A Message from Marc Etches - August 2010

Welcome to our August newsletter,

We were delighted to hear the Prime Minister’s speech recently declaring the Government’s new commitment to the tourism industry.

It is clear to see that David Cameron values tourism as a fundamental contributor towards rebuilding our economy; Visit Lincolnshire shares and supports his vision to use the opportunities of the next decade and the 2012 Games as a way of increasing the UK’s and Lincolnshire’s international appeal for travel and tourism.

At VL we continue to champion the visitor economy at a local level, and hearing David Cameron describe tourism as“first class priority at the front and centre of Britain’s economic strategy” offers growing support for the industry at a national level.

The most significant part of David Cameron’s speech outlines the Government’s view that tourism should be a local industry. Their aspiration is to create new Local Enterprise Partnerships, allowing local people and entrepreneurs more responsibility and control over how tourism is developed in each local area.

In the future a new set of incentives will be proposed for local authorities – including options for business rate incentives allowing local authorities to reinvest the benefits of growth back into their local communities. Visit Lincolnshire will ensure it is central within these discussions to represent the best interests of all concerned in the local visitor economy.

We wish you a busy and successful summer,

Marc Etches
Interim Chief Executive, Visit Lincolnshire

Prime Ministers Speech on Tourism – August 2010

The Prime Minister has delivered a speech (12th August) declaring the Government’s new commitment to tourism, in the light of the opportunities and challenges facing the UK as we progress towards 2012.

He outlined how tourism is now a first class priority at the front and centre of our economic strategy, as an export earner with international visitors and with a strong domestic market. He also stressed how fundamental the industry will be to the rebuilding and rebalancing of our economy.

He recognised that the 2012 Games and the coming decade of great international sporting events across Britain, with all that Britain has to offer, is an unprecedented opportunity. But, to ensure that this opportunity is not missed, as an industry there is still much that needs to be done to improve perceptions of Britain at home and overseas.

Over the coming months the Government will be working on ‘the strongest possible tourism strategy’ looking at:
- What the Government does nationally
- The role of local government and the support of the local area
- How we stimulate the private sector in tourism
- How we make policy in other areas that will impact the tourism industry

At a national level, the dedicated Minister for Tourism and Heritage, John Penrose will lead a new relationship with the tourism industry, showing the Government gets tourism and understands the huge potential of the industry.

In spite of the current tough times meaning tough decisions, he is keen to ensure that these decisions will serve us in the long-term.

However, the Government views tourism as a local industry and their aspiration is for new Local Enterprise Partnerships to allow local people and entrepreneurs more responsibility and control over how tourism is developed in each local area.

A new set of incentives will be proposed for local authorities – including options for business rate incentives allowing local authorities to reinvest the benefits of growth back into their local communities.

The right local incentives should also help to stimulate the private sector. In addition to the reduction in red tape and excessive business taxes planned, the Prime Minister sees tourism bids as potentially key beneficiaries of the new £1 billion regional growth fund.

He will also look across Government at the policies that impact tourism in a big way – visas, airport security, infrastructure – not as isolated issues, but from the perspective of both the domestic and international tourism industry.

Finally, he committed John Penrose to work with the industry, bringing together all your best ideas, to develop a tourism strategy by the end of the year, with the goal of setting Britain on a path to break into the world’s top five tourist destinations.

Read the full speech.

Extracted from VisitBritain’s news bulletin.

Funding opportunities - rural broadband

A new funding opportunity to help businesses get better rural broadband service has been launched.

Emda is launching the Rural Broadband Fund, funded through the Rural Development Programme for England. This fund seeks to support the government’s objective that Britain should have the best superfast broadband network in Europe.

The funding can contribute towards developing innovative approaches that address existing gaps in rural broadband coverage.

These approaches can include:

Community broadband projects
- Projects that seek to upgrade existing infrastructure to exceed the proposed Universal Service Commitment speed of 2Mbit/s
- Projects that enable early deployment of next generation compatible solutions

The funding is aimed at businesses that can access match funding of 15K minimum.

For more information please visit emda’s website.

Lincolnshire Day 2010 – promote your business

Lincolnshire Day will celebrate everything Lincolnshire throughout October 2010.

We’d like to share the information with you, and encourage you to get involved to promote your business and the county to residents and visitors alike.

Your support can be as big or as small as you want. Over the last few years Lincolnshire businesses, schools and community groups have got involved in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways.

Cafés and restaurants have served dedicated Lincolnshire menus where all the ingredients are grown in the county - even down to the sugar in the coffee!

