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Niche is a winner for domestic tourism
TravelMole FastConference Special: The UK regions must break down their destinations to appeal to niche sectors, a TravelMole FastConference audience heard this week.
Speaking on the panel at the FastConference was East Midlands Tourism chief executive Richard Dickinson, whose organisation also sponsored the event.
He told the audience: “Promoting ‘The East Midlands’ is not going to work because people have a perception of an area of smoke stacks, so you need to look at something a bit more niche.”
Instead the region is being promoted under themes – Lincolnshire for its coastline, Nottingham for its nightlife, Derbyshire for its walking and Leicestershire for its food and drink.
BTTF and WTM event director, Graeme Barnett praised this approach but said that many domestic attractions and suppliers lacked the expertise to effectively market their product.
“There’s often plenty of enthusiasm,” he said, giving an example of steam rail enthusiasts from the Isle of Wight who shipped a steam train to Birmingham to exhibit at BTTF, “but they don’t know have a clue about how to promote themselves”.
“My experience shows that international destinations are better at promoting themselves – perhaps it’s because their economy relies more heavily on tourism,” he said.
VisitBritain England marketing director, Michael Bedingfield was also on the panel. He said his organisation was trying to contact niche suppliers across the UK to help them with marketing.
“The hardest thing is finding them,” he said, “but once we do we want to help make their marketing budgets work harder for them.”
Moderator Jeremy Skidmore agreed, saying that finding these “nuggets” within the UK market was a way to make the UK appeal to British holidaymakers for short-breaks.
British Holiday and Home Parks Association director general, Ros Pritchard said there was opportunity in the niche sectors.
“Surfers who go to Australia will also take a break in Newquay,” she said. She added that dog lovers were also a big market for the UK, offering holidays to people who don’t want to leave their pet while they go on holiday abroad.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Ginny McGrath
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