NEWSLETTER

This year was one of the most popular years for advertising in the Shropshire and Welsh Borders brochure, with most of the advert space selling out within a couple of weeks!

Needless to say some advertisers were disappointed as they didn’t get the size of advert they wanted, or, worse still, they missed out all together! So make sure you get your booking forms in before the deadline next year – or you could be unlucky and miss out.

This year we have a new copywriter and a new design team. Jon Shallcross has replaced Chris Sharpe as our copywriter (impossible I hear you say!) after Chris retired earlier in the year. Our designers this year have been Wildfire Creative based in Shrewsbury. Louise Blundell and Karen O’Neill have done an excellent job on the brochure as you will see.

We have also been working on two other brochures over the past few months – the Shrewsbury visitor guide and Essential Shropshire. Sarah Whittall has been working with Wildfire Creative on the Shrewsbury visitor guide and Jodie Stephen has been putting together the Essential Shropshire guide with the help of WPG in Welshpool.

Each year we have comments from our advertisers frustrated that at your busiest time of year we ask you to book your advert for the following year. The reason behind this is that brochure production can take up to 7 months to produce, starting with design and print quotes during the spring, liaising with Tourism Associations and over 400 advertisers throughout the summer. We actually receive the new brochures at the end of November. So the booking deadline is unavoidably during the summer months in order to ensure that the brochures are delivered well before the New Year! If we could move the deadline we would, but unfortunately to ensure the brochures are completed in time for our direct mail and spring advertising campaigns we do have a very strict schedule to stick to.

Since the production of the last newsletter, two more members of staff have joined the team at the Barns, bringing the Shropshire Tourism team to a grand total of seven! Jodie Stephen is the new Tourism Assistant who joined in July and has been working on a number of projects including the production of the new Essential Shropshire brochure. Jodie previously worked at Acton Scott Historic Working Farm and has an Advanced GNVQ in Travel & Tourism.

As many of you in North Shropshire know, Jenny Hatton has left North Shropshire Tourism Ltd to join North Shropshire District Council as the Economic Development Officer. Rebeccah Wood has replaced Jenny as Visitor Promotions Manager for North Shropshire Tourism Ltd. The Visitor Promotions Manager post is jointly funded by North Shropshire Tourism Ltd and Shropshire Tourism. This partnership approach enables more cohesive approach to tourism marketing in the north of the county and enables Rebeccah to use the experience of the team at Shropshire Tourism for support. Rebeccah studied at Manchester to gain her degree in Hospitality and Tourism and has previously worked for MBNA in Chester and has also been involved in catering and hospitality.

We are always trying to seek out more benefits for our members. As well as the fantastic offers of the free web page and Visitor Pass (and many other benefits), Creative Digital Printing are also now able to offer members of Shropshire Tourism a discount on design and print costs.

Creative Digital are based in Shrewsbury, and Shropshire Tourism has built a very good relationship with them, using the company for a number of publications – not least the Shropshire Tourism newsletter! Managing Director, Chris Henderson is kindly offering our members a discount on design and print of your leaflets. All you have to do is supply your membership number and details of what you want to produce and Chris will be able to give you a quote - and more importantly a Shropshire Tourism Member discount! If you are looking to produce a new leaflet or would like some business cards produced, please contact Chris on 01743 263030 for a quote (all discounts are subject to the size of the publication and the print run).

Please remember, as a Shropshire Tourism member we would like you to assist us in the promotion of Shropshire, by putting the Love from Shropshire logo on all of your promotional literature. Research shows that visitors to Shropshire who receive or pick up literature with the Love from Shropshire logo on it are reassured that they are in effect getting the right information for the county. We want to build on that confidence and keep reassuring people that they are coming to the right place, and of course the best place to visit in the country!

All members will now have received the new Visitor Pass for 2005 and the great news is that we have recruited a few new attractions for our members to visit. Please use your pass and visit the many attractions and activities we have in the county – and recommend them to your guests! We all know that one of the best ways of promotion is by Word of Mouth and what better way to recommend somewhere than after you have visited with a discount or even for free!

The visitor pass has been very successful in its first year, however, we have had a few comments from attractions and activity operators that the passes have sometimes been abused. Please be aware that the passes are a benefit for Members of Shropshire Tourism only and not for members’ family, friends or guests. We do rely on the kindness of attractions and activity operators to offer this benefit to our members and we are very grateful for the support they provide by allowing free or reduced entry into their establishments.

This year we will have to impose tighter controls for the use of the pass and you may be asked for additional proof of identification, or to sign a form prior to entry. We are sure you can appreciate that these controls have to be implemented in order to keep the scheme working smoothly. We don’t want any embarrassing situations, so please take another form of identification out with you - and please don’t give your Visitor Pass to anyone else.

‘Hits’ to www.shropshiretourism.co.uk have increased dramatically over the past year as we have been trying to enhance our website position. We have had brilliant feedback from members saying that their web page is really working for them and they have received an increase in enquiries/bookings from the site. We would love to hear your feedback, so if you have any comments please do not hesitate to email us on website@shropshiretourism.info.

The success of the Shropshire Tourism website has been further enhanced by the support given by North Shropshire Tourism and Shrewsbury Tourism Associations. For the third year all members of these Tourism Associations will have their own pages on the website. The new pages will be appearing over the next few months.

We are also in the process of putting together a strategy for the website to take advantage of the opportunities through EnglandNet and meet the challenges this new media presents. So watch out for some future changes.

The 2004 Shropshire Tourism (UK) Ltd AGM will be held on 22nd January at the Lord Hill Hotel. All members will be issued with voting cards and informed of all the specific details closer to the time. Please put this date in your diary, it’s a perfect opportunity for you to see how Shropshire Tourism has progressed over the past twelve months the exciting marketing and promotional work for Shropshire planned in 2004 and an opportunity to have your say.

