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

Stats, Statements & Staycations!

We are extremely excited about 2010 - not least because we are working with several new partner companies in other parts of the UK. Next year, our clients will also benefit considerably from the many new high-footfall display sites (some of them exclusive to LDS) secured over the past few months.

As you all know, in addition to our long-established brochure marketing facilities, we now offer Social Media packages - however, we are also on the verge of announcing the launch of a brand new service that will propel LDS Tourism to the forefront of 21st century marketing techniques. All will be revealed very soon!

Continuing the theme of our last article, a recent poll by Which? Holiday has shown that one of the biggest complaints of holidaymakers is that visitor attractions are often overcrowded, badly managed or have long queues. The consumer study also showed airport congestion at the top of the list of frustrations experienced by travellers. Nevertheless, of the 5,003 consumers surveyed, more than half (53%) had no frustrations with any aspect of their holiday, and for those who holidayed in the UK, the satisfaction level increased by 60%.

Even more encouraging are reports from Hoseasons that advance bookings for 2010 are up 61% to 100,000, compared with the same period last year. The Company’s chief executive, Richard Carrick, commented last week that there has been “a seismic change in consumer behaviour, with people spending less and choosing to holiday in the UK”. Indeed, he says that next year, “Hoseasons will sell one million sports and activity holidays with 140 of its 440 holiday parks offering those types of breaks.”

VisitEngland has also published figures showing that domestic trips were up by 14 per cent, or 2.7m, for the first six months of 2009, compared with the same period last year.

Perhaps the UK ‘staycation’ really is here to stay!

A brief reminder to anyone with Christmas and/or New Year literature: your leaflets should be out there, on display, right now. Don’t miss out on promoting your festive event or offer by delaying distribution a moment longer!

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LDS Tourism Are Delighted to be Proved Right!

According to today's Daily Post:

Bumper summer for North Wales holiday resorts
"HOLIDAY parks and hotels are preparing for a record-breaking summer as tourists boycott foreign breaks in favour of UK destinations. Bookings are way up on previous years, according to travel operators across North Wales..."

Read the rest of the article by Martin Williams at: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2009/07/14/bumper-summer-for-north-wales-holiday-resorts-55578-24145038/

A Successful Summer for LDS Tourism and Clients

As ever at this time of year, we are hectically busy preparing for the schools to close – in fact, some have already broken up for the summer. There are also lots of new leaflets and brochures available, including (but certainly not limited to): Manchester Events, Chirk Castle, Echo Arena What's On Summer 09, Brimstage Maize Maze and the Cywain Centre Bala.

We are delighted to report that 2009 is proving immensely rewarding for many of our clients, too.

Go Ape High Wire Forest Adventure won the Responsible Tourism category in the TravelMole 2009 Web Awards. The Delamere Forest based attraction beat three other companies to take the top spot and were presented with their prize at a ceremony held in Canada House, London. Many congratulations to Go Ape from all at LDS Tourism Services.

We are sending out a collective pat on the back to several other of our prize-winning customers, including: Tatton Park (Large Attraction of the Year, Visit Chester & Cheshire Awards), Blue Planet Aquarium (Best Tourism Website of the Year, Visit Chester & Cheshire Awards), The Museum of Science & Industry (Tourism Experience of the Year for Costumed performers at MoSI, Manchester Tourism Awards) and WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre (Visitor Attraction of the Year, Lancashire & Blackpool Tourism Awards). Well done all!

There was great excitement at Blue Planet Aquarium recently when a baby shark was discovered by a diver in the enormous Caribbean Reef display. The 15cm bamboo shark was found under a rock by Terry Cookson during a routine maintenance dive. He spotted the tiny shark moving around and carefully brought him to the surface. The little nipper has now been nicknamed Rocky!

We have discovered some interesting statistics from Travel Navigator, a new national independent UK holiday survey by Arkenford. Based on questioning 2,000 adults a month about their travel plans and their booking intentions over the next three months, the latest results have revealed that people are downsizing and becoming increasingly independent when it comes to holidays this year. It would seem that more than 90% of them have booked their accommodation in advance and over 50% of these bookings have been made online and bought directly from the provider. Seventy-three percent said they would cut their spending on holidays this year. However, short breaks are set to benefit, with 20% planning to book more short breaks at home than in 2008.

It would seem to us that while a great many people have chosen to holiday at home this year, it is quite clear they want affordable breaks and are cutting back on the amount they spend. Therefore, tourism operators or resorts that decide to raise prices to cash in on the domestic bonanza are likely to find that visitors stay away.

Is your business benefitting from the current ‘Brits Stay Home’ boom? Have you noticed an increase in the number of local people visiting your attraction or establishment? Please share your thoughts and observations with us by posting a message here or by sending us an e-mail.