Other businesses have asked their staff to wear yellow for the day in honour of the county's Yellow Belly historical roots; or they have flown the Lincolnshire Flag.

What you do is entirely up to you - we just want to inspire you to join us to celebrate Lincolnshire Day.

Decided to celebrate Lincolnshire Day – don’t forget to submit your event on the website!

A dedicated Lincolnshire Day website has been launch to act as the hub of information for the event. Visitors and businesses can visit the site to see what events and activities are taking place.

For more information visit the Lincolnshire Day website and submit your events to events@lincolnshireday.co.uk

Vote Lincolnshire in Best Beach hut Competition UK

There is a national competition to crown the UK’s best beach hut and we’d like your support to put Lincolnshire’s beach huts on their shortlist.

If a Lincolnshire beach hut scooped the top prize the county would receive national media attention and endorsements from influential coastal commentators. This would help raise Lincolnshire profile and would attract more visitors to the county’s coastline.

To celebrate their colourful presence on our coastline people are being asked to put forward their ‘Beach Hut of the Year’ in a competition that will see five coastal regions go head to head for the coveted award.

Entries can be submitted on theBest Kept Hut, Best Design, Beach Hut Hero and Best Beach Hut Name at www.beachhutoftheyear.co.uk.

With over 20,000 beach huts in the UK there are plenty to choose from and entries are welcome from individuals, councils, regional tourist boards or beach hut associations. The public can take part by visiting the website and voting for their favourites.

For more information visit the Beach hut of the Year website – don’t forget to pass it on to friends.

Get yourself on the Guardian’s tourist map for free

As part of VisitEngland’s partnership with the Guardian newspaper they have produced an interactive tourist map which they are asking people to populate with their favourite places to visit from all over the UK.

This is a perfect opportunity for you to put your business onto the tourist map and highlight yourself and Lincolnshire to the millions of people who log onto the Guardian’s website every day. You can see the interactive tourist map on the Guardian’s travel website and also on VisitEngland’s website.

In order to build on the great information already submitted by Guardian readers, VisitEngland is encouraging Visit Lincolnshire to pass the interactive map onto our businesses and partners.

Information on the map could also be used to feed news article into the Guardian’s travel supplements that are printed every weekend.

It would be great if you could support the map and pass it on to others who can help us grow the Lincolnshire profile.

Upload your information now into the interactive tourist map, once you have updated one website it will automatically update the other.

Dates for your Diary

Visit Lincolnshire’s AGM - Wednesday 13 October 2010- RAF Scampton- 10.00 am for a 10.30 am start
Come and join us at our Annual General Meeting to hear about our 2010-11 plans, plus key achievements from 2009/10. The keynote speaker is Wing Commander Alex Stylianides, Station Commander at RAF Scampton. Attendees will enjoy a tour of the historical museum and infamous Red Arrows. For more information please contact Sharon Stone on 01522 561661 or sharon@visitlincolnshire.com

Think Family – 21 September 2010 – Grimsthorpe Castle – 10.00 am to 4.00 pm
An inspiring and stimulating day to find new ways of making your business truly welcoming and enticing to families. This workshop is being run in conjunction with Lincolnshire Heritage Forum.

Welcome Host Plus - NEW – 30 September 2010 – Rand Farm Park – 9.15 am to 4.00 pm - Fully booked
Part of the Welcome to Excellence programme, Welcome Host Plus is a one day training programme which aims to build on and extend knowledge and skills in customer service and communication to give your organisation competitive edge – limited spaces available.

Places of Interest Quality Assurance Scheme (PIQAS) – NEW – 3 November 2010 – Metheringham Airfield - 10.45am to 4pm
PIQAS is a valuable management and marketing tool for all places of interest and smaller attraction operators. The service meets the needs of places of interest and smaller attractions whether volunteer run, charity organisations, unmanned sites or natural features in the landscape. This accreditation is the next step up from Code of Practice.

Leaflet Swap and Working Together for the Games – 15 November 2010 – South Holland Centre, Spalding – 10.15 am to 3.30 pm
Come and join us for the autumn leaflet swap, and following on from the conference in July, we will be hosting a ‘mini’ conference for Working Together for the Games. Hear an update from VisitBritain on how your business can benefit from the forthcoming Games and other national sporting events coming to the UK in the next few years, together with the launch of Lincolnshire’s 2012 Strategy.

Staying One Step Ahead (Accessibility) – 25 November 2010 – Petwood Hotel – Times to be confirmed
This workshop isn’t about disability – it’s about helping you to offer a more accessible business to a wide range of potential visitors – those less mobile, families and elderly guests in an easy-to-achieve, low cost way.

