Visit The Tamar Valley Destination Marketing Plan 2019 – 2021

Bridging Devon and Cornwall

Contents

1.Vision and Objectives

1.1 Vision

1.2 Objectives

2. Current Situation and Visitor Research

2.1 Current Situation

2.2 Visitor Research

2.3 What is the Tamar Valley area?

3. Target Market

3.1 Day Visitor

3.2 UK Staying Visitors

3.3 International Visitors

4. Marketing Strategy

4.1 Online destination marketing

4.1.1 Website

4.1.2 Social Media

4.1.3 Consumer Enewsletters

4.2 Offline marketing

4.2.1 Print and Maps

4.2.2 Public Relations

4.2.3 Marketing Campaigns

4.3 Monitoring Marketing Performance

5. Partnerships

6. Budget

7. Conclusion and Summary

1.Vision and Objectives 0.1. Vision

To support tourism businesses and local partners in the Tamar Valley area and help increase visitors numbers and spend to this wonderful protective landscape which bridges Devon and Cornwall.

1.2 Objectives

To redevelop the destination website www.welovethetamarvalley.co.uk to showcase the area as a top visitor destination in the South West Region – new website www.visittamarvalley.co.uk

Develop thematic marketing campaigns to showcase the landscape and tourism products available in the area and to help increase short break visitors to help boast the local economy.

Build a comprehensive events calendar on the website to help encourage more visitors and longer stays. This will help shape future marketing activity.

Work with local stakeholders/town councils and key tourism organisations in the Tamar Valley area to help increase awareness of the Tamar Valley brand as a key destination to visit.

To develop a new visual identity – Visit The Tamar Valley with a strapline Bridging Devon and Cornwall.

2 Current Situation and Visitor Research

2.1 Current Situation

The Tamar Valley Tourism Association has been in operation for 18 years. TAVATA operates as an Association and not a limited company or CIC. The membership is currently 218 and has increased and decreased over the years – highest being 243 members in 2016. TAVATA is not funding by any local town councils or LA’s but receives £200 per year for the production of a map from Callington, Launceston and Saltash. TAVATA operates as a committee with 10 Committee members which are voted in and they meet once a month. TAVATA is now outsourcing social media and website activity. There will need to be a strong focus on delivery once this plan is agreed to look at how/who will be delivering this marketing activity. At present tasks are divided up throughout the committee in terms of matching skill sets to tasks. This may not be possible once this plan is in place due to the increase of activity which will need to be delivered, this will need to be considered by the Committee. There is a desire now throughout TAVATA to rebrand and to look at calling themselves Visit Tamar Valley for both consumer and B2B marketing. The website is currently We Love the Tamar Valley, which is mixed messages to the visitor and tourism businesses in the area. Destinations like Bristol and Cornwall are called just Visit Cornwall for both Consumer and B2B purposes. The marketing plan section will look at factoring this in to move TAVATA to be Visit Tamar

Valley. Visual identities are already being looked at by the committee and aim to have one B2B and Consumer identity like Visit Cornwall and Visit Devon by the end of 2019.

The current membership of TAVATA includes attendance at networking events, social media inclusion and a listing on the website. There will be a map produced this year to replace the existing range of leaflets. The cost of membership is approx. £60 a year.

Once this plan has been agreed and activity is being scheduled in, I would advise a review of the membership fee as members will be getting a lot more for their money due to the significant increase in marketing activity.

2.2 Visitor Research

Existing visitor data from Tamar Valley ANOB (2016) - South West Research Company

72, 000 Staying Visitor Trips

305, 000 Staying visitor nights

£13, 573, 000 Staying visitor spend

606,000 Day visits

£14, 791, 000 Day visit spend

£28, 364 000 Direct visitor spend

£676, 000 other visitor spend

£29, 040, 000 TOTAL VISTOR SPEND

Value of the Tamar Valley Line per year - £13 million – Source – Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership

Note – There has been no visitor research done on the Tamar Valley to see what the demographic of the visitor is eg, UK, international, over 50’s, empty nesters, buzz seekers, outdoor enthusiast, etc. We have no visitor profile to work on to look at who we should target the audience. This should form part of the discussions with local towns and stakeholders as visitor research is key for economic growth.

