NEWSLETTER

Shropshire has hosted a total of 23 press visits so far this year amounting to some £3 million worth of coverage. They include journalists from The Independent, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express. Overseas journalists flocked to Shropshire with press visits from the USA, Italy, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Germany. Covering all parts of the county, themes included castles & gardens, food and drink, arts & crafts, attractions and events. That’s four more press visits than last year, proving that Shropshire is as popular as ever with the visiting media.

With new figures just released from Visit Britain stating that overseas visitor figures are up, the coverage generated from overseas visits can only pave the way forward for Shropshire.

The coup for this year has got to be the hosting of the BBC Holiday programme. Spurred on by Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart’s recent holiday on the Llangollen Canal, BBC Holiday spent four days filming a family canal boat holiday with Roland Rivron in the Oswestry and North Shropshire areas. Prime time national television is the jewel in the crown in terms of press and pr and will considerably raise the profile of Shropshire to a receptive TV audience. Keep your eyes peeled as the programme will be aired in January 2005.

The BBC was just one in a long line of media who featured the Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart story. National and international press enquiries flooded in to the Shropshire Tourism office enabling us to promote the story and its connection with Shropshire world wide.

June and July also proved to be busy months for regional TV coverage, with BBC Midlands Today covering the launch of the ‘On the Trail of King Arthur in Shropshire’ booklet at Hawkstone Park and Follies. The programme including the Shropshire feature coincided with the nationwide release of the movie. Next up was the ITV Heart of the Country programme who filmed in and around North Shropshire for the new series due to be aired next year.

Don’t forget, if you’ve got any news worthy or quirky story please let us know. You never know it may be just what the media are looking for.

With the new year fast approaching we are looking forward to another press & pr packed year!

The 2005 Shropshire Tourism (UK) Ltd AGM will be held on 20th 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 2005 Shropshire & Welsh Borders brochure has now been printed and will be winging its way all over the country to potential visitors. Due to our competitive design and print buying, we were also very pleased to be producing a number of 2005 publications on behalf of Shrewsbury Tourism and North Shropshire Tourism. This not only saves them money, but also their members.

The national advertising campaign for the 2005 brochure is already underway with adverts being featured in Radio Times, Daily Mail and other direct response advertising publications.

After the huge success of our “Little Book of Shropshire” and Daily Telegraph ‘scribblers’ (funded by the Tourism Action Programme) we shall be doing some more quirky stories about Shropshire in early February/March next year.

In addition to the advertising campaign, we shall be undertaking a mailout campaign from our select database and will also be attending a range of exhibitions next year targeting the day visitor and staying markets.

As Shropshire Tourism is able to get the very best advertising prices, we have also booked national advertising campaigns for North Shropshire Tourism and, following on from the success that Shrewsbury had with an Autumn campaign, we will be managing another advertising campaign for Shrewsbury in the new year.

Shropshire’s love affair with shiny gold and silver awards has been further enhanced recently with the success of the many Shropshire Tourism businesses who attended the Heart of England Excellence in Tourism Awards on Friday 17th September.

The county can claim a total of eight awards and top of the rostrum was Lyth Hill Bed and Breakfast in Shrewsbury. Lyth Hill took a Gold award for its tourism website and two Silver awards in the Bed and Breakfast of the Year and Tourism for All categories.

Other Shropshire Tourism businesses celebrating were Rays Farm Country Matters who won a Gold award in the Small Visitor Attraction of the Year category, Jinlye Guest House and Lowe Hall Farm who won Gold awards in the Best Bed and Breakfast and Best Value for Money Accommodation categories respectively. Also with reason to celebrate was Wheely Wonderful Cycling who won the Innovation in Tourism award for introducing their wildlife safaris.

Silver awards were also won by Country Bed and Breakfast in Shrewsbury for the Bed and Breakfast of the Year category, and Goldstone Hall Hotel in Cheswardine near Market Drayton for Small Hotel of the Year.

Congratulations to all the lucky winners and we hope for similar success amongst Shropshire tourism businesses at the awards next year.

Attraction and activity providers will shortly be receiving an invitation to attend a workshop and networking event in early February. The event will be a joint venture between Shropshire Tourism and the Regional Centre for Tourism Business Support. The agenda for the day will include a speaker on Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) and an opportunity to find out what’s happening in 2005 and a look back on the 2004 season.

The popularity of the Shropshire Tourism website (www.shropshiretourism.co.uk) has continued to grow with many new members joining specifically to go on the website. The numbers are looking really good too, with the site having received a total of 12 million hits and some 400,000 unique visits since April this year!

As you will know, the Shropshire Tourism website will be providing the Shropshire destination link to Englandnet (the new national tourism website for England). All Shropshire Tourism accommodation members will be going on the Englandnet system in spring next year, with attraction and event members joining them shortly after. There will more Englandnet news in the new year.

In July we designed a bespoke Shrewsbury Tourism website (www.visitshrewsbury.com) for Shrewsbury Tourism Association. This website was designed to give our county town a more prominent internet presence and the number of visitors to the site has grown dramatically over the months since it was launched.