The 2004 Product Awareness Day, is to be held on ##th ######. Again we will be organising it in partnership with North Shropshire Tourism with a leaflet swap. All member attractions will have the opportunity to give a presentation to promote their attraction to the accommodation providers who attend.

Attractions and activity providers, Tourism Associations and Tourist Information Centres will also be invited to have a stand at the brochure swap. This will enable you to stock up on the essential information for your guests and have a chat with the people who run the establishments which keep your guests busy during their stay in Shropshire. The more information you have about the attractions in and around the county, the more you will be able to help your guests find their perfect day out.

All members will receive an invitation to the Product Awareness Day closer to the time with exact venue details.

As you will know Shropshire had Royal visitors in July. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh passed through the county for the first time in twenty years, and stopped at Secret Hills – The Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre for lunch. Shropshire Tourism’s Chief Executive Simon McCloy was lucky enough to be invited to lunch with the Queen, as was our Chair of the Management Group John Cushing and Shropshire Tourism (UK) Ltd Chair Pat McLaughlin.

The Queen and Duke also visited Ironbridge, Much Wenlock, Telford and Ludlow as well as passing through the Corvedale. Although the Queen didn’t stay in Shropshire overnight, her visit has no doubt helped with awareness raising of the county.

Shropshire has one of the best cost per response in the UK for a short break destination. This year, as a result of all the marketing and promotional work we have done as part of our national advertising campaign we have generated our best ever cost per response of 91p. This means that over 23,000 brochures are sent our in direct responses as a result of all the media advertising we do in publications such as Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Radio Times and much more.

The Shropshire and Welsh Borders brochure is increasingly generating business for our members. Research undertaken this year recorded an average media conversion rate to business of 35% - this means that 35% of all brochure requests convert to a booking.

Email enquiries for information about Shropshire have shot up by just over 1700% in the past year and requests in general have grown by 111% since the introduction of the brochure request form on the website. Shropshire Tourism has been doing a series of awareness raising campaigns during the past few months and this has paid off as potential visitors are now searching for us on search engines and finding they can request a brochure direct. Brochures requested via the website convert to business at a rate of 57.6%!

The campaign for 2004 is already booked and includes some exciting new ideas to generate interest in Shropshire – keep your eye on the national newspapers.

Isn’t it great that we can say “As usual” we have news of some more Shropshire Award winners!

The Deliciously Shropshire awards were held recently at Adcote School. There were thirteen winners in all, five of whom are members of Shropshire Tourism. The Crown Country Inn won Restaurant of the Year; Berry’s was Highly Commended as Tea Room/Coffee Shop of the Year; Dearnford Hall was a joint winner of the Breakfast of the Year, Country B&B at Mayfield, near Shrewsbury was Highly Commended and Lyth Hill House also near Shrewsbury was Commended in the same category.

Country B&B has also recently won the Visit the Heart of England Excellence Award for Breakfast sourcing Local Produce. Finalists were from all over the Heart of England region, and proprietor, Sue Macdonald is very pleased with her awards.

Hibiscus in Ludlow has recently won the title of Shropshire Restaurant of the Year from The Good Food Guide 2004. Proprietors Claude and Claire Bosi have won the accolade through their personal approach to the service they provide. Claire has been praised for her front of house management, while Claude beat off stiff competition from the Merchant House and Mr Underhill’s by producing what The Good Food Guide considered to be the best food in Shropshire.

Miles & Audrey Hunter, proprietors of Pen-y-Dyffryn hotel near Oswestry are once again celebrating. The hotel has been given the accolade of the perfect rural retreat by the Which? Guide to Good Hotels.

The annual North Shropshire Tourism Ltd awards evening was held in September at the Fours Alls Inn at Woodseaves, near Market Drayton. Winners are voted for through nominations by visitors to North Shropshire who complete a detailed questionnaire about their stay in the area.

Many establishments won awards in various categories and the Shropshire Star Sheild was awarded to Lesley Jenkins for her outstanding contribution to tourism in the north of the county

Congratulations to all our Shropshire Winners! Keep up the great work you do!

Each year Shropshire Tourism attends a number of exhibitions to promote Shropshire, and we are now planning our 2004 exhibition schedule. We will be attending National Boat, Caravan and Leisure Show in February and the British Travel Trade Fair in March as we have done for a number of years.

In 2002 we attended the RHS Tatton garden show in Cheshire and also BBC Gardeners World Live at the NEC Birmingham. We are in the process of organising these exhibitions for 2004 where we will be able to specifically target the green fingered variety of potential visitor to Shropshire.

A new exhibition we are very much looking forward to attending next year is the Destinations exhibition at Earl’s Court in London, for which we will be working in partnership with Shropshire Star Attractions and Telford and Shropshire Marketing Partnership.

We currently have a number of publications being produced, or on the agenda for the next couple of months. The 2004 Gardens and Nurseries guide will be joint production between Shropshire Tourism and Shropshire County Council. The guide is currently being printed, in time for the new season and as well as doing a direct mail to all garden enthusiasts and advertising the guide in the new Shropshire and Welsh borders brochure and on the Shropshire Tourism website, we will also be attending specific gardening exhibitions to help promote the guide.

The Caravan and Camping guide is currently being produced in time for the National Boat, Caravan and outdoor show in February. Next on the agenda is the Places to Visit booklet which has been a huge success again this year. We will be mailing advertising opportunities to attractions and activity operators during January in order to get the booklet out to Tourist Information Centres and Shropshire Tourism members by the all important Easter holiday.