2.3 What is the Tamar Valley area ?

485m of footpaths through the AONB

Tamar Trails covers 25km and 127 KM of Public Rights of Ways

The Tamar Valley is located on the border of Cornwall and Devon, and includes the lower valleys of the Tamar, Tavy and Lynher. The larger section, around the rivers Tamar and Tavy, extends north from the broad estuary at Plymouth to the intricate, deeply incised river meanders just below Launceston and Tavistock. It borders Dartmoor National Park to the east and takes in Kit Hill to the west. The section around the River Lynher stretches west from Saltash and Torpoint to St Germans in south-east Cornwall. (taken from Tamar Valley ANOB)

Heritage Destinations in the Tamar Valley AONB:

27 Scheduled Monuments

649 Listed Buildings

4 Registered Parks & Gardens

14 Conservation Areas

16.5% of the AONB is within the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site 3,961 entries on the Historic Environment Records of Devon and Cornwall

Key historic towns in the Tamar Valley – Tavistock, Launceston, Saltash, Callington, Gunnislake

The AONB area only covers about 20% of the Tamar Valley area. The Tamar Valley stretches from Bude to Plymouth – encompassing the area surrounding the River Tamar to its source.

The above points are key when looking at marketing the area and pulling out the key USP’s of the destination due to the size of the area. More work needs to be done to describe the area of the Tamar Valley and the key USB’s.

3. Target Market

As mentioned above there has been no visitor research completed for the Tamar Valley to see who the visitor is.

The target audience should fit the profile of the tourism product of the destination – eg Walking , landscapes, outdoor , heritage,

We have also undertaken a very small visitor survey to our members to get a feel of the type of visitor who comes to the Tamar Valley and their interests as we have no official data to refer to back to.

Members Survey – May/June 2019

A brief survey went out to members to gauge the marketing channels they use and what they would like to see from TAVATA. 40 responses back

Top 3 things to see in do in the Tamar Valley – General Sightseeing, walking and Visiting attractions.

90 % of Visitors are coming from UK and less than 10% from US

Which marketing channels are important to you – 80% website, with Facebook second

100% said yes to seeing TAVATA delivering marketing campaigns as a step forward.

65% bookable online

What more can TAVATA do – more marketing, raising awareness of the area. FB promotions

No visitor stats from local towns in the Tamar Valley.

Referring back to the 2016 Visitor Data from South West Research Company we receive the same amount of money from over night stays as we do from day visitors but the overnight stay visits are half the amount of day visitors. There is a need to look at increasing overnight stay visitors as they spend more and have less impact on the environment. The marketing plan should focus on short break stays to increase spend. This also dovetails into the Tamar Valley ANOB Management Plan document released this year. Conservation working hand in hand with tourism and the visitor economic impact should be clear through the marketing messages.

3.1 Day Visitors

In 2016 the Tamar Valley received 606,000 Day visits with a visitor spend of £14, 791, 000 Day

3.2 UK Staying Visitors

In 2016 the Tamar Valley area received 305, 000 Staying visitor night with a visitor spend of £13, 573, 000

The Tamar Valley has a high number of accommodation stock and self catering product which can accommodate a short break and longer stay in the area. This needs reflecting through the marketing messages and should help influent the future marketing campaigns.

Member accommodation stock - 21 B & Bs; 44 Holiday Cottages/SC; 12 Hotels and 6 Camping and Caravan members. D

Audience location

Midlands, Bristol, South West? South Wales, London – to be confirmed. These should also connect with transport gateways and connectivity to the Tamar Valley.

Audience Interest

Families

Outdoor Enthuiasts

Buzz Seekers

Over 50’s

Visit Friends and Relatives

Key Focuses – this should tie in with marketing USP’s

Accommodation – looking at the mix of catered and self catered.

