34. By working more closely together we can make 2010 a bumper year for Chichester District tourism!
35.
Notas do Editor
The market place continues to be a turbulent one with competition from other UK districts as well as the continued growth of cheap foreign holidays, of course the weather can also make things challenging for domestic tourism.
You may recall that we used this slide last year, but here we are using it again, as despite claims that we are now officially out of the recession, finances are still tight and holidays are being seen more as a luxury than a necessity. Foreign markets continue to be very attractive with cheap flights, packages and destinations, while the UK continues to be expensive for the domestic market.
So what about the green shoots of recovery? Well sadly the outlook is still pretty gloomy and it will be another tough year for domestic tourism.
Unemployment is still increasing and a day doesn’t go by when the news is telling us that we’ve been living beyond our means and now it’s payback time. These factors together with the vagaries of Sterling against other leading currencies has led to predictions that economic recovery will be slower than at first anticipated. Outbound holiday sales are reckoned to be around 5% down but some sectors such as cruising and all-inclusives are bucking the trend. Minimal growth is predicted for the inbound market whilst domestic holidays are forecast to increase although we think that weather conditions will play a big part in determining if this comes to fruition. Following last year’s trend for ‘Staycations’, the new buzz word is ‘Snacking’ - taking more mini breaks rather than longer holidays
Moving on to what we are going to be doing for the Chichester District this year.
These are areas of England that have an identity in the minds of consumers and we need to move towards getting the Chichester District perceived in the same way. Of course, this is an overall marketing task of which PR is just a part. Hopefully the new National park Status of the SOuth Downs will help, in part, to move this forward
Our aim is to achieve continued editorial coverage that highlights the region as an aspirational and inspirational destination This will boost overnight stays Maintain flow of day visitors Highlight value and diversity Emphasis accessible location Increase website traffic
We will continue to draw out the various elements of the Chichester District experience through the creative use of themes, highlighted here, in pitching story ideas to the media.
A new and important theme that will benefit the whole region we will be pushing hard this year is the South Downs becoming Britain’s newest National Park. We enjoyed a great deal of success when we handled a similar exercise for the New Forest a few years ago and we aim to replicate this for Chichester District.
So all in all we aim to encourage new audiences to visit without alienating existing repeat visitors, taking into consideration the different reasons people are visiting.