A Brighter Outlook For 2011

Christmas is fast approaching and we are looking forward to celebrating the start of a new decade. It is now too that we take stock and consider the year ahead.

In recent months, financial forecasts haven’t made very pleasant reading, but there are plenty of reasons why British tourism operators should feel optimistic.

The number of holiday visits to the UK rose by about 6% between July and October, whereas the number of Brits holidaying abroad fell by 3% (Office for National Statistics) during the same period. Roger Smith, head of the International Passenger Survey for the ONS, said: “It does appear that there are signs that the large falls we have seen in the recent past have begun to stabilise and show some signs of recovery.”

In their Forecast for the Volume and Value of Inbound Tourism in 2011, VisitBritain (the UK’s national tourism agency) said that the “positive side [to the] prolonged weakness in the value of sterling continues to provide an opportunity to challenge perceptions relating to Britain's expensiveness as a destination”. They predict that the volume of inbound tourism to the UK in 2011 will be 30.0 million visits, with inbound visitors spending £17.2 billion. This 1% increase may seem slight but it is at least heading in the right direction and is an encouraging development in such gloomy times.

Ireland’s financial woes could well be advantageous to hospitality and tourism businesses in North Wales. Pay cuts in the public sector and changes to tax credits and income tax have subdued the once booming Celtic Tiger economy and will undoubtedly make an enormous difference to spending habits in 2011. The strength of the Euro against the Pound led to increased holiday bookings by Irish residents visiting North Wales in 2009/10. It now seems likely that exotic holidays will be unaffordable for some time to come and Irish holidaymakers will opt for somewhere a bit closer to home – perhaps a short ferry ride from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead. Every cloud...

While a recent survey by StrongMail showed that a third of marketers intend to decrease their trade show spends in 2011, it also revealed that investment in social media marketing will increase by 57%. (If you scroll to the end of this article, you will see a brand new map of the world, showing the most popular social networks by country, according to Alexa & Google Trends for Websites traffic data, December 2010.)

We were, however, unsurprised to read that “print has a place in the world of new media” (PrintWeek - 10th December 2010). A report published by KPMG, the auditor running six monthly surveys on media in general, showed that “four in five consumers prefer print to online”. The latest Media and Entertainment Barometer survey by YouGov confirmed that “86% of consumers prefer to consume media offline, with the most popular reason a preference for reading physical copies”.

Please contact us to discuss your social media marketing and leaflet/brochure distribution campaigns in 2011.




Top image: ©Britainonview / David Sellman, 2010

There’s No Place Like Home

Manchester International Airport

Last week, the Office for National Statistics reported the fastest drop in British citizens travelling abroad since the 1970s - with Mexico alone suffering a massive 41% fall in visits. During 2009 the ONS recorded 58.6 million trips, compared to 69 million in 2008, with business travel plummeting by a massive 23%.

The report showed that there was a drop of 15% in visits made from the UK abroad for holiday reasons and a drop of 6.5% for visiting friends and relatives. However, holiday-specific trips to the UK by overseas visitors rose in 2009 by 0.5 million from 10.9m in 2008 to 11.4m in 2009.

UK visitors also spent £5.1 billion less abroad last year. Conversely, earnings from money spent by visitors from abroad coming to the UK rose from £16.3 billion to £16.6 billion.

Local tourism operators will no doubt be hoping this trend continues, although it’s highly doubtful that foreign travel companies and the airline industry will agree.

Image: Manchester Airport ©Britainonview

Tourist Industry Roundup

We're up to our eyes in it as usual, but we still like to stay abreast of what's happening with our friends and colleagues in the industry. So, here are a handful of news-items we've 'homed in' on this week:

On 23rd April the 'Tourism Oscars' will take place in St Georges Hall, Liverpool, in celebration of the 2008 European Capital of Culture and St George’s Day. Amazingly, this is the first time in its 19-year history that the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence will be held outside London, so it will be quite a feather in NW England's hat. Fingers crossed that the region will also receive some recognition from the judges.

Some of you may be interested to learn that a new microsite has been launched to support the year-long Culture 08 campaign (organised to celebrate some of England's best cultural attractions), which includes a journey planner, travel itinerary with Google maps, a 'My Events' section and an 'Inspire Me' functionality, which randomly generates event details that the user could attend across England.

According to TravelMole, the "UK is the sixth most competitive country when it comes to tourism". An international study has revealed that we have moved up from 10th position in the Global Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report (put together by the World Economic Forum) - showing a marked improvement in areas such as environmental sustainability and air transport infrastructure. However, we received a comparatively low score for safety and security, coming way down the list in 65th place!

Many of you will no doubt be attending the British Travel Trade Fair in Birmingham this week - we'll be there ourselves to assist Cadw with their stand on the final day. We wish you a successful show and hope that you get plenty of useful networking opportunities. We would love to hear your thoughts on this year's event, and also, if Karl Lornie, the Paul McCartney tribute act, is a good as they say he is!