NEWSLETTER

The Shropshire Tourism (UK) Ltd Annual General Meeting is to be held at the Lord Hill Hotel, Shrewsbury on Thursday 26th January 2006. All members will be informed of specific details closer to the time but please put this date in your diary! It is the perfect opportunity for you to see how Shropshire Tourism has progressed over the past twelve months as well as the exciting marketing and promotional work planned for Shropshire in 2006 and an opportunity to have your say. All members are welcome and we look forward to seeing you in January.

Please RSVP to Helen Edwards at Shropshire Tourism. Papers can be requested from Helen or viewed on line by clicking here

2005 continues to be a bumper year for Shropshire with yet more national TV coverage. In July, The Channel Four Richard & Judy programme followed in the footsteps of King Arthur in Shropshire. Good Shropshire weather paved the way for some excellent coverage with co-presenter Richard Madeley praising the beauty of Shropshire!

July and August were busy months for visiting film crews too with Japanese and US film crews visiting Shropshire to film Bridgnorth and Shropshire's King Arthur.

The Japanese programme was screened in October with the US programme due to air on US TV screens in December. European coverage is scheduled for next year.

A total of 12 press visits have so far been hosted and assisted, with national coverage in the Independent, Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph as well as overseas coverage in French and German magazines.

As ever, we are always on the lookout for interesting stories and hooks to tempt the media. If you have any newsworthy items please contact Sarah on 01743 462462 or email swhittall@shropshiretourism.info.

Website Award For Shropshire Tourism

Shropshire Tourism won Bronze in the Tourism Website of the Year category at the Heart of England Excellence in Tourism awards.

The glittering awards ceremony took place on the 6th October at Worcester Cathedral where the overall winners were announced. Collecting the award for Shropshire Tourism was Ben Emanuelli of Shropshire Tourism. (IMAGE)

Commenting on the news, Ben said, I am really pleased that we have been awarded this accolade in the Best Website category. It is fantastic that the website received this recognition for Shropshire Tourism and its members”.

The Shropshire Tourism website continues to go from strength to strength. End of year figures, until December show, the Shropshire Tourism website has received over 6 million unique (first time) visits and 32 million hits – a massive increase on last year's figure.

Excellence in Tourism Awards

Another award winning evening for Shropshire businesses took place on Thursday 6th October, when 16 top prizes were won at the Heart of England Excellence in Tourism Awards.

The big wins of the evening went to Shropshire Tourism members Wheely Wonderful Cycling for the Tourism Website of the Year, and Pooh Hall Cottages for Self Catering Holiday of the Year who both won Gold Awards.

Commenting on their award, Chris and Kay Dartnell from Wheely Wonderful said, “We are absolutely thrilled to win this award… it was a great occasion and it is always very nice to know you’re doing something well”.

Other member businesses celebrating with their Silver Awards include Lowe Hall Farm for Bed & Breakfast of the Year, Eaton Manor for Self Catering Holiday of the Year, Hopton House B&B for Tourism Website of the Year and Rays Farm Country Matters for Small Visitor Attraction of the Year.

And not to be forgotten are the Bronze Award winners including of course Shropshire Tourism! We walked away with a bronze award for Tourism Website of the Year alongside Stretton Hall Hotel. Also celebrating with their bronze trophies were Hopton House with their second prize of the night for Best Bed & Breakfast of the Year and Bon Accueil, who picked up a prize in the Self Catering category. Two North Shropshire Tourism members were also awarded bronze, with Dearnford Trout Fishery taking home the Tourism For All award and Whitchurch Heritage Centre claiming the Tourist Information Centre of the Year bronze. And finally the Large Visitor Attraction bronze was taken home by Weston Park.

The 4 Gold Winners will now go forward to the national Enjoy England Excellence Awards 2006 to represent the Heart of England region

Another Shropshire Tourism member celebrating is Bromley Court in Ludlow who have been awarded an RAC Little Gem Award for the eighth year running. For proprietors Phillip and Patricia Ross, the award recognizes the superb hospitality, genuine customer care and attention to detail.

Congratulations go to all of the Shropshire award winners!

Tired of your existing website and fancy a change? Or are you new to the world of the web? Shropshire Tourism can help. As you may or may not know by now, we can offer members a bespoke website designed to your personal requirements, from the very reasonable price of £450.

Over the last six months, Shropshire Tourism has designed websites for Goldstone Hall Hotel, nr Market Drayton, The Orchards, Church Stretton, the Real Art Gallery, Ye Olde Bucks Head Inn in Shrewsbury and many others. These and other sites can be viewed by going to the Members Website www.stmem.com and clicking on to Website Services.

So, to find out how to stand out from the crowd with your new website, simply telephone or email Ben for information and a quote on 01743 462462 or website@shropshiretourism.co.uk

One glorious county. Hundreds of exciting restaurants, speciality food producers and retailers. That's Deliciously Shropshire!

The Shropshire Star Deliciously Shropshire Awards Scheme has just been launched to celebrate the wealth of fine food and drink being served across Shropshire. With the aim of recognising businesses who demonstrate their commitment to providing quality food and drink with a high standard of service and customer care, the award scheme encourages and rewards quality, excellence and the imaginative and creative use of local produce to give a distinctive "taste of Shropshire".

Organised in association with Heart of England Fine Foods and Shropshire County Council, the awards scheme features five, individually sponsored categories, with Shropshire Tourism sponsoring the Tea Room/Coffee Shop of the Year award.