Walking

Landscape

Heritage

Food and Drink

Unique experiences

3.3 International Visitor

Partnerships and awareness of what is happening at a regional and national level in terms of international marketing and changes in Tourism needs to a priority for the organization.

How are we connected with Mayflower 2020, Discover England Fund projects with Visit Cornwall and Visit Devon? Connections with Visit Cornwall and Visit Devon should be made to allow us to tap into their international marketing campaigns. Are we looking at US, Near Europe markets? This needs to be defined as it will also help us when devising a digital strategy.

Connections with OTA’s eg Expedia, Air BNB, Viator and the new TXGB platform through Visit Britain will be key factors over the next 12 months to ensure the Tamar Valley has a voice in the international market. These key national messages needs to be feed down to our members so they are aware of what is happening in the bigger picture.

4 Marketing Strategy

We need to ensure we are promoting the Tamar Valley using the highlights in section 2.3 and phasing in the new Visit Tamar Valley identity and strapline throughout all our digital platforms

4.1 Online Destination Marketing

4.1.1 Website

At present the website is managed by Clare Associates with updates from them. This is done on a goodwill gesture and minimal payments for hosting and amends. Clare Associates also have a seat on the TAVATA committee but will be stepping down in Oct/Nov at the AGM. There has not been a digital plan in place or KPI’s to achieve in terms of the website performance. Limited investment in SEO with no plan in place.

Current performance of the website: No stats at present apart from info below. The information we need to be tracking on a monthly/yearly basis.

Total sessions

Total page views

Total bounce rate

Top 10 pages visited

June 2019 website update: Website visitors are up about 10% on last May : 2,868 vs 2,619. Page views are down somewhat: 6,225 vs 6,276 in 2018, suggesting that although more people are visiting, they are exploring less of the website when they do so. Bounce rate (people who came into the site then left again immediately) is up too : 66.35% vs 57.13% last year. UK users are slightly down: 2,039 this year against 2,172 last year. US users are significantly up: we had 604 US visitors in May as opposed to 137 last year. Most visited pages in order of most to least: Home Page; Things to Do; River; Weather and Tide Times; Accommodation search; About the Tamar Valley; Walking Cornwall West of the Tamar.

Clare Associates have advised us that the website platform that we are currently on will need to change as it is not supported anymore. This will mean a website rebuild in the next 2 years onto a new platform. Costs and timescales are being reviewed and this will need to be added to this plan.

Website URL’s owned:

tavata.co.uk tamarvalleytourism.co.uk visittamarvalley.co.uk visitthetamarvalley.co.uk welovethetamarvalley.co.uk

Objectives

To ensure our website is not just a directory website with listings but gives great visitor information to encourage short break stays to the Tamar Valley.

Does the content on the website link with the USP’s of the destination?

The website needs to be the driver in promoting the Tamar Valley as a short break destination – thematic areas on the website needed.

Bookability is key now in the market place, this has to be a driver for the Tamar Valley to ensure we are getting the visitors to the area and in line with other destination websites. Visitor booking behaviours have changed and online, bookable and visible is key to also tap into the international visitor. We should be also be driving bookings to our members so they are getting bookings direct which will also show them value for money as a member of Visit The Tamar Valley

Our website needs to be fit for purpose, rich in destination content to attract visitors to come and spend.

Do we have website reciprocal links in place with our Partners?

Online sales for the poster and potential merchandise need to be considered

4.1.2 Social Media Ideas – Full strategy needed

Visit The Tamar Valley is currently on Facebook (2429), Twitter (1816) and Instagram (239 followers)

Objective - To drive visitors to the destination website and to raise the profile of the Tamar Valley brand

We need to set targets for each platform and growth and how social media should be used to drive traffic to our website to increase visitor numbers and bookings direct to our members.

Do we need to ensure we have social media platforms for consumer marketing and B2B marketing?

