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Is Tourism "On The Rocks"??
Date: 29 Mar, 2008 15:24
For over 25 years my family business has supplied holiday cancellation insurance to the UK tourism industry. Thousands of establishments of all types have used our schemes to protect their bookings. Due to our close relationship with the industry and because of the personal nature of our business we are speaking to0 tourism operators on a daily basis. Reports coming in to us for some months are not indicative of a healthy and growing tourism business. Many operators are closing down as they just cannot make any money due to a lack of visitors. Only this week we have had a report from a hotelier established over 20 years saying she has never known such a low leval of bookings at this time of year and regulars for many years not returning. In the same day though we had 3 95 year olds booking their summer holiday - abroad. Our records go back over 25 years and our turnover on UK business has never been as low indicating a perilous state of affairs within the UK industry. This is backed up by piles of notices from UK holiday businesses advising us they have closed down.
I despair when I see all around me here in the west Country how much we have to offer from the weekend activity break to a longer holiday. OK so it rains but there are lots of folk out there who just want to "chill out" and do nothing but reuperate from the stresses of businesses with a good book, a good bar and good food and we have all that in abundance so why arent we attracting the customers. Over the years the great and the good have talked about regeneration, rebranding allthough I have to say most of what they say makes little sense to ordinary folk in the industry who simply want "bums in beds". Maybe parts of the industry are a bit old fashioned with the vomit patterned carpets and the like but without a profitable trade they cannot afford to invest to become the trendy boutiquey places that losts of our customers want. But there are still customers out there and its up to the industry to attract them and this is, I feel where we let ourselves down. Its unbelievable the people I meet who on holiday in the westCountry for the first time say "we never realised it was so nice". Ok many of you will agree but will then say what should we be doing and the sad fact is that the industry has never been in a better pole position to "sell itself" that we are in at this moment. The answer stares us in the face pretty much every day in the national new media and yes its the internet but more specifically sites like UTube which point the way forward. The proof is surely in the UTube posting of an interview with a USA Beauty Queen contestant that to date has had over 34 million views. B.....y hell 34 million and not a rude word in hearing and no nudity but 34 million people have clicked on this because its amusing, innovative and funny. Imagine a 2 to 3 minute video clip on UTube of your tourism product attarcting 34 million hits and salivate over the bookings you might attract with the riight offering. This is where the industry should be concentrating its effort and it's all very possible. I have recently launched a web site that allows anyone to capitalise on this phenomena of "video" and use it to market and promote tourism. To get you thinking I also cite the Blender Company that made the simplest short video and posted it on the web and within months had exploded turnover beyond their wildest expectations. The reports are out there in all the worlds media at how businesses and individuals are selling product at rates never before dreamt of with this simple technology.
The UK tourism industry could do the same and the sad thing is most of the footage promoting our regions, resorts and localities is quite probably available at no cost but it needs the people who lead the industry to show some initiative and use some innovative thinking. I have told many that I can help them get FREE film footage but they dont seem to want to know. We give an indication of how this can be done on our web site(www.video4tourism.co.uk) but nobody seems to want to bother. Recently I offered to put some FREE video at no cost whatsoever on one Counties web site and they could'nt even be bothered to take up may offer.
I believe the UK industry really is at a dangerous point and this summer could be a time when we see the season and visitor numbers shrink even further. Its to b......y important to ingore. Is anybody out there interested or should we just offer our foreign competitors carte blanche to take our customers. You never know the PC brigade may decide we are contavening somebodies human rights if we adopt a more competitive and business like attitude.
Apologies if I have offended anyone but I really do think the current situation is just to important to ignore and its time the industry woke up to the fact that we can fight back. We have the product and now we have the tools to take on the world. The question is do we have the leadership and the will?