You'll Never Walk Alone - LFC Stadium Tour

Last week Jenny and I were lucky enough to be invited to the official launch of the all new Liverpool Football Club Stadium Tour. Arranged through The Mersey Partnership, we were able to see behind the scenes at Anfield, sit in the famous Kop and meet Liverpool legend Alan Kennedy.

Liverpool FC have made some exciting changes to the tour, it now includes new areas, extra tours and better availability. Perhaps the biggest change is the involvement of Dave Kirby as script writer. He is a local playwright and is well known for the popular Scouse comedy Brick up the Mersey Tunnel and more recently for the film Fifteen Minutes that Shook the World, based on the 2005 Champions League Final in Istanbul. His style guarantees that the is tour engaging and entertaining.

Our tour started in the Legends Lounge before we moved on to sit in the Directors' seats. We visited the old boot room (now a press room), took a peek in the dressing rooms and reached up to touch the 'This is Anfield' sign as we made our way back out towards the pitch. Throughout the tour we were given an insight into the history of the club and each section had a different guide with fascinating snippets of information to keep us amused. We even got to see the Champions League Cup, which was gifted to Anfield as a thank you for winning in 2005.

As a football fan I knew I would enjoy the day, but even Jenny (who doesn't follow football) found it interesting. We finished off the experience with a look around the Museum; a good chance to see some memorabilia - old and new - and reflect on the amazing history of one of the region's best known football clubs.

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Images: Anfield, © LDS Tourism Services Ltd, 2010

Stolen Pups

We received a very distressing press release from one of our clients in Cheshire (see below). Can anyone help?

STOLEN PUPS

Appeal for information on stolen puppies

A DOG breeder is appealing for help after two puppies were snatched from a Cheshire home, yesterday (Thursday, May 15).

Urgent information is needed on the whereabouts of two rare black flatcoated retriever puppies after they were stolen from The Alvanley Arms Inn, near Tarporley, between 2.30pm – 3pm.

The pups – only five-and-a-half weeks old – are too young to survive without their mother and siblings and owner Janet King is urging people across the North West to be on the lookout.

“These puppies are in real danger. I’m very concerned for their welfare as many people will not know how and struggle to look after dogs so young – as they require regular attention, care and feeding every few hours,” explained Janet.

If you have any information, please contact
Janet King on 01829 760200

Turning Green: A More Sustainable Business

As regular readers of this blog will know, we have for some time been embracing the green initiative by trying to be more wildlife friendly, using recycled materials for our leaflet holders and employing a web host that relies solely renewable energy. You can now read our Environmental Policy online and see how LDS Tourism Services Ltd intends to become a more sustainable business in the future.

You will need a PDF reader to open this document.

Catching Up With You

We have been incredibly busy over the last few weeks, which is why we’ve been so remiss about keeping this blog up to date. Leaflets are arriving by the lorry-load on a daily basis and we’re dashing hither and thither, meeting ourselves coming back, trying to get everything out in time for Easter.

The spring/summer edition of Swift Flyer (the Company's newsletter) is now available to read online. If you have a pdf reader (you can download Adobe’s version for free), it can be accessed right here. If you are unable to open it for some reason, simply drop us a line and we’ll send you a hard copy via snail mail.

Charnock Richard Welcome Break Services

Our new leaflet holder at Charnock Richard Services (Chorley, Lancs) on the M6 Northbound

Newly installed (in a prominant position) with side-bins for A4 brochures and space for posters on each side.

Aesthetically speaking, this black perspex holder is a big improvement on the old wooden dispenser.

This is a very fast moving site, so it wasn't long before members of the public were picking up leaflets!

If you would like your promotional material to be displayed in this site (which is exclusive to LDS Tourism Services Ltd), please don't hesitate to drop us a line for further details.

New Displays in Moto Services

We are delighted to announce that we are again taking on the Manchester Birch Service Stations on the M62 between Junctions 18 and 19.