Each platform will need rebranding to Visit The Tamar Valley

Each platform to also drive consumer sign ups to build the new e marketing database.

Can we ensure blogs form part of the social media strategy – they help with content. We could hold guest blogs from our members. Do we have a blog page on the website?

Are we engaging with members and local stakeholders, other tourism organisations on our social media platforms? How do they take our content?

Are we looking at video content as well? Do we have a You Tube Channel? How can we include video footage into our social media plans?

Content themes should link with the PR and Enewsletter themes – see 4.1.3

Competition schedule to be created as part of the social media content plan

Ensure the strategy has key objectives, eg number of impressions and engagement targets.

4.1.3 Consumer Newsletter

TAVATA do not hold any consumer data or visitor contact details to begin consumer e marketing.

A Mailchimp account has now been set up to collect consumer data on the homepage of the website. The social media platforms should help drive consumers to sign up to our newsletters.

Start joint competitions with members and other destinations to help boast signups.

TAVATA should have a GDPR policy in place to ensure they are compliant for both consumer and members data being held. Mailchimp is GDPR compliant

Target : To get this database to 500 by end of 2019 – desire would be 1000 contacts by Jan 2020. With an aim to start e marketing in January 2020 with a clear themed emarketing content plan in place. The themes need to link back to section 2.3 and 2.4 to help attract visitors to the area.

Aim to send out a tester consumer newsletter in September 2019 – Winter in the Tamar Valley – Stats can then be given at the AGM

2020 Content Plan – bi monthly newsletter - this will fit with timelines agreed

What’s on in 2020 in The Tamar Valley

Walking and special offers

Heritage and Family Days out Arts, Crafts and Culture

Short breaks and special offers

Whats on in 2021 in The Tamar Valley and What’s new!

Members needs to be fully engaged with this content plan in order for Visit The Tamar Valley to obtain the content. This schedule needs to be sent out to members in their newsletter with timescales for content.

4.2 Offline Destination Marketing

4.2.1 Print and Maps

A new map is in the process of being developed to replace the existing suite of leaflets. This will be in place for Mayflower 400. The leaflet needs to define its target audience, purpose and help drive traffic to the website. The map needs to also include the local towns in the Tamar Valley due to the funding obligations.

A web version of the map is required for digital downloads and social media should drive traffic to these links

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4.2.2 Public Relations

Local PR was undertaken by Valerie on the Committee who has now stepped down. Siobhan took this over but has now resigned from the committee. The key PR objective is the raise the profile of the Tamar Valley and direct visitors to our members and our destination website.

Create a consumer press release schedule to dove tail with content plan for consumer newsletters

Build a press contact database both local and national looking at lifestyle titles like, Britain Magazine, Countryfile. Target travel writers for The Guardian, etc.

Develop a press area on the website which can hold our releases and our members. This should also include press ideas for stories and images.

Ensure we have a small schedule for corporate press releases. Link in with local DMO’s with this and also local press contacts.

Schedule in time to host journalists/travel writers or key bloggers.

Start tracking Google keywords – Tamar Valley?

Image library – what images do we have copyright free control over?

Need to ensure what ever press activity is undertaken that it is monitored and tracked – use google keywords.

4.2.3 Marketing Campaigns

These marketing campaigns will depend on budget and income attached to them but they could be done at limited cost which includes: an enewsletter going out about Family Fun, a Family Fun page on the website with a supporting Family Fun in the Tamar Valley press release and press fam trip with social media backing this up using #FamilyFun for example. The campaign can also include a competition. This would have a very limited cost. Members could also buy into this campaign and be featured.

Ideas for campaigns to go out in 2020 – perhaps on a quarterly basis

Mayflower

Sustainability/Green Tourism focus

Focus on Group Travel Trade and tour operators

Short break stays in shoulder months.

