Welcome to our fortnightly e-bulletin packed with information about what the North East England Regional Tourism Team have been up to.

UK Marketing Activity »
International Marketing Activity »
Travel Trade Activity »
Business Development Unit »
Visitor Service Unit »
Tourism Development Unit »
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UK MARKETING ACTIVITY

Gardeners’ World Exhibition 2007

This week the UK team are attending the Gardeners’ World Exhibition at The NEC Birmingham. The show gives the team an excellent opportunity to reach the key target market and raise awareness of North East England and the fantastic gardens product the region has. The show is estimated to attract 150,000 visitors. Information on our attendance at the show will follow in the next edition of e-bulletin.

For more information contact Katherine Munro.

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INTERNATIONAL MARKETING ACTIVITY

North East England enters Asia-Pacific market
Destination Britain, Beijing 28–31 May 2007

Destination Britain, organised by VisitBritain, attracted over 100 buyers from more than 10 countries across the Asia-Pacific region for 3 days of one-on-one appointments and networking events.

The main target audience for North East England were tour organisers and media attending from Australia/New Zealand, a key market for the region with the introduction of the new Emirates route through Dubai on the 1st September. The appointments were very productive with North East England providing lots of new product ideas to tour organisers and raising awareness of the new route into the region. North East England also sponsored the media room at the event, raising the profile of the region extensively to more than 20 key media from Asia-Pacific - including Australia’s leading TV travel show, and generating a number of media interviews.

North East England also met with tour organisers and media from across Asia including India, Singapore, Malaysia and China.

Click on the link to view an example of posters used in the media room.

Go to www.destination-britain.com for more information on the event. For further information contact Helen Bull.

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TRAVEL TRADE ACTIVITY

Luxury Groups Market

The travel trade department brought together the region’s premier and iconic attractions, venues and hotels, for a luxury group travel presentation day on the 6th June. The 3-hour event was held at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, to raise awareness of luxury group travel opportunities and product developments by the One NorthEast tourism team.

As well as case study examples from North East England Blue Badge Guide, Jan Williams and The Alnwick Garden, attendees were updated on the travel trade department’s activity to develop the regional offer for the growing luxury groups market. Through July and August the travel trade department will be building a regional portfolio of special experiences for higher spending groups, to feature in the region’s first luxury group travel brochure and website, which will be launched later this year. To receive a copy of the presentations and notes from this event or to discuss One NorthEast’s activity in this sector please contact Chris Amson.

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BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT UNIT

Tapping Into Graduate Support

Have you got a development project that has been put on hold constantly due to lack of time? Graduate Business Solutions, delivered by Entrust, could help. It provides 3 services to allow small businesses to access the wealth of knowledge and initiative the region’s graduates offer – freeing up vital time for you to spend on your business. The 3 services offered by Graduate Business Solutions are:

• Graduates for Business
• Graduate Work Experience
• Shell Step

If you want to tap into this resource, then email Yvonne Gill at Entrust or call 0191 244 4007.

Calling All Young Chefs and Waiters

This year’s national competition to find the country’s best young chefs and waiters is urging restaurant and hotel managers and owners to encourage entry among their staff.

Last year the competition saw two regional winners go on to the national finals in London where they competed alongside 14 other national finalists. Not only did the experience benefit the regional winners but raised the national profile of their employer.

A copy of the booking form can be downloaded from the BHA website (www.bha.org.uk) or the YCYW website (www.ycyw.co.uk).

Please note: All entrants must have been born on or after 31 December 1983. Deadline for entry is 22 June.

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VISITOR SERVICE UNIT

VIN Strategy Ready to Roll

The visitor’s journey does not only consist of the holiday itself, but also the way they anticipate, plan and remember it. They do this by accessing information by a wide variety of means, and the region has to make sure that it can deliver this, and keep pace with changing customer expectations and behaviour.

With this in mind, a Visitor Information Network (VIN) Strategy has been developed to guide our activity over the next four years. Its major concern is with helping the region’s Tourist Information Centres equip themselves to meet the challenges of the future, but in addition it looks to explore new and alternative means of reaching our customers, either in new and different locations, or even on the move via their mobile phones.

For more information on the VIN Strategy contact Ian Foster.

Accommodation Database Questionnaires

Accommodation providers, who currently participate in the National Inspection Scheme, should have returned their completed database questionnaires by now. If you have not returned the questionnaire yet please do so immediately or you may miss out on free and paid for advertising opportunities in publications and various websites. It is important that you check all information which we currently hold on your establishment, add 2008 prices, sign the questionnaire, tick the data protection boxes and return the completed questionnaire before 22 June. If you have any queries please contact Pam Pedelty.

Desti.ne Frontdesk – Half a Million Milestone!

Online bookings in the NorthEast have continued to grow through Desti.ne Frontdesk, Frontdoor and Frontrow. From the launch of the Eviivo software range in autumn of last year, the total value of online bookings for the Region has reached a staggering £525,482.91!

This reinforces continuing trends that more and more visitors want to book and pay for accommodation and attraction tickets online. Desti.ne is at the forefront of meeting this increasing demand with ongoing development to make sure it will continue to do so.

To get Desti.ne Frontdesk, FrontDoor or FrontRow, call Eviivo on: 0800 422 0088, or email: mailto:destinefrontdesk@eviivo.com.

Desti.ne Business Benefits

Each of the Area Tourism Partnerships (ATP) are engaging with businesses about the benefits of Desti.ne through a combination of one to one meetings and workshop events. The Regional Tourism team are supporting these activities by production of updated literature on the key benefits of Desti.ne and case studies on businesses from across the Region who are making the most of Desti.ne.

The Tourism ICT Co-ordinator is helping each ATP create an updated plan of activities including workshops which will be taking place across the Region. Each plan will focus on what works best for businesses in each area and making the most of the resources available to the Regional Tourism Team and each ATP.

For more information on events and workshops planned for the coming year, please email Asif Latif (Tourism ICT Co-ordinator) or call 0191 2296835. These workshops will give businesses the opportunity to chat with existing users and test the system themselves. Businesses can also contact their ATP for more information which will be published as and when its available.

Desti.ne Extranet

Remember you can use Desti.ne Extranet to save time and effort and fill out the Regional Information collection forms quickly and easily online. For more information email Karen O’Donnell or call 01912296831.

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TOURISM DEVELOPMENT UNIT

Business Performance Update

The first quarter of the year saw more than half a million visitors to the regions TIC network while the regions attractions welcomed a total of just under 2 million visitors.

In terms of the regions accommodation establishments there were variations in performance between January and April 2007. Average Room Occupancy for hotels stood at 68% while B&B/Guesthouses had an average of 26%. Self Catering properties had an average unit occupancy of 47%.

For more information visit www.tourismnortheast.co.uk.

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FIND OUT MORE

If you would like to find out more on tourism in the region, visit www.tourismnortheast.co.uk - a dedicated website for the tourism industry in North East England.

RECOMMEND A FRIEND

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