Marketing with spring in your step

I’ve been cheered to see snowdrops in bloom at last, and the clouds clearing after what seems like weeks of  grey skies, with the English countryside muddy underfoot and temperatures hovering around freezing. Yet it’s one of the best times for wrapping up well and enjoying the great outdoors, taking a bracing country walk, perhaps with a dog in tow, followed by a hearty pub lunch and a warm up by a roaring log fire. Find some inspiration here. It’s also a great time to take a city break, and enjoy live theatre, nightlife or a little retail therapy,  which can all be enjoyed indoors, should you be unlucky enough to encounter rain or snow in city streets.

Symptoms of recovery?

I escaped the rain myself for a packed performance of The Misanthrope at London’s Comedy Theatre last night, with brilliant entertainment from a star studded cast that included Keira Knightley, Damien Lewis, Tara Fitzgerald and Nicholas Le Prevost. I was reminded of  Sir Cameron Macintosh, in a recent radio interview,  revealing that his theatres have also been among the beneficaries of a healthy growth in West End ticket sales over the past year, in spite of the recession.

Elsewhere I’ve read recently, amongst other things, that the last year was a record vintage for English wine, thanks in part to 2009′s glorious September weather; and that Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire enjoyed a 43% increase in visitor numbers compared to 2008. Britain’s leading visitor attractions, represented by Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) saw an average 10.9% increase in visitor numbers in 2009, and reported this week that 82% of their members were optimistic about the immediate future compared to 60% this time last year.

Have you seen the recent campaign for Premier Inns, one of the Whitbread Group brands, fronted by the actor Lenny Henry? The Times recently reported that this had already generated 215,000 room nights over a 6 month period, for a £29 non refundable room rate, booked a minimum of 21 days in advance of arrival.

So what can we learn from these successes? For all of us involved in the British visitor economy, it’s vital to stay positive whatever the season; and look out for thc business opportunities and silver lining that exists inside every cloud.  Success seems to breed more success, just follow the links to some of the above websites,  they also seem to exude a certain successful ‘look and feel’.  It’s certainly important to visitors that we keep smiling, both online and in person, so they always feel welcome – whatever the weather!

New consumer marketing campaign from Visit Britain

If you’re a regular visitor to VisitBritain.org our national tourism agency’s trade website, you’ll already know that they’ve been keeping very busy in the last month. Amongst other initiatives they’ve launched a highly anticipated new campaign for cities which focuses on Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-Gateshead and Oxford in association with EasyJet and British Airways . See how these cities are being promoted to the overseas visitor.

Reap benefits from Visit Britain’s new strategy

Visit Britain has also launched a new global Britain and London 2012 marketing strategy. It makes interesting reading.

When you run a business involved in the visitor economy, it’s always going to be sensible to keep tabs on how the country as a whole, the local region, and your immediate vicinity are being marketed to visitors. If it’s feasible to  mirror the activity of major agencies and destination management organisations at an individual business level, you can potentially benefit from the glow of awareness that’s already being created in the wider arena, and perhaps even get yourself featured in some high profile promotional campaigns. That can do wonders for raising your profile in a crowded marketplace. Let’s not be shy! Anyone who identifies an opportunity that’s right for them should go for it. It’s usually a simple matter to read the strategies and identify where there’s common ground and partnering potential.

Why not also volunteer your organisation to host visiting journalists or representatives of the travel trade from overseas, on an organised familiarisation trip? This is something which has the potential to lead to valuable media coverage. You just need to get proactive, and either pick up the phone,  or fire off an email to your local tourism officer, or relevant contact found via the ‘contact us’ section of the national or regional tourist board websites, expressing your wish to get involved. For my part, I wish you good luck!

Do you think there are grounds for optimism in the visitor economy of 2010? Let me know what you think.

Until next time…

What makes a genuine souvenir?

I’ve been doing quite a lot of travelling in the UK over the past three months. As a result, I’ve spent a fair bit in hotels, restaurants, visitor attractions and yes, shops. So my expenditure, whether I’ve been travelling for business or pleasure, has also benefited the local economy everywhere I’ve visited, from Newcastle to Salcombe, from Liverpool to Ascot, The Cotswolds, London, Durham and Bath, to the Isle of Wight, Stratford Upon Avon and Windsor. Or has it?