For more information and booking forms for any of the above please contact Sharon Stone on 01522 561661 or email sharon@visitlincolnshire.com

Inspire Olympic mark open more opportunities for your business

We want to encourage as many businesses as possible to apply for the London 2012 Inspire Mark.

The London 2012 Inspire Mark enables non-commercial organisations across the UK to link their events and projects to the London 2012 Games - Visit Lincolnshire was awarded the Inspire Mark in July 2010 for our business conference ‘Working together for the Games’.

The aim behind the Inspire programme is to involve as many people as possible in the 2012 Games. Once an Inspire Mark has been awarded it will enable businesses and event organisers to take advantage of a number of marketing opportunities surrounding the 2012 Games.

If you sign up, you’re event and business will join a broad participation programme spanning sport events, education, sustainability, volunteering, business opportunities and skill.

If you are planning an event, festival or activities that could be linked to the 2012 games; or you want to sign up for the Inspire Mark please email EmmaBurke@emd.org.uk or visit the Inspire website.

Lincolnshire currently has 13 Inspire Marks assigned to events and businesses that are supporting the 2012 Games.

Across the region, the East Midlands have 83 Marks. If we can raise Lincolnshire’s support for the 2012 Games it will raise the county’s profile in the run up to the games. In the long term this could also enhance Lincolnshire’s national reputation as a county to do business with and a place to visit.

Congratulation to our advertising winner

Congratulations to our lucky advertisers who won a discount of £150 for 2011's visitor guide adverts.

Like the sound of this – well, you could be in with a chance of winning a discounted 2012 advert by placing an order for one in 2011.

For more information on advertising please contact Dan Pounds on 01522 561674 or email Dan@visitlincolnshire.com.

The winners are:
Visit Lincolnshire 2010 – Dove Cottage, Self Catering in the Lincolnshire Wolds
Skegness and Mablethorpe 2010 – The Ramblers Guest House, Trusthorpe
Discover Rutland 2010 – Lands End Outlet Store, Rutland
Wake up to Cleethorpes 2010 – Aristocrat Guest House, Cleethorpes

Value of tourism in Lincolnshire reaches £971 million – 14% of the overall economy

Newly published research shows the value of tourism within Lincolnshire’s visitor economy last year was worth £971 million – an increase of £13 million (1.3%) compared with 2008- and contributes 14% to the county’s overall economy, second only to the food industry.

The total number of seaside and attraction related tourist visits to Lincolnshire increased by 200,000 to 17.2 million creating 349 new jobs.Visit Lincolnshire, who has released these results in partnership with East Midlands Tourism, is the organisation that champions tourism and the wider visitor economy across the county with support from local authorities, tourism businesses and other stakeholders.

Marc Etches, Interim Chief Executive of Visit Lincolnshire said “This is good news. Our marketing campaigns promoting Lincolnshire as a place to visit have delivered excellent results earning £44 for every pound spent. More than 17,000 jobs depend on holiday and attraction related tourism across Lincolnshire and it is vital that we all recognise the economic value of this industry sector.”

Last year Lincolnshire Tourism rebranded itself as Visit Lincolnshire and relaunched the website VisitLincolnshire.com. In addition, the organisation improved the quality of the county’s flagship visitor guides; launched online booking opportunities for businesses; generated extensive national and regional PR and launched Visit Lincolnshire’s social media activity.

The research shows that Lincolnshire’s most significant visitor spend is on shopping (22%) (grown to £210 million from £202 million) and food and drink (18%) (grown to £173 million in 2009 from £165 million in 2008).

The largest increase in visitor spend is in recreational activities an increase of 9% from the previous year.

“The growth in visitor spend on shopping, food and drink and other recreational activities outline the importance of recognising that traditional tourism is one element of the wider visitor economy which includes business and education related tourism as well as events, sports, cultural and other leisure activity,” continued Marc Etches.

“Local knowledge is a vital ingredient to future success not least because 34% of overnight stays in Lincolnshire were in the homes of friends or relatives.”

“Despite this success we must not be complacent; there is still a need to keep Lincolnshire fresh and competitive against other destinations. Since 2009 we’ve upped our game and we’re looking forward to exceeding these figures next year by continuing to work closely with our members and partners.”

Cllr Eddy Poll, Executive Councilor for Cultural Services at Lincolnshire County Council said: 'The County Council has always placed great importance on the value of tourism to Lincolnshire, and this news is very encouraging. Our commitment to tourism and our drive to get the best out of our attractions has obviously succeeded and we hope that even more people will visit in the future to enjoy our beautiful county.'