Main picture: Martin Mere Wetland Centre, © Jonathon Monk, 2005

Forward Planning Pays Off For Leaflet Marketing Company

As the country basks in glorious sunshine, there is every indication that camping and caravanning holidays are enjoying an amazing resurgence. Indeed, according to a recent holiday poll of over 2,000 people, thirty percent of Brits are staying in cheaper accommodation such as a tent or caravan to save money this year.

Regular readers of this blog will know that we predicted such a trend over twelve months ago. We were also correct in thinking that the strength of the euro would increase awareness of what the UK has to offer. Consequently, we were able to plan ahead and target caravan sites, B&B’s, marinas and a range of self-catering establishments with our various leaflet campaigns. We have every confidence that our forward thinking will result in clients benefitting from the predicted 20% rise in British holidays taken this summer – not to mention the shift towards leisure travellers who prefer weekend breaks.

We have a number of exciting and innovative new plans in the pipeline, which we hope to implement over the coming months in order to take full advantage of the transformation within the tourist industry caused by the recession (not least the decline in business and corporate travellers). All will be revealed in the very near future.

New leaflets and brochures continue to arrive at the Border Distribution Centre on an almost daily basis. Hot off the press are: Word of Mouth: People & Places in Wales (Issue 19), Chester Mini Guide, BugWorld Experience, Cumbria Culture Guide and many others.

If you would like further information about our services, please feel free to drop us a line or ring up for a chat on 01244 671859.

A Happy New Year For UK Tourism?

We were delighted to read that, “demand for UK domestic holidays is up due to the weak pound, according to Hoseasons” (Weak pound boosts domestic market by Bev Fearis); and according to TravelMole: “As the pound continues to struggle against the euro, the self catering operator says its bookings for UK breaks in 2009 are up 20%.”

The Chief Executive of Hoseasons Holidays, Richard Carrick, has revealed that over the last few months they have seen, “an increasing appetite for holidays in Britain, as a strong euro and a desire to manage household budgets has meant that more and more holidaymakers look to stay in the UK in 2009.” He went on to say that Hoseasons were “benefiting from people who know that by taking a self-catering holiday they can manage and control their holiday budgets more tightly."

If Carrick is correct, this could mean that money spent by holidaymakers will help the wider British economy. Consequently, the Government is being encouraged to back UK tourism as the plunging value of the pound makes Britain a more affordable holiday destination for foreign visitors – indeed, the Tourism Alliance has gone so far as to describe the sudden change in the country’s competitive position as something of a “potential silver lining to the cloud of recession” for British businesses. They could well be right as the fall in the value of the pound against the euro and the dollar has created what is widely being hailed as an “unparalleled opportunity” for the UK tourism industry.

Moving on to a completely different topic, we are delighted to reveal that there are now 432 members of our Brochure Marketing group on LinkedIn. If you would like to join, simply follow this link and click the ‘Join Group’ button.

LDS Tourism Services will be closing its offices from 24th December 2008 until 5th January 2009 – although staff will continue to service key display sites throughout the festive season. However, it will still be possible to contact us by leaving messages on this blog.

May we take this opportunity to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Some Good News For A Change!

The latest issue of our newsletter, Swift Flyer 3, is now available on our website at www.ldsts.co.uk/swift_flyer3.pdf. If you have problems viewing this document, please let us know and we will send you a hard copy via snail-mail.

We are all too aware that the current economic situation probably means that British (and foreign) holidaymakers are going to be more cost conscious than ever before – indeed, a new study by travelsupermarket.com has revealed that more than three quarters (77%) of people in the UK believe the price of their holiday is the most important factor in deciding where to go next year.

However, the news isn’t all bad. According to a recent study by PKF Hotel Consultancy Services, the UK hotel industry is still “holding its own” despite a “slow” month in October, and the fall in growth rate has been “fairly moderate”. More interestingly, new research has shown that “holidaymakers are planning a return to happy, nostalgic memories of their childhood breaks to get them through the hard times”. The poll of more than 2,000 people found that “in credit crunch Britain, a new generation has rekindled its love affair with the caravan. Rather than jet off abroad, almost two in ten (27%) of parents intend to take their children on a drive down memory lane inspired by their own childhood caravan holiday”.

The survey (commissioned by Towergate Bakers Insurance) revealed that the ‘Top 5 Nostalgia’ family holidays in the year ahead would be:

1. Holidays on the British coast (49%)

2. Country cottage holidays in the UK (29%)

3. Caravan holidays (27%)

4. Camping (20%)

5. Barge (9%)

This could potentially be very positive news indeed for small businesses in Britain and (fingers crossed) despite all the present talk of financial gloom and doom, 2009 may yet turn out to be a good year for tourism in North Wales and the North West.