After signing a contract with Moto, via our colleagues Take One Media, we now have exclusive display rights in the foyers of these exceptionally busy sites – as well as the eastbound and westbound Travelodge Hotels.

As I’m sure you will agree, these outlets are a tremendous addition to our ever-expanding Motorway Services Network. If you would like your leaflets to be displayed in these sites, please contact Hayley, our Business Development Manager, for further details.

Winners of Northwest Tourism ‘Oscars’

England’s fourth Northwest Tourism Awards took place on 10th October at Manchester Central.

The cream of the region’s tourism industry gathered for this high profile event, which was organised by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and hosted by BBC North West Tonight presenter Ranvir Singh.

The winners each walked away with a gleaming trophy, crafted by The World of Glass, to mark their achievement and the coveted title of best in the Northwest for 2007.

We are delighted to report that among the recipients of accolades handed out on the night were Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, who claimed the Excellence in Customer Service award, and Cotebrook Shire Horse Centre, Cheshire, who received a Judges Commendation in the Small Visitor Attraction of the Year category . Our conratulations go to both these excellent attractions.

Regional winners will now have the opportunity to represent the Northwest in the national Enjoy England Awards for Excellence, organised by VisitBritain, which will be held in April 2008.

City Breaks in Britain

New research released last week by VisitBritain, the national tourism agency, suggests that Brits are embracing the buzz around city break destinations.

The report makes interesting reading. Apparently, the most visited English cities are London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle, Liverpool and York - which is great news for the North West.

It would seem that eight out of the top ten most visited destinations in England are cities. The number of overnight visits made to the eight cities in 2006 was more than 22.8 million, indicating that city breaks on our own doorstep are of huge appeal to domestic tourists. To capitalise on and further encourage this popularity, the Enjoy England team at VisitBritain have launched a new campaign to inspire Brits to visit city break destinations. City Breaks offers Britons a wealth of reasons to visit 36 cities the length and breadth of England via their dedicated website.

Information on the website is broken down into 9 handy categories, each containing relevant city holiday ideas. These range from ‘Arts and Culture’, ‘Food’ and ‘Shopping’ through to ‘Music’, ‘Romance’ and ‘Fun with Friends’ – aiming to enthuse and inspire with lots of great ideas. The campaign has already been complimented by a 52 page Guardian supplement on 29th September, showcasing the cities involved in the campaign and driving people to the City Breaks website.

The campaign follows the successful City Culture campaigns run in the past two years, where 97% of website visitors said they had been encouraged to visit different parts of England than they had previously considered. This is a breakdown of the results:

1. London - 10,959,000
2. Manchester - 2,490,000
3. Birmingham - 2,287,000
4. Bristol - 1,825,000
5. Blackpool - 1,787,000
6. Leeds - 1,436,000
7. Scarborough - 1,383,000
8. Newcastle upon Tyne - 1,298,000
9. Liverpool - 1,257,000
10. York - 1,247,000

Incidentally, you can find our home city of Chester on their list, too!

Visitor Statistics

It's interesting to note that VisitBritain's latest survey of England’s visitor attractions has revealed that despite a wetter year than 2005, with August sunshine levels 11% below average, visitors made 196.5 million visits to attractions in 2006 - a +3% increase compared to the previous year.

In the North West, the average admission to attractions is currently £5.88 with urban attractions doing particularly well (+10%) in 2006, compared to coastal and rural attractions which were both down (-4%).

While Windermere Lake Cruises and Chester Zoo continue to hold first and second position, Tatton Park is the third most popular paid attraction in the region. Blackpool Pleasure Beach remains the region’s – and England’s – leading free attraction and The Lowry pushes Tate Liverpool back one place to third.

Proving the reason it was selected as 2008 European Capital of Culture, visitors to the Liverpool area are well served by free attractions – half of the region’s ten most popular attractions are in Merseyside.

Apparently, Chester Zoo was number 8 in the top ten most visited paid attractions in England as a whole.

One wonders what effect the wet weather will have on the statistics for 2007!