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

Distribution Day »
International Marketing Activity »
Travel Trade »
Business Development Unit »
Visitor Services Unit »
Tourism North East online »

DISTRIBUTION DAY

One of the major events on the tourism business calendar is taking place on Thursday 29 March at Temple Park Leisure Centre, South Shields. The regional Tourism Network North East Distribution Day is proving even more popular this year with over 140 businesses already registered for tables and even more indicating they will be attending.

Why Should Businesses Attend?

The regional event provides businesses with an ideal opportunity to collect and distribute marketing materials, guides and leaflets either to promote their own business or to ensure their visitors are kept fully up to date with what the region has to offer. Distribution Day also gives businesses the chance to network with colleagues, old and new, and pick up tips on how to improve their own business.

For the first time, this year’s event will also see areas set aside for each of the four Area Tourism Partnerships. ATP staff will be on hand to meet with you and answer questions about the role of the ATPs and tourism developments in your area. Specific areas are also being set aside to provide access to advice on business development, Network registration, the Regional Image Campaign and tourism marketing. There is also an area dedicated to Desti.ne where you will be able to see what it is all about, how the system works and how your business could benefit.

Why not join us for what will be a fantastic day. For more information, contact Emma Brown on 0191 229 6833.

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INTERNATIONAL MARKETING ACTIVITY

ITB Berlin (7-11 March)

The international marketing team and Northumberland Tourism recently attended the world’s largest travel trade fair ITB Berlin. Visitors to the stand were able to pick up a range of literature including taster guides and pocket maps and were able to sample regional products including Lindisfarne Mead and Newcastle Brown Ale fudge. Over 1000 taster guides and pocket maps were distributed.

To publicise the region’s presence at the show, a direct email was sent to 20,000 German households who have shown an interest in visiting England. To view the email click here.

For more information contact Marissa Buckingham.

Dutch Familiarisation Visit (9-10 March)

North East England hosted a group visit from The Netherlands which coincided with the British Travel Trade Fair (BTTF). Seven representatives from key trade including Garden Tours, Scanbritaink, House of Britain and Buro Britain spent the weekend in the region.

Our guests were able to sample a wide range of attractions during their two night stay including NewcastleGateshead, Blanchland, North Pennines AONB, High Force waterfall, The Bowes Museum, Yarm and a stretch of Hadrian’s Wall. Feedback has been very positive and we look forward to welcoming more trade and press into our region in the near future.

For more information contact Marissa Buckingham.

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TRAVEL TRADE

The Travel Trade Department took North East England to the heart of British Tourism Week, showcasing the region at the British Travel Trade Fair (BTTF) on 13-14 March. For the second year running North East England exhibited on a purpose-built stand providing visitors with a one-stop-shop for all their group travel requests.

The Travel Trade Department exhibited with 9 regional partners from all four Area Tourism Partnerships (ATPs) including Alnwick Castle, Beamish, Hadrian’s Wall Country, The Alnwick Garden and Woodhorn.

The new 2007 edition of the 'Hidden Benefits' voucher booklet was launched on the stand by Tom Wright, Chief Executive of VisitBritain which added to the significant interest shown by both the National and International press. The regional TV advert also helped to generate a good level of interest and excellent feedback was received on the Passionate People, Passionate Places campaign.

For more information contact Chris Amson

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BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT UNIT

Call to Action on Access

Many businesses were involved in the inspiring Tourism for All conference at The Sage Gateshead in October last year.

Since then viewpoints and feedback have been sought and a report and proposed action plan prepared. Businesses that were unable to attend can now find out the key messages from the day together with ideas of how the region can improve access for visitors form all over the world whatever their needs might be. Visit www.tourismnortheast.co.uk/allarewelcome to view the report, DVD excerpts, and your chance to comment on the proposed action plan. Your views matter – please use this opportunity to respond on this vital subject.

HMRC EmployerTalk

HMRC is holding a free payroll advice event for employers. The event which takes place at Redworth Hall, Darlington on 27 and 28 March is one of a series of events providing an opportunity to talk face to face with HMRC experts. There will also be a series of presentations on latest developments on a range of topics including how to reduce errors and manage payroll issues more effectively.

