Take pride in tourism!

With the eyes of the world on England in 2012, lets make sure local residents become your spokespeople. The ambassadors on your doorstep!

Get involved...

You may be running a bed and breakfast establishment, pub, café, local attraction or be the managing director of a national hotel or restaurant chain. Every action counts and this guide will give you some ideas of how you can take advantage of English Tourism Week 2012 (ETW12) to promote your business along with the key messages.   It might be that you already run an annual event that you can move into ETW12. It doesn’t have to be big or costly.  The simplest ideas can be really effective.
 
VisitEngland will be supporting ETW12 via a national publicity campaign and working through destination management teams and your trade associations.  By organising your own event under the English Tourism Week 2012 campaign you will raise the profile of your business and be adding to the combined efforts of the week to raise awareness with local residents, their visitors and key decision makers. Get involved and inspire the ambassadors on your doorsetp to enjoy your England! 

Obviously it depends what sort of tourism business or organisation you are but have a look at the following list and either take one of the ideas from it, adapt one to suit you or perhaps it will inspire you to do something completely original!

Host your own event

• Friday is Constituency Day so why not write to your MP and get them to come behind the scenes and find out about how your business works
• Invite your Mayor, Council leader and/or other local VIPs to come and pull a pint, change a bed, sell admission tickets
• Mothers Day falls on Sunday 18 March why not host a Mothers Day event as part of ETW12
• Stage a local wine/beer festival
• Free guided walks for locals to get to know their own tourism product are really popular
• Organise a fancy dress event with a tourism theme
• Run Pub quizzes, perhaps “How well do you know England?” (or tourism on your doorstep?)
• Go for a Guinness World Record attempt (e.g. the longest conga dance on a pier; the biggest “Mexican Wave” in a local park or attraction, the largest number of people singing “Jerusalem;” world’s biggest paper and comb or Kazoo orchestra)
• Organise a coffee morning/afternoon tea (perhaps in aid of a local/national charity) with a tourism theme
• Encourage School visits to local tourism businesses, attractions, food producers – help students to understand the wide range of opportunities open to them in the industry
• Host a simple reception for your local VIPs (MP, Mayor, Councillors etc)
• Get your Rotary/Round Table/Lions Club to hold an event or charity fund-raising for another local good cause with a tourism theme
• Hold a Press conference to highlight a current or future issue of your tourism business
• Your restaurant/pub/hotel/attraction could be the venue for a Charity fashion show organised by local retailers with an English holiday theme
  

Create a competition

• Run a local Tourism Awards ceremony – find the most welcoming or knowledgeable local (it could be a taxi driver, hotel worker, tourist guide or you!)
• A Photographic competition (winning pictures featured on next town guide cover or tourism website) is easy to organise especially if you have a good helpful local photographic retailer
• Run a competition for children on your local area – maybe to design a poster to promote your local tourism offer
• Run a shop window competition with an English holiday/local tourism theme
  

Provide a themed offer

• Offer special menus/promotions and offers – maybe a local food menu or “traditional English dishes menu”
• Run a Mothers Day themed offer for Sunday 18 March 2012
• Adopt a school (businesses working with local schools/colleges – give talks about tourism, cookery demonstrations etc)
• Give a talk on food miles/local producers market or displays – highlight the food miles awareness campaign
• Local breweries could run special tours, tastings, heritage event, maybe create a special brew
  invite your twin town over during English Tourism Week
• offer visitors discounts and special offers during the “Wonderful Weekend”
• Work with your TIC to provide free tours of the local area starting and finishing at a focal tourism point
• Offer tours of any buildings not normally open to the Public
• Accommodation offers work well – special English Tourism Week breaks, rates or added value offers