Shropshire Tourism has also developed the North Shropshire website (www.northshropshire.co.uk) for North Shropshire Tourism Association. The site has many interesting features specifically for North Shropshire and enhances the internet presence of the district. It is something of a first for North Shropshire Tourism who have never had their own independent website. Rebeccah Wood, North Shropshire Visitor Promotions Manager said “This is an exciting new venture for North Shropshire Tourism and I will be working closely with my colleagues at Shropshire Tourism to develop the new website throughout next year.”

Both the Shrewsbury site and North Shropshire site are linked to the searchable database on the Shropshire Tourism website, and has many direct links back the main county website.

Don’t forget that you may want to change your prices or other details on your member’s website for the new year. Members are entitled to up to 1000 words as well as 4 - 5 images. We can also set up an image gallery to give people more of a feel around your establishment. Also exclusive to members is the opportunity to advertise your special offers free of charge on the website at any time. Shropshire Tourism has also designed a number of personalised websites for member businesses so if you are thinking of revamping your own site or want to talk about E:Marketing, contact Shropshire Tourism’s webmaster; Ben Emanuelli for further details. He may be a “techy” but he’s really “user friendly” and understands your language. So don’t be afraid to call him.

Not that Shropshire gets many complaints of course, but is it always useful to know how to deal with them effectively when they do arise. A course for members wanting guidance on handling complaints and conflict will run on 18th January, 10.00 - 13.00 at Enginuity at the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. The course costs £25.00 which includes a copy of “The Complaints Handling Pocketbook” by Angelena Boden.

If you are interested in attending the course, contact Angelena on 0121 475 5069 but please note spaces are limited and don’t forget to mention you saw the details in our newsletter.

King Arthur may not be showing at the cinema any more, but the popular ‘On the Trail of King Arthur in Shropshire’ guide is still available and since its launch has already generated much interest in the county. Shropshire’s connection with the legendary King has received fantastic press coverage with regional, national and international articles pouring in from as far away as Japan.

Generating over £107,000 worth of Press coverage so far, images of Shropshire including Whittington Castle and Wroxeter Roman City have been appearing in all sorts of magazines and newpapers.

Popular at this year’s exhibitions and shows, the new booklet has been very well received by both the public and the media.

The support and contributions from various tourism associations, district councils and Shropshire Tourism members enabled us to pull his publication together and coordinate all the press and PR work. Our thanks go out to those again.

The Shropshire Tourism Visitor Pass will again be available to members for 2005. We would like to thank those attractions and activity providers who have kindly offered a free or reduced rate entry fee to our members.

Among the attractions who are participating in the Visitor Pass scheme is The Land of Lost Content Museum in Craven Arms. Owner of the museum, Stella Mitchell realises that it may be difficult for members to visit during normal opening hours and is therefore opening especially for Shropshire Tourism members on the evening of Wednesday 9th February 2005 at 7pm. Refreshments will be provided and Stella would be most grateful if you could let her know if you will be able to attend. Please contact Stella to reserve your space on 01588 676176.

If your business is situated in the ERDF Objective 2 area or in the Regional

Regeneration Zone (RRZ) you can receive free one-to-one business support through Shropshire Tourism’s exhibition programme.

The programme will provide eligible businesses with a platform to target new business at proven exhibitions attended by receptive, target audiences. If you are eligible you could attend one of our scheduled exhibitions and receive bespoke business support at no cost to yourself.

The Exhibition Programme is funded by Shropshire Tourism and the Tourism Action Programme (TAP). The TAP is funded by Shropshire County Council, Advantage West Midlands and the European Regional Development Fund.

So, if you are interested in targeting new markets, growing your business and would like the opportunity to promote yourselves directly to potential visitors via exhibitions, contact Sarah Whittall.

In addition to all the other member benefits, we are pleased to announce that Wildfire Creative, who have produced this newsletter are offering a 10% discount on their design services. We are also able to negotiate substantial print costs and have secured a 10% discount on distribution of your leaflets. So, producing your leaflets doesn’t have to be expensive, just contact us with your requirements and we’ll do the negotiations for you!

We have also secured exclusive member discounts through www.localfoodonline.co.uk, enabling you to enhance the ‘Shropshire’ experience for your visitors and have local produce delivered to your door a reduced rate. Contact Helen at Shropshire Tourism for further details.

Shropshire Tourism is working in partnership with STRU (Shropshire Tourism Research Unit) on a major new piece of research to identify new and emerging visitor markets for domestic and staying visitors and to identify the underlying motivations that visitors have when selecting a destination.

Simon McCloy, Shropshire Tourism’s Chief Executive said ‘it is hoped that this valuable piece of research will not only give us an insight into future markets and how to reach them but also maintain the significant competitive edge that Shropshire has built up over the last ten years as a short break and day visitor destination’.

For further information contact Emma Smith, Tourism Research Officer on 01743 252598

In order to make our marketing work more effectively for you, we will be sending out a questionnaire to accommodation members to get some feedback on your customers. All replies will be kept confidential but collectively will help us to better identify your key visitors. As an extra incentive all completed forms will go into a draw – the lucky winner will receive £100 – not bad for a few minutes form filling!