Braced For The Easter Rush

Where has January gone? Soon it will be ‘silly season’ (the frenzied run up to Easter) for LDS Tourism Services and we will be dashing from one TIP to another, distributing all the last minute brochures and leaflets. Believe it or not, literature continues to arrive at our warehouse right up to Good Friday - but we always do our upmost to get the best coverage possible in whatever time remains.

We were delighted to read on the TravelMole website that British Airways and EasyJet are to offer low cost flights from twelve European countries to 10 UK cities as part of a tourism drive by VisitBritain - among them Liverpool and Manchester. The promotion follows last year’s 'See More Britain For Less' campaign, which highlighted the affordability of travel to the UK. Apparently, the latest campaign is “based around contrasting themes” of the chosen cities “with information on traditional and contemporary experiences with a twist”. The campaign’s micro-sites can be accessed via visitbritain.com

If you have five minutes to spare, it is also well worth checking out the Why We Love Britain page on WinkBall. Reporters have been dispatched to find out what “one thing” people love most about being in Britain. You can see their answers and add your own video messages too, but please ensure you have javascript enabled and flash installed first.

Visit Chester and Cheshire (VCC), the tourism management organisation for Cheshire and Warrington, held an ‘At Home’ event in their offices above Chester Railway Station on 21st January. Diana, Jenny and Hayley went along to the informal gathering to catch up with long-standing associates, meet others involved in the local tourist industry and chat with the team about their plans for the future. The evening was extremely successful, with plenty of networking opportunities and an abundance of Moët and delicious nibbles laid on. A big thank you to all at VCC from the managers at LDSTS for a very pleasant evening.

Jenny and Hayley will also be attending the Success Through People day at Haydock Park Racecourse on 4th February. Be sure to say “hello” if you bump into them.

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Image: VCC offices, Chester © LDS Tourism Services Ltd, 2010

No Slip-Ups For LDS Tourism In The Snow

No sooner had we celebrated our first white Christmas for many years and seen in 2010 with a dusting of the fluffy stuff than winter struck the region with a terrible ferocity. Severe weather warnings were issued by the Met Office and it started to snow, and snow, and snow…

Throughout North West Britain, schools closed, local councils ran short of grit for the roads and driving conditions became treacherous as temperatures plunged. A number of attractions were forced to close but many of our clients tried to make the most of the cold snap. Blue Planet Aquarium built a wonderfully realistic snow-shark (complete with razor sharp teeth), GreenWood Forest Park shared snaps of the Little Moss Dragon covered in snow with their fans on Facebook, Go Ape had great fun filming their antics and Knowsley Safari Park took some splendid photographs of the baboons eating baked potatoes.

LDS Tourism remained busy throughout. Our distributors dodged the worst hit areas as much as possible - only becoming depot-bound for a couple of days - and continued to service TIPs and deliver new leaflets and brochures to establishments throughout North Wales and the North West.

Incidentally, Knowsley Safari Park has been nominated for an award in the Best Family Day Out 2010 category in Lifestyle Monthly (a magazine for Liverpool and the surrounding areas) and they would very much appreciate your support. Please click this link to vote and you can also select your favourite salon, restaurant, home improvement company, green contribution to the City, spa, fashion retailer and beauty clinic.

We were delighted with the response to our article, LDS Tourism Services Celebrates 18 Years in Business!, which appeared in the Directory of Chester at the start of the month. Within 24 hours of the feature going live, we were listed in Google’s top five under the search term ‘social media marketing’. Amazing results! Many thanks indeed to Esther Rosie and her team at directoryofchester.net.

Finally, if you are attending the ‘At Home with VCC’ networking event at Visit Chester and Cheshire’s offices on 21st January, we look forward to seeing you there.

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Image: ©Britainonview / David Sellman

The Changing Habits of Holidaymakers

May I take this opportunity to wish all our clients, readers and business associates a very happy and prosperous 2010!

There are currently mixed messages reaching members of the local tourism and hospitality industries. While a recent poll of 3,000 consumers by the travel site simonseeks.com found that the UK is still hailed as being the best-value holiday destination, the newly published ITB World Travel Trends Report showed that travel activity declined most in the UK (followed by Russia and Sweden) in the calendar year following the worldwide economic and financial crisis.

It would seem that last-minute bookings are at a record high and, according to Dr. Martin Buck at ITB organiser Messe Berlin, travellers are becoming an “increasingly indeterminable factor for holiday destinations, airlines, hotels, tour operators and travel agencies”. He goes on to say that “together with demographic shifts, changing lifestyles and technological progress, the recession is changing travel behaviour”.

We have certainly been aware of these changes for quite some time and have been able to modify our services accordingly by dropping several poorly performing (and overly expensive) sites last year in favour of better quality outlets - enabling LDS Tourism Services to offer superior display locations at very reasonable rates.

Despite these difficult times, we are doing a great deal to support our clients. As ever, we are able to offer both regional and national distribution; customers can opt to use our popular Network or General Distribution services; they may choose to be included in our high-footfall Exclusive establishments or perhaps decide to pick and choose from all three. In addition, we supply a range of complimentary brochure holders to tourism operators in North Wales, Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, West Lancashire and Shropshire.

If you would like a quotation for leaflet/brochure distribution or social media marketing, simply drop us a line or ring 01244 671859 and we will create a unique and reasonably priced campaign to suit your particular requirements.

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Image: View down onto the beach, Llandudno ©Britainonview