Speaker: John Holland-Kaye, CEO Heathrow Airport The Tourism Society will hold its prestigious Annual Dinner in the exclusive surroundings of the House of Lords, hosted by the Society’s President Lord Thurso FTS. Join us for this enjoyable black-tie evening which includes a drinks reception followed by a delicious three-course meal. After dinner a special award will be presented by Lord Thurso to an organisation or individual to mark their contribution to tourism in the UK. The winner’s name is only announced on the night! Tourism Society members and guests £129 Non-members £149 Table of ten £1100 Go to http://bit.ly/1RSI6w6 for more information and to book your tickets. Sponsored By

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Membership News Congratulations to Mark McVay on his upgrade to Fellow of the Tourism Society. Welcome to the following new Company and Corporate Members: Patricia Mediavilla MTS and Olivia O’Toole MTS London & Partners; John Corellis MTS, made: Steve Lang MTS, National Trust; Kim Churchill MTS, Southeastern; Adam Bray MTS, Anthony Weston MTS and Lucy Allen MTS, The Crown Estate; George Clode MTS, travelGBI at Travel Weekly Group; Lowri Jones MTS TCN, Visit Wales. Welcome to the following new Group Members: Bea Gorman MTS, Rob Barfield MTS, DISCVR; Adam Bates MTS MTMI, Blue Sail; Sue Bleasdale MTS, Middlesex University; Dr Mario Siglioccolo MTS, University Campus Suffolk; Lesley Glass MTS, Alethea Bradley MTS, Celeste Jones MTS, Dr Nika Balomenou MTS, Dr Sarah Snell MTS – all University of Hertfordshire. Welcome to the following new Society Members: Kathryn Flynn MTS, University of Wales Trinity Saint David; Jo Williams MTS, Williams Tourism Consulting; James Edmunds MTS, Buckinghamshire New University;

Kathryn Nevell MTS; Richard Drakeley MTS MTMI, The National Forest Company; Paul Griffiths MTS, Mary Rose Trust; Stephen Spencer MTS; Anna Morris MTS, The Edinburgh Address; Lee Elwell MTS and Lucy Von Weber MTS, Hurio; Grace Ryder MTS, Maximum Fun Cornwall Ltd; Ela Rogers MTS MTMI, London Metropolitan University; Esther Pearson MTS, South West Coast Path Association; Craig Wilson MTS MTMI, Visit County Durham; Katie Clarke MTS, Visits Unlimited; Constantia Anastasiadou MTS; Robert Travers MTS TCN, self-employed; Janet Adeyemi MTS, Tourism Society; Margaret Ajayi MTS MTMI, Ministry of Home Affairs, Tourism & Culture, Osun State, Nigeria; Lesley Barlow MTS TCN, A Fresh View; David Bowden MTS, David Bowden Law; Denise Bridges MTS, Albatross Travel; Peter Buckell MTS MTMI, Visit Norwich Ltd; Lara Callegari MTS, VisitBritain; Leila Calnan MTS TCN, Cardno Emerging Markets; Ben Cowell MTS, Historic Houses Association; Elena Garcia Arencibia, University of Exeter; Ellen Gordon MTS, Hong Kong Tourism Board; Andreea Ireland, University of Greenwich; Noël James MTS, Historic

Towns Forum; Sergi Jarques MTS ATMI TCN, Destination Research Ltd; Cheryl Lai; Philipp Lenz, University of Exeter; Dr Cristina Maxim MTS, University of West London; Ken Oloye MTS, Oloye Promotions; Pankaj Sawhney MTS, Red Apple Travel Co. Ltd.; Liz Sharples MTS, University of Portsmouth; Jayne Townson, Bangor University; Rebecca Young, Plymouth University; Tia Abbott, Adrienn Angyal, Rachel Ayres, Jessica Bainbridge, Titilope Bakare, Jessica Bell, Lewis Calvert, Ke Hei Jocelyn Chan, Casey Cousins, Elissa Cundy, Yu Chun Ding, Jamiilah Ellahee, Lucy Fleming, Beth Fox, Luke Giles, Daniel Heeley, Maja Jaroszewska, Kai Jin, Emily Kemplen, Jessica Kinsey, Emma Longwell, Harry Major, Natasha Marvin, Emily Morgan, Diana Neves, Holly Oliver, Sarah Pearce, Elizabeth Powell, Kris Sammons, Tom Sandford, Danni Saxton, Amelia Scrivener, Joshua Simpson, Emily Sini, Emily Smith, Charlie Stockton, Daniel Sutcliffe, Natasha West, Jo Wheeler, Shurui Yu – all Sheffield Hallam University. n Full business and contact details can be found on the Society’s website.