Notes to Editors: For more information please contact Charlotte Goy, Media Executive for Visit Lincolnshire on 01522 561670 or charlotte@visitlincolnshire.com

Visit Lincolnshire is the organisation set up to market Lincolnshire as a visitor destination. It was formally known as Lincolnshire Tourism.

Visit Lincolnshire works in partnership with VisitBritain, East Midlands Tourism, Lincolnshire County Council, all local district authorities, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire Councils, plus all tourism businesses.

The latest estimate of people working in Lincolnshire in 2009 is 316,400 people, this relates to 73% of the working age population, 5.4% of which are tourism jobs. (Lincolnshire Research Observatory)

Research published by Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) reports that the Lincolnshire Coast has 8,900 year-round jobs directly supported by seaside tourism – the eighth highest for any county in England.

The research which was commissioned by East Midlands Tourism, East Midlands Development Agency’s tourism arm, also shows the estimated number of tourist visits to the region, including both day and overnight visits, rose by 320,000 to 141.7 million in 2009.

The research was conducted by Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor (STEAM) and in the sixth major consecutive study into the economic impact of tourism at a regional and county level and is based on 2009 data.

Key findings

• 2.02 million overnight-staying tourists visited Lincolnshire in 2009, spending 9.53 million nights in commercial tourist accommodation, both serviced and non-serviced.


• 1.06 million visitors stayed some 2.51 million nights with friends and relative (SFR) in Lincolnshire.


• Overnight visitors spent £562.03 million in Lincolnshire with day visitors spending a further £409.61 million.


• The temporary 2.5% reduction in the standard VAT rate had an impact on the total amount of VAT paid by visitors on tourism-related goods and services. The amount of VAT generated by tourism activity declined by 11% to £94.5 million.


• Approximately 13,905 jobs (full time equivalents) were directly supported by tourist expenditure in Lincolnshire and a further 3,270 jobs were supported by indirect revenue from tourism.


• Average expenditures per day per tourist category are as follows: serviced (i.e. hotels and B&Bs): £92.44; non-serviced (i.e. self-catering): £41.51; SFR: £38.11; and, day visitors: £28.87.


• Day visitors coming to Lincolnshire account for 42 % of the total tourism revenue. Seasonality also influenced the number of day visitors that Lincolnshire received, rising from a low of 567,200 visitors in December to a peak of 2.65 million in August.


• Although the number of sleeping spaces in serviced accommodation remained at 13,451 throughout the calendar year, there was a significant variance though in the number of maximum non-serviced sleeping spaces available from a low of 27,288 in January to a peak of 61,103 in July and August.

Photography competition rally’s local support for the Visit Lincolnshire guide 2011

Visit Lincolnshire is delighted with the local support it has received to pick a new cover images for the Visit Lincolnshire Guide 2011.

Encouraging local residents and visitors to take part in the production of the 2011 guide has helped promote the work VL does for the wider visitor economy and the role of the flagship guide has in promoting the county as a tourist destination.

The competition was launched in May through the local media and Visit Lincolnshire’s social media channels.

More local press coverage will be drip fed at significant stages of the competition when the cover shot is chosen, designed into the front cover and eventually printed.

In July the bar was raised for quality competition entries when the current 2010 guide’s cover scooped a prestigious national industry award for Brochure Cover of the Year from the British Resorts and Destinations Association (BRADA) annual conference.

Commenting on the entries for the competition Emma Tatlow Deputy Chief Executive and Head of Marketing said “We were thrilled to receive 128 entries for the competition. There was a fantastic array of different shots from all over the county. Choosing a winner, and taking into consideration the public vote is certainly going to be tough.

“By promoting the shortlisted images through our facebook social media channel we are encourage more people to join as VL’s Facebook friends. In the short term this will allow people to post comments about the photos in this competition – and in the future we’ll have grown our list of Visit Lincolnshire friends who will be kept up to date with the latest county news.”

The winning photo for the guide will be printed on 70,000 visitor guides and distributed all over the UK.

The guide attracts visitors to Lincolnshire for short breaks boosting the value of Lincolnshire’s Visitor Economy, currently £958 million.

Latest campaign evaluation showed that 95% of visitors said previous guides had influenced their decision to visit – making the selection of a front cover essential to its success.

The 20 shortlisted images for the cover have been whittled down to four. Out of these four the winner will be announced in the next few weeks.

