DMOs, tourism businesses, local authorities and colleagues from VisitBritain came together for last week’s City Nation Place conference to hear a mixture of uplifting content and about the ongoing difficulties of destinations and the visitor economy across the UK.
Delegates first heard from Dan Ramsay, Director of the GREAT campaign at the Department of International Trade who reminded us of the UK’s key strengths and how we are currently perceived around the world.
We are still very much seen as a ‘soft power super power’ with our world leading creative industries, education system and financial services. Did you know that one of our more popular exports includes Mr Bean who has over 100 million Facebook followers which is more than Justin Bieber or Rhianna? Furthermore, did you know that the UK has educated more presidents than any other country in the world? We are also seen as safe, reliable and trusted – all valuable qualities in a post Covid world.
Clare Mullins, Marketing Director at VisitBritain also spoke positively about the UK’s future prospects with regards to tourism and visitation but warned that it will be a very competitive market once travel opens up again and it could take until 2024 to return to pre-Covid levels. Visitors from the US are likely to return first followed by Germany, France and then China. With travel estimated to return in force from next April – promotion of the UK will need to start early next year when people are starting to think and make decisions about future holidays and travel.
Roddy Smith, CEO of Essential Edinburgh painted a grim picture of the visitor economy in the city with footfall down 65% and hotel occupancy down 41% in August and nearly 50% of hotel staff have been made redundant. Pre-covid, Edinburgh was one of the UK’s top tourist destinations and in recent years has suffered from overtourism – it will be interesting therefore to see how residents react when tourists do return to the city.
We also heard from Professor Martin Reeves, CEO of Coventry City Council who told us movingly about the city’s plans to mark the City of Culture next year. It will be a year of celebrations starting in May (rather than January) but it will be done sensitively and with social distancing incorporated into events. Watch out for the opening ceremony in May - sounds like it will be fantastic! It was his view that city centres going forward will not be retail focused, instead they will be public spaces with activities and experiences. Cities will therefore need to re-position and re-market themselves.
At our roundtable discussion hosted by CEO Deirdre Wells (Super DMOs – how collaboration between destinations can ensure a sustainable visitor economy), we all agreed that placemakers have to think more creatively about our tourism sector particularly as it looks likely that leisure tourism will recover more quickly than business travel. The challenge going forward will be to replace business tourism with high quality leisure tourism. Could business travel translate into mid-week leisure breaks for example?
We also discussed that whilst destinations can get most excited about marketing – management in fact is key and people need to talk about tourism less and more about the visitor economy.
Deirdre explained that when we want to attract people to invest, work, live and study in our destination, we need a shared narrative to tell a common story about our places. Almost a fifth of all inward investment decisions are inspired by first visiting the destination. With this in mind, DMOs should try and incorporate elements of the visitor economy i.e. experiences, food and drink when inward investment prospects come to visit.
On the theme of ‘Super DMOs’ - Kathryn Davis, Head of Tourism at Destination Bristol and interim CEO of Visit Bath told us that being 12 miles apart could have resulted in the two destinations fighting for the same market. However, this has in fact provided an opportunity for the visitor economy as visitors can easily travel between the two cities, and by collaborating, the destinations had expanded their reach to include the rural offering between them. Similar to Go To Places, she also explained that the benefits of managing two DMOs include learning from and strategizing with each other and the economies of scale that can be achieved.
Martin Rees, Mayor of Bristol closed the event and urged those in charge of destinations to ensure there are shared values and to be clear and transparent about the challenges in the destination particularly when talking to investors and businesses hoping to re-locate. Your branding also needs to be connected to real life!
All in all, the transformation of the annual City Nation Place conference to a virtual event ran very smoothly with thought provoking content, topical speakers and a really engaged audience - congratulations to the organisers for a great event. This has been a really challenging time for destinations across the country and it was truly inspiring to hear from others about their experiences and to learn from the best in the business.
This celebration of best practice provided us with the ideal platform to launch our new support package for DMOs. Our new “Destination in a Box” service is a quick, cost effective marketing solution for destinations. You can find out more at www.dmo-box.co.uk.
Our businesses are facing huge challenges and it is innovation and collaboration which will see them through. The inspiring speakers and fact-filled content of CNP 2020 reminded us that these are also the qualities that will ensure our destinations thrive in 2021 and beyond.