Author: Kevin Wilson
Chamber of Commerce, Tourism and Industry Announce Marketing Campaign
Tuesday, 8th July, 2008 at 4:22 pm, Isle of Wight
Many thanks to Kevin for sending through a brief report from the Chamber of Commerce marketing launch this morning. Ed
Innovative plans to boost Island tourism were announced today.
The Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce, Tourism and Industry set out its proposals to create the world’s finest destination marketing campaign, to an enthusiastic audience of members in the hotel and accommodation sector, at an event held at Bourne Hall Hotel, Shanklin.
The need for change was explained - national statistics show that more and more people are choosing to holiday in the UK this year, and yet the Island has been suffering from lower levels of bookings and enquiries.
The Chamber has been working with partner organisations and members to make big improvements to the way the Island is marketed to attract visitors.
It’s plans include a new GoWight website, which will use video streaming – showing clips of Island attractions as well as video tours of accommodation.
The site will be backed up by a series of printed brochures and guides. The Chamber also announced that it was now close to an agreement with the Isle of Wight Council on joint working to promote the Island as a tourist destination.
The Council’s new head of tourism, John Metcalfe, told the meeting that the Council wanted to work with the Chamber of Commerce and would be submitting proposals to council members in a few weeks.
The Chamber’s new marketing campaign will aim to generate an additional £5 million of revenue, from at least 20,000 extra bookings.
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July 8th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
You can only attract folk if what you’ve got is what they want. Whilst there is a tangible improvment in the quality of hotels in some some areas of the Island, there’s a tangible lack of it in others. If I were a consumer of IOW tourism, I’d really appreciate a kind of Rough Guide approach telling me (i) how many acres of aged patterned carpets I have to tranverse round x number of corners and up and down 2-3 steps every 10 metres to get to my room (ii) whether there is more than a metre on 3 sides of the bed (iii) can I swing a cat in the bathroom. On the positive side I’d like to know whether there’s storage for my golf clubs/walking gear/cycles or other sports stuff. I’d also like to know whether the hotel restaurant is still back in 1950s style sitting at the same table with waitress service at a very set time every day/evening. I’d like to know whether I’m booking into somewhere that caters for large coach parties of older folk, whether they lay on 1950s style entertainment. Categorise these 50s style hotels clearly so folk can actively choose or not choose them.
Nowadays most folk don’t want to stay in a place that’s a marked degree worse than their own home.
I’d like the strategy to advertise the mostly great bus service we have on the Island (except Sundays which in the summer is too sparse) - tell them about the open topped services too and make it easier for them to not bring their cars - it could be an enjoyable experience and they’d get to talk to locals too - smiling ones - pick up all the gossip. Join up the bits that are difficult maybe offering fleets of larger cars to transport them and their stuff between ferry ports and their accommodation perhaps wrapped up as part of their ferry fare or maybe an opportunity for a new business.
I’d like to see a special section advertising any Eco holidays - really Eco - using solar power, grey water systems, in addition to using local food products.
There’s a lot more imagination that needs to go into creating holiday packages - good accommodation + good food + easy access to activities. Why not have the golf clubs or the artists or writers or ramblers or astronomers or Eco experts or geologists or sailors or cooks linking up with hotels to offer them the kind of package that people have been used to in the rest of Europe.
Sal, if this rant is too long - then edit me:)
We’ve got a great place, but unless you’re part of a coach party with low expectations or a young family who have fairly set beach based expectations largely then we’ll get first-time only tourists never to return.
I know I haven’t thought about the self-caterers - don’t know enough about that side of IOW tourism.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
to be world class we have to provide world class facilities, not just hotels. We compete with Butlins for the bucket and spade brigade and the OAPs, we should be competing with Centre Parcs and young families, but until MILLIONS is applied to tourism it aint gonna happen
July 9th, 2008 at 9:33 am
“grey water systems”
I think some hotels have had those for years!
Agree with both the above, and a shiny new website doth not a summer upsurge make (’streaming video’ sounds so much better than YouTube clips, don’t you think?).
A bit of joined-up organisation and planning would help, too. We’ve already lost the powerboats, Cowes Week loses its main sponsor this year, WhiteAir has threatened to relocate, and further rounds of the World (yes, World) Motocross Championship at Gore Basin have been blocked by the planning dept since the one hugely successful event in 2005!
The Island lives or dies by tourism, and a marketing makeover will only create more disappointment if it isn’t backed up by some quality infrastructure. Quaintness has its fans, but even they expect decent accommodation and food…
July 9th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I think we need to support the Chamber on this, they seem to realy have taken the initiative. Have to say Sue Curd’s ideas do sound good to stem the current decline in bookings, but worth noting that this has come after a few years of record breaking bookings. I think it is going to be a hard few years with the economy heading for recession.
However the original Tourism Development Plan from the Council was quite right in saying we need fewer tourists spending more money throughout the year.
James P- Things are not as bad as stated, The Powerboats got a better offer and Cowes Week sponsor decided to move on after nearly 10 years, which is not bad for a main sponsor of an event, even the IW Festival lost its main sponsor this year. Now WhiteAir is another matter, last year I could not work out whether it was a extreme sports or a music festival! Do agree that we need the World Motorcross, but it was the local residents and thier councillor that blocked the planning. Hope the revised proposals do succeed.