Lincolnshire stands out in the Guardian’s special seaside travel supplement

We’re delighted with the lastest stand out national coverage we have secured for the Lincolnshire Coast in the Guardain travel section (Saturday 7 August 2010).

The article was generated by a press trip secured and deliverd by Visit Lincolnshire aiming to highlight the Lincolnshire coast to a national audience.

Working with Martin Hoenle, owner and designer of the chic coastal chalet Twenty-Six at Anderby Creek, as well as other Visit Lincolnshire members we devised a weekend itinerary that guided the journalist around the coast and Lincolnshire Wolds.

The article clearly directs readers to useful website and telephone numbers encouraging them to make bookings following the excellent independant endorsements of the jouranlist Patrick Barkham.

This press trip is the latest media coverage for the coastal campaign. In the coming weeks we will continue to promote the Lincolnshire Coast with the Bathing Beauties Festival in Mablethorpe (featured on national BBC Breakfast news last week) and North East Lincolnshire’s Cultural Festival with Lit.com and the art exhibition at Abbey Walk Gallery entitled ‘Out of the Dark’.

Read the Guardians full article and let us know what you think by posting a message on this blog.

We’d like to thank all the businesses who help Visit Lincolnshire deliver this press trip.

VL champions coastal tourism

A local press title has published a good news article, generated by Visit Lincolnshire, about the positive impact coastal tourism is having on the wider visitor economy of the county.

The story originated from a national tourism report issued by Sheffield Hallam University in July and focused on the growth potential of coastal tourism throughout the UK.

Visit Lincolnshire worked with East Lindsey District Council to ensure this national data could be used at a local level to demonstrate the strength and growth potential of the county’s visitor economy in the wake of the national recession.

Read the full article here….

"This article not only embraces the visitor economy concept, it also highlights Visit Lincolnshire’s role in uniting stakeholders, members and tourism businesses to grow the economy in the future, ’’ said Emma Tatlow, Deputy Cheif Executive and Head of Marketing at Visit Lincolnshire.

Local and international PR success for Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire

Visit Lincolnshire’s newly hosted Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire (AHL) team has reported one of its most successful months to date after organising three high profile internally attended tributes and two open presentations about Lincolnshire’s contribution to Fighter Command during WWII.


In late June and early July, three events were planned by AHL at RAF bases and heritage sites round the county.

Local press coverage was generated by AHL and VL around these events. This included a three night special series on BBC Look North and further coverage on ITV Calendar news, Radio Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire Echo and online BBC News.

The series of events has also sparked future interest in potential visits to the county from overseas. One strand of this is an opportunity to include the former RAF base at Hemswell and the base at Kirton in Lindsey as part of an American heritage trail in the north of the county.


Contacts have also been established between AHL and the RAF Museum’s American Foundation.In addition, following publicity of the events over in Canada, a Canadian veteran and former pilot has made enquiries about organising a group tour to Lincolnshire by former member of the Canadian Air Force in 2011.Building these relationships is key to developing the work of AHL.

New guide is launched for VL’s City Breaks campaign

A brand new ‘Welcome to Lincoln’ glossy lifestyle magazine has been launched to bring more visitors into Lincoln, and inspire local residents to enjoy their city this summer.

30,000 copies of the publication which has been produced by Visit Lincolnshire in partnership with Lincoln Business Improvement Group are being distributed to accommodation providers, shops and eateries around the city.

Its aim is to fill a gap in the market by providing the latest information about summer events and activities in an easy to read and inspiring format, to bring summer in the city of Lincoln to life for its readers.

Emma Tatlow, Deputy Chief Executive and Head of Marketing at Visit Lincolnshire said “Feedback on the new ‘Welcome to Lincoln’ guide has been very positive; it is a practical guide to the city that readers will want to keep throughout the summer months – and beyond.

“The guide is one element of our city breaks campaign which is raising the profile of Lincoln as a visitor destination – aiming to grow Lincoln’s visitor economy and encourage residents of the city and the wider county to explore what is on their doorstep. The guide is supported by an award winning website Visitlincolnshire.com as well as social media, PR and national press adverts.”

Matt Corrigan from Lincoln Business Improvement Group (BIG) added,

“We are delighted with the support we have received from local businesses for this guide, and the guide compliments the new visitor map Lincoln BIG published last year. Overall we are starting to build the portfolio of information that Lincoln needs to be a serious tourism destination.”

The guide is the first of a series planned to promote the city through the seasons. It will be followed by the Lincoln at Christmas brochure in November.

A competition to win a luxury cheese hamper from the Cheese Society in Lincoln has been included in the guide.