Tobias Ellwood Opens Tourism Award

Shadow Tourism Minister, Tobias Ellwood, MP for Bournemouth East will launch the Destination Champions Award 2009 at the Best of Britain and Ireland Show at Excel on the 26th March 2009 at 10am (stand number 896). The award honours individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to building the tourism industry in their local area. Michael Hancock the CEO of Destination Alliances, who sponsors the award stated “We are looking for someone with a true community spirit whose activities have helped others, improved their surroundings and raised the profile of their local area. Mr Ellwood was the perfect choice to launch the award because of the personal commitment he has shown in helping Bournemouth grow as a tourist destination”
The winner will demonstrate that they have gone beyond the call of duty to promote their local area as a tourist destination, for instance running local events or being actively involved in community organisations. Nominations are to be made online at www.destinationchampions.co.uk, with a closing date of 30th September 2009. The winner will be announced in October and receive a trophy and a 3 night break in Boscombe Spa Resort Bournemouth. The person who nominates the winner will receive a weekend break in Boscombe Spa Resort.
Destination Alliances facilitates cooperation and joint marketing between tourism businesses (hotels, restaurants and leisure activities), helping them to work together to promote their local area. It is the brainchild of Michael Hancock who, having worked with hotels and restaurants on their websites and online booking systems, came to realise that businesses in smaller holiday destinations found it hard to find the money to promote their services effectively. He saw the opportunity for them to join forces to promote the local area benefiting all those involved. So in early 2007 he helped launch the first Alliance, Boscombe Spa Resort, with four local hoteliers.
Boscombe Spa, Bournemouth has recently under gone a major re-development of the sea front and the first artificial European Surf Reef will open there this summer. Destination Alliances is assisting a dedicated band of 68 local tourism businesses to work together to promote their resort by building their own website, introducing a loyalty card to encourage holiday makers to try all the local amenities and introducing a centralised hotel booking service. The initiative received national recognition winning the Best Marketing on a Small Budget Award at the UK Hotel Marketing Awards last year and the Hoteliers of Boscombe Spa Resort reported an average £6,500 increase in revenue last year.
Destination Alliances plan to franchise other Alliances across the Country concentrating on smaller towns that have recently undergone regeneration and do not have access to a local Tourist Association or Information Centre.




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Tourism Awards UK

Destination Alliances has just launched Tourism Awards for people who have done a great deal to improve their local community and help tourism - the site is open to nominations.


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Do things that the big chain hotels cannot copy!

Due to corperate restrictions it is likely that independant hotels can create an edge over these competitors. They can react to local pricing and make changes to your website more freely.

I always say dont compete on price alone, try to add value to your rates by providing local value.

For more tips goto www.hotelmarketingcentre.com

Deal or No Deal?

Consider placing a special promotion section on your web site, but stay away from promotions centered on discounted rates. The most effective special promotions are value-added, not discounted rates. Value-added specials do not compromise or diminish your hotel's position in the marketplace and/or negatively affect rate integrity.
Several years ago, someone had the brilliant idea to include a complimentary breakfast as a value-added feature to improve sales. It worked so well that nearly every hotel now offers it; it is no longer a special feature and could even be a deficit for those who do not offer it.
Create special promotions, which focus on value-added features targeted to the market segment you are seeking. Leisure travelers and corporate travelers have much different sales "hot buttons". Target special promotions towards building incremental new business and not simply to provide your current guests with additional benefits.
The vast majority of travelers make a value judgment when selecting a hotel; simply reducing rates only devalues your product and destroys rate integrity

For more tips goto www.hotelmarketingcentre.com

Become a Destination Champion

Providing guests with local information will help you distinquish yourself from your competiion. I am not talking about putting a leaflet box in your reception, but a more proactive approch.
In American films the concierge is a guy with the knowledge, good advice given in person on recommendation is invaluble to a guest and can help make the guests break even more enjoyable.
Join a local business group and get to know the resturants and attractions around you, perhaps even look to create marketing relationships between you that add value.
Publish your own room information pack, guests will love to read the information, (Particularly when the Wife is getting ready).
One organisation I have worked with is Destination Alliances, there website can be found at: www.destinationallinaces.co.uk

Your guests are your friends

One of the most useful and potentially rewarding qualities you can possess as a hotelier or guest house owner is the ability to communicate with your guests as friends. For a great majority of hoteliers this is almost second nature, maybe even the main reason why they run a guest house.
Building a friendship with your guests is where the small family run hotel or guest house can score big over the larger more impersonal hotels
Take the time to get to know your guest, partuicularly their interests. These “Hot Buttons” can be a good link to repeat business.
For example Peter is taking a weeks break with his wife Emma, Emma has booked some tickets to visit the theatre and as you talk to them you notice that Peter talks about his Golf and that golf appears highly in his list of priorities in life.
So, a few months later you hear about a golf pro talk at your local golf club, a quick email to Peter letting him know about it would be a good use of your time. You could also mention the current theatre shows as Emma likes the thetre.
Some people out there say this is manipulative, that depends on you approch it, if you simply interigate your guests them may be, on the other hand if you treat your guests as friends it wont be a problem.
You can store this information in a database or on a record card. Hotel Control provide a guest database you can use if you want to store this info on a computer.

Guest Referrals - Hotels working Together!

Getting together with the competition may be an odd concept but the fact is that independent hoteliers and guest house owners need to find ways of competing against the big hotel chains for business. One group of hoteliers in Dorset have come together to form a consortium of 16 hotels who all pass referrals when they are full. Bryn Jones from http://www.boscombesparesorthotels.co.uk/ explained that before the group was established he used to say "Sorry we are Full" now through the group he has found that he can confidently pass referrals to others in the group.

For more tips go to http://www.hotelmarketingcentre.com/