The other categories include:

*Restaurant of the Year, Sponsored by Addison Wines

* Pub of the Year, Sponsored by Wood's Shropshire Beers

* Tea Room/Coffee Shop of the Year, Sponsored by Shropshire Tourism

* Speciality Producer of the Year, Sponsored by Furrows

* Retailer of the Year, Sponsored by Shrewsbury Enterprise Partnership

* The Shropshire Star Excellence Award, a prestigious Excellence Award covering a wide ranging criteria.

Nominations can be made directly from businesses or by customers and suppliers. For your chance to be a Deliciously Shropshire winner entry forms are available from Shropshire Tourism, Heart of England Fine Foods and the Shropshire Star. The deadline for entries is 20th February 2006 with the awards presentation taking place in the Spring. Good Luck!

The 2006 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 other 2006 publications on behalf of Shrewsbury Tourism Assocation Ltd, North Shropshire Tourism, Bridgnorth & District Tourist Association and South Shropshire Tourism Association. This not only saves the associations money, but also their members……

The new Shropshire Places to Visit Guide 2006 is also currently in production with the guide coming out in time for the new 2006 season. For information on advertising within the guide contact Jodie on 01743 462462 or email jstephen@shropshiretourism.co.uk

All tourism, leisure and hospitality businesses throughout Shropshire - large or small,
start-up or established, graded or ungraded -  are entitled to the following FREE services from the Regional Centre for Tourism Business Support:

*A Free confidential one-to-one advisory visit from a tourism advisor – at a time and place to you

*Free use of our Information Centre during office hours:- Just phone 0845 241 8269 at a local rate call.

*Free registration for the Interactive Website: www.qualityatheart.co.uk

*Attendance at Workshops and Events organised by the Centre.

During a Tourism Business Advice Visit, the advisor can cover a whole range of tourism and business issues, including changes in legislation, marketing, IT, customer service, quality assurance schemes, finance and grants, recruitment & retention of staff, and networking.  Businesses who are visited by a Tourism Business Advisor not only have impartial and confidential advice and guidance during the visit, they are also eligible to receive copies of the following products that have been specially commissioned by the Centre:

*Business Planning CD ROM which includes cashflow forecast formats, budgets and an accommodation booking system which will help accommodation providers to measure occupancy levels, generate mailshots, produce invoices and produce customer relationship management information.

*Interactive Marketing Strategy CD ROM which takes a step by step approach to producing a simple marketing plan for a tourism/leisure business.

*‘Data Protection: Your rights, Your Responsibilities’.  A leaflet especially commissioned by the Regional Centre for Tourism Business Support from information law and privacy specialists iCompli Ltd and written with Tourism and Leisure operators in mind.

*The Pink Booklet:  Produced by Visit Britain - a practical guide to legislation for accommodation providers. The normal cost is £7.99 – but it is free with a visit from a Tourism Business Advisor.

As well as copies of the Centre’s quarterly newsletter including industry updates and case studies

Your Shropshire Tourism Business Advisor is Lesley Davies. Lesley can be contacted on Tel: 07971 917646 or email: l.davies@blwm.co.uk

The Regional Centre for Tourism Business Support and partner projects and organisations are developing a programme of workshops for Tourism and Leisure businesses to take place early in 2006.  Workshops include:

Packaging Tourism Projects

Offering packages of holiday experiences tailor-made for target markets, comprising accommodation and transport or other services (like tickets to attractions, or an activity), is a good way of adding value to the visitor experience and gaining a competitive edge.  This workshop will look at what constitutes a ‘package’, the legislation businesses selling packages need to comply with, and how to set up a package.

Search Engine Optimisation Workshops

Jointly hosted with the Switch on Shropshire Project, this workshop is for Tourism and Leisure businesses looking to improve their current website or in the process of setting up a website.  It will include planning an effective campaign using search engines & directories, how to submit your site to search engines & directories, reciprocal linking and website statistics. 

On-line Booking Systems/Room Reservations Systems

Jointly hosted with the Switch on Shropshire Project and Shropshire Tourism, a series of workshops for hotels, guest accommodation, and self-catering businesses which will look at the options available and taking payments on line.

If you would be interested in attending one or more of the above workshops please register your interest by contacting:

Lynsey Rowles, Project Co-ordinator at the Regional Centre

Tel: 0845 2418269 Email: l.rowles@blwm.co.uk

The 2006 advertising campaign takes off just after Christmas with Shropshire being promoted in the national media. In response to this advertising, we anticipate over 15,000 people requesting the Shropshire & Welsh Borders brochure with a conversion rate of 35%. The team at the Barns will be fulfilling these responses to enable us to get closer to our visitors, by encouraging them to come to Shropshire and increasing the conversion rate. We value the importance of communicating with our visitors and can see the benefits of talking directly to them using our Shropshire charm instead of a call centre operative taking the calls who knows very little about Shropshire. The Daily Telegraph campaign which we ran last Spring proved this works, showing a 98% conversion rate!

In addition, the brochures will be sent out in response to requests via www.shropshiretourism.co.uk which shows a conversion to business rate of 40%. We are putting more of our efforts into E: marketing as it clearly shows a much higher return rate and growth in business. Englandnet is proving its continued importance. Englandnet is a national database linking the Visit England, Visit Britain and the Shropshire Tourism websites, this means that you as a member of Shropshire Tourism will be promoted on all three websites – anyone can find your business where ever they may be in the world!

It is important that the information displayed in the Englandnet database is correct so please do take a look at www.visitengland.com and check that your details are correct on the website. If you wish to make amendments please contact us and we can make the changes for you.