My definition of a souvenir

Souvenirs are physical reminders of places you’ve visited. My husband abhors them, and is always reminding me ‘not to bring home any more knick-knacks’. However, in my case, my desire to take home a souvenir of some description, runs deep. I rarely throw one away, unless it totally disintegrates, which drives him nuts.

Souvenirs should carry meaning, be about memories and local identity. The preponderance of chain stores you now find in the high streets of so many towns and cities all over the  world makes finding something different more difficult. More often than not nowadays, it’s frustratingly difficult to findsomething  locally made, that you can’t get anywhere else, apart from rocks.

I have a thing about rocks, fossils and shells. I’ve got a great collection, picked up from beaches and roadside verges all over the world. They make great free souvenirs. They’re not actually displayed anywhere, they find themselves scattered about in odd drawers, bathroom shelves or in the garden. Most are too small to be of any use, except the collection of pumice I picked up on the beach at Monte Circeo in Italy at the age of 14. There’s nothing like pumice for rough skin; and these little pieces, that probably came from Vesuvius,  form a keepsake that still transports me back to a windswept teenage day out from Rome with my Italian uncle and aunt, digging my bare feet into the cold beach sand of late March, resolving  to remember the moment forever.

Can my recent purchases be criticised?

Turn over many obvious souvenirs like the small red plastic telephone boxes or double decker buses, or mugs, that you see in souvenir shops in London nowadays and you’ll find the words ‘made in China’ stamped on the bottom. I tried this exercise with what I considered the best souvenirs I’ve picked up in the UK recently, and was shocked by the results. In particular I thought that major art galleries would be places keen to support well designed home produced artifacts.

On closer inspection I discovered that the cute little ‘Handy Bookmarks’, made of multi-coloured wire in the shape of hand signs (£2.50. from NPW),  that I bought in the Baltic Gallery in Gateshead, were made in China. So were the fredandfriends.com ‘Gin and Titonic’ ship and iceberg shaped ice cubes ‘to sink in your drink’, from the same place ( priced at £5.50). The latter appear to have been designed in the USA; but on inspecting the packet it confirmed that they were manufactured in China.

I’ve also discovered that The Cavern Club fridge magnet I bought in Liverpool Visitor Information Centre, was made in China (mysteriously I found I couldn’t buy souvenirs in the club itself). Finally I looked at my much admired Tatty Devine acrylic keyring in ‘symbolism black’ (available in other colours such as ‘post modern pink’), that I purchased at Tate Liverpool in  Albert Dock (£14.68 from Tate online), and was delighted to find that it was made in the UK.

How we can promote locally distinctive souvenirs

We may live in an era of globalisation, but we can do our bit for the local economy whether we  are on ‘staycation’ in the UK or travelling abroad, if we buy goods that are locally made. That’s what I believe ‘responsible tourism’ is all about.

Common Ground is an organisation that devotes itself to promoting the value and importance of the local: our ordinary cultural heritage, popular history, everyday buildings and commonplace nature’. Back in 1983 they invented the term  local distinctiveness, which they define as ‘ the richness of difference between places that reflects meaning back to us, through the particular accumulations of story upon history upon natural history’. It’s something all of us can look out for in the souvenirs we take home from a trip.

Common Ground’s ‘Manifesto for Souvenirs’:

Souvenirs should be:

1. true to their place, full of meaning, reinforcing identity
2. locally distinctive, unique to the locale
3. produced nearby
4. making use of and building on the natural and cultural assets of the place
5. made from local renewable materials
6. ambassadors for their place
7. authentic and of good quality
8. offer good value be ethically derived and fairly traded
9. of benefit to local makers and the broader tourist industry as well as retailers
10. clearly labelled with sources of material, name of designer, maker and place of production, feeding back into local culture
11. capable of reuse, recycling and simply packaged
12. exemplary of sustainability

What we can do next

Common Ground goes on to suggest what we can all try and do as tourists and travellers, locals and makers or manufacturers, commissioners of goods and traders, to search out locally distinctive souvenirs; amongst other things by demanding authenticity, good quality and fair value whenever we buy  souvenirs. Read more.

Check your most recent purchases, and see if you can find proof of whether they were locally made.  How practicable do think Common Ground’s ideas are? I think it’s a particular challenge for retailers to source items that can be sold as souvenirs at the lower end of the price scale. Why not let me know what  you think; or tell me about the special items that you’ve purchased as souvenirs and found to be found made locally here in the UK.