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GUEST

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We need to have more collaboration between tourist boards and tour operators.

We need to support one another in order to maximise the tourism potential of our destinations

PAULEVANS

I have always found the different methods each country uses to promote itself fascinating.

Tourist boards are there to represent the tourism and cultural aspects of their country, yet they also influence social, economic and political decisions. The tourist board director has to be multi-talented. He or she has to run a UK office, deal with head office, track sales, and deploy a budget, as well as listen to trade opinion on how to promote the destination.

The best directors are those who have the confidence of head office, who are left in situ long enough to learn the market, gain the respect of the industry and genuinely influence decisions regarding how a destination is perceived. They also have the consistency of personnel at head office, backed by governments that understand the value of leisure and are prepared to give sufficient budgets.

The trade should be consulted more on their campaigns run in the UK. As a tour operator you are looking for support for marketing activities, help with emergencies, and local contacts both in government and the private sector. But above all, you need a shared interest in your programme.

Too much time can be spent in London offices, resulting in a southern bias, with meagre interest in regional capacities.

Excessive money and time spent promoting themes, which while diverse and even product enhancing, are not the key drivers behind UK holidaymakers’ decisions to visit their country.

Tourist boards need to better understand and support credible risk. Greater resources should be spent on retaining travellers. It is understandable why countries want to tell us about bicycling here or opera there, or off-season campaigns, but only if this is in addition to support for their main business.

Could they do more to influence their governments on taxes, often imposed at short notice after brochures have been costed? I am pleased that, with the efforts of the Federation of Tour Operators and ABTA, the industry is proving an effective voice to resist what was once seen as a soft touch.

There still continues to be insufficient proactive contact between tourist boards and operators. I have never been sure if the customer chooses the property, the destination, the type of holiday, the operator, the brand or the agent first. With the new routes to market, they should do more to show how they are adapting to this new access to choice. We all need to be enthused about a destination to want to go and see it; the local tourist boards have to set out that framework.

“The trade should be consulted more on their campaigns run in the UK”