Events calendar 2016 March

June

November

2nd – Tourism Society Europe, Roundtable, Brussels

6th / 7th – Tourism Symposium, Birmingham

9th – Seminar at World Travel Market

16th – Tourism Question Time, British Tourism and Travel Show, NEC

10th – Tourism Society Cumbria, World Environment Day, UCLAN

Date tbc – TCN session at World Travel Market

17th – Tourism Society Scotland, Women in Tourism, Edinburgh

October

21st – Annual Dinner, House of Lords, London 22nd – Fellows’ Day, London May

December

27 – Media Masterclass

Date tbc – Tourism Society Scotland Christmas Dinner

Date tbc – Tourism Society Scotland Trends event

Date tbc – Tourism Society Scotland AGM and accompanying industry event

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Issue 164 Spring 2016

The Back Page Chairman’s View with Hayley Beer-Gamage FTS MTMI In my first article as the newly appointed Chairman of the Tourism Society I firstly wanted to say what an honour it is to be part of the Society and I am delighted to have the support of our highly skilled and experienced board members. However, the Society is an organisation for our members and we strive to support you all working in this wonderful sector and appreciate your support in being part of the Society. I wanted to ensure that I was giving you some personal insight into how I see the sector today – but how can you possibly cover that in just one page! Then I reflected on the articles in this edition and it is clear just how diverse the sector is; we clearly all have our gripes and grumbles but generally we are a sector of glass halffull individuals despite whatever frustrations we may have. We may not like what is going on in the external environment, whether that be legislation that affects the industry, government funding or the highly competitive environment that we now work in. But what the industry is so very good at is overcoming the challenges and now more than ever collaboration is the key to that. I suspect no-one reading this article will be unaware of the changes that have taken place at a national level with VisitBrtain and VisitEngland and a large proportion of the industry made a united approach to Government to get things changed, again testament to how collaborative the industry can be. However, we now need to use that collaborative approach, looking to the future and next steps on how we can capitalise on the new Discover England Fund and increased support for the GREAT campaign. As part of the day job I had the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon David Cameron MP, attend our Experience Oxfordshire event in January – the first event he has spoken at since the announced changes – and despite some difficult questions the messaging was clear. He said: “I am passionate about the tourism sector – as shown by the drive I have given to the government’s plans, including the excellent “GREAT” campaign… my support for the sector remains strong.”

Photo – Experience Oxfordshire

Collaboration is key

The Prime Minister speaking in January So with that in mind let’s move on to the Peter Gowers. day job and industry issues and from the It was great to hear stories of employees articles in this edition I certainly share the working their way up from cleaning staff, frustrations of some of the writers. to bar staff to GM – that is a clear career Visitor Welcome (or lack of it!) – path. This can clearly make or break a visitor Similarly I was at a hoteliers’ lunch recently experience. Is it wrong to expect manners where the great debate was how hard it is and common courtesy as a matter of find a good Head Chef; with Head Chefs cause? I am always surprised by how earning over £50k pa it’s worth working elated I am when I receive a friendly and your way up the career ladder (and peelwarm welcome – only last week I told ing a few potatoes!) to get there. office colleagues that the platform staff at This industry DOES provide excellent cathe train station had wished me a good reers and we need to make more of that. morning and it had quite literally made my Linked to this is the importance of eduday – but that was because it was so out cation in the sector and making sure the of the norm! next generation are trained, skilled and Businesses that do this well clearly benefit ready for work, whether through educabut those that just don’t get it let the tion (including apprenticeships) or study. sector down and it’s clearly impacting At the Tourism Society we have such when you look at the national figures – strong links with many Universities and to visitor welcome is for life not just for the show our commitment to them and the Olympics! next generation we are delighted to be Making this a sector to be proud sponsoring this year’s Association of Tourto bepart of – For so long the sector ism in Higher Education (ATHE) Award. has been tarnished as low paid/low skilled. There is no quick fix to these issues and This is just not the case, especially with some great steps have already been made the introduction of the living wage (which to addressing them, but I do know that we I accept will have an impact on tourism, will only improve these things through colhospitality and leisure organisations). laboration and that is certainly something However, it is a sector where you can the industry is getting better at. have a wonderful career. I went to last So let’s raise those half-full glasses of ours week’s launch of the new Travelodge in and work together to tackle key issues in Oxford, which was attended by their CEO the industry.