To register, log onto www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/talk.htm or call Sam French on 0845 366 7878.

Realising the Value of your Business

Succession planning is a subject that quite often only gets thought about when owners are about to sell or pass on their business. A series of free seminars will provide you with guidance if you are thinking of selling your business, passing it on, reducing your involvement, maximising your assets, or making your pension fund work hard to increase your business value.

The seminars will take place on:

28 March (am) Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
28 March (pm) Lumley Castle, Chester le Street
29 March (am) White Swan Hotel, Alnwick
29 march (pm) One NorthEast, Stella House, Newcastle

To register, contact Dawn Shrives on 01302 761333 or e-mail Dawn Shrives

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VISITOR SERVICES UNIT

www.visitcountydurham.com

The official visitor information site for County Durham has gone live. The website has been developed by the Tourism New Media team at One NorthEast working with Durham Area Tourism Partnership using the new Desti.ne Enterprise Content Management system. The website is fed by the Desti.ne tourism product database for quality, consistent information on tourism providers and services for the region.

The County Durham ATP Visitor website is the first of four ATP visitor websites designed and developed by the Tourism New Media team with the final site VisitNorthumberland.com forecasted to go live in June.

Festival and Events Toolkit

The regional online toolkit for festival and event organisers is now available. The website is aimed at providing information sheets, templates, and useful advice for festival and event organisers big and small. The website has been developed by the Tourism New Media team working closely with Ailsa Anderson at One NorthEast and Joined Up North.

Amongst other key features users on the site can:

• Search by keyword & category for information pages and information sheets to download
• Refer any information sheet page to an associate by email
• Provide direct feedback on any information sheet
• Print any web page as a tidy formatted document

Users leaving feedback are logged direct into the Desti.ne CRM

To access the website click here or visit www.tourismnortheast.co.uk

Taking Advantage of Online Booking

More and more of the region’s tourism businesses are already benefiting from offering their customers an online booking facility.

For businesses where this is not currently an option, a series of lunches was held throughout March. Businesses heard about changes to the way in which visitors book holidays and the substantial advantages of offering online booking. Existing FrontDesk users were on hand to set out how Desti.ne software had helped them to take advantage of the increasing shift to online booking. FrontDesk figures for March shows that to 19 March there had been a total of 335 bookings made through the system with a total value of £49,328.88.

For more information about offering online booking, businesses will be able to talk to the experts at Distribution Day (see article at the top of the e-briefing) or call eviivo on 0800 422 0088.

Accommodation Database Questionnaires

Northumberland Tourism, Tourism Tyne & Wear and County Durham Tourism will shortly be sending out annual accommodation database questionnaires. The information is entered onto the regional database and feeds both national and regional websites including VisitBritain, enjoyEngland, visitnortheastengland, and the four ATP websites. One NorthEast, VisitBritain and the four ATPs may also use it to send you information on marketing initiatives and publications.

When you receive your questionnaire you must:

• check all existing information we currently hold on your establishment
• add your 2008 prices
• tick the data protection boxes, and finally
• sign and return the completed questionnaire to the data steward in the area where your property is located.

Northumberland Tourism
Liz Askell, Micklewood House, Longhirst hall, Morpeth NE61 3LL

Tourism Tyne & Wear
Emma Hallington, c/o NewcastleGateshead Initiative, 4th Floor, Central Square South, Orchard Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3AZ

County Durham Tourism
Margaret Statham, Rivergreen Centre, Aykley Heads, Durham DH1 5TS

visitTeesvalley
Cara Pringle, Tees Valley Tourism, P O Box 199, Melrose House, Melrose Street, Middlesbrough TS1 2XF

Alternatively, Desti.ne Frontdesk and Desti.ne Extranet users can update their information online and continue to keep their information current across all Desti.ne powered websites.

For more information on Desti.ne Frontdesk or Desti.ne Extranet contact Karen O’Donnell at One NorthEast Tourism on 0191 229 6831.

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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

If there is anyone in the tourism sector you think would find the Regional Tourism Team Update useful we would be very grateful if you could send it on. Anyone wanting to be added to the e-database should complete the online subscription form.

If you no longer wish to receive the Regional Tourism Team Update, or you need to update your details with us, please contact Vicky Paris.