Family Fun campaigns

Live like a local

Video production/Your Tube Channel

Corporate Marketing

There is also a need to ensure Visit The Tamar Valley are also marketing themselves as the go to tourism organization in the Tamar Valley and to shout about their successes. This will help to increase membership in the area.

Corporate press releases and members newsletters need to be considered here and content can include ROI on marketing, Members need to know what the organization is doing.

4.3 Monitoring Marketing Performance – ROI

One monthly report to be put in place which includes website stats, social media targets, consumer newsletters numbers and open rates and overall marketing activity completed that month. This will then showcase to the members the activity undertaken and will give them value for money for their membership. This monthly report should go out in their monthly members newsletters from Jill and also discussed and reviewed at the monthly committee meeting.

KPI’s also need to be put in place to set targets for delivery and can help monitor investment if any of this activity is outsourced.

This report could also include number of new and lapsed members each month

5. Partnerships

This is a key activity for local tourism organisations and can help with funding opportunities.

What are our connections with the below and how can they be improved? Initial meetings need to take place to start these conversations. Changes in local government are now in place after the recent local elections.

The towns should form an integral part of the marketing plan for Visit The Tamar Valley through our website and also in all our marketing platforms. We need to ensure we have defined relationships with the below and look to see how we can improve links. The change at a national level with the Tourism Sector Deal could also help impact our relationships with local towns and authorities. This should be a key role for the Committee. We could also look at asking towns and AONB to sit on the Committee for Visit The Tamar Valley in line with funding or potential funding opportunities.

Potential partnerships to build:

Launceston TIC and Town Council

Callington Town Council

Saltash Town Council

Tavistock Town Council and Visit Tavistock (BID) and VIC

Tamar Valley AONB and Tamara Landscape Partnership

Cornish Mining/ World Heritage

Visit Cornwall – plus include Cornwall and Devon DEF project

Visit Devon

Mayflower400

South West Tourism Alliance

South West Tourism Awards

Are we also sharing the information from VB/VE to our members and ensuring they are up to date with the changes and developments in tourism on a regional and national level – eg TXGB and bookable products. This needs to be a priority for 2019/2020.

6. Budget – 2019 to 2021 in line with this plan 3 year forecast on budget and marketing spend/income needs to be added to ensure this plan can go ahead. Need to consider the cost of outsourcing this work as a possible way of delivery.

7. Conclusion and Summary

Questions /Thoughts that need to be considered.

What will our membership benefits look like with the above plan in place and what is our role with the Tourism businesses in the Tamar Valley now?

Should the membership fee change to reflect this new activity being delivered?

Continue with the networking events as this is heart of what TAVATA does.

Be the lead role in commissioning visitor research in the area?

Would the roles of the committee now change to co-inside with delivering this plan?

Should we look at this activity being delivered by a marketing consultant on a day a week contract/2-3 days a month. Costs needed. This contract can be managed by the committee and monthly reports submitted. Suggestive budget £5-£6k

Review the roles of committee members to take into account new activities in this plan – eg Partnership working

Should TAVATA start looking at becoming a CIC like, Visit Devon and Visit Cornwall as it is now moving towards a tourism delivery organization? They would then be able to tap into more funding opportunities. This needs discussion as part of this plan

Destination Marketing Action Plan/KPI’s for 2020 Action Target By when

Membership

Increase membership fee

Increase number of members

Review membership benefits end of 2020

Review potential members database and send new plans

£10 increase

250 members

Nov 2019

June 2020

Jan 2020

Website

Draft proposal for new website

Rebrand existing website and update content in line with this plan

Build up SEO content and links to increase visitors to website

5000 unique visitors a month

April 2020

April/May 2020

Social media

Increase engagement and followers

Set up Linkedin and You Tube

By 20%

July 2020

Consumer Marketing

Build consumer database to 1000

Start E newsletters in line with content plan

Ensure open rates are over 20%

1000 on database

May 2020

April 2020

Press and PR

Build press database for local and national contacts

Build press area on the website

Create image library

Corporate and consumer press releases to be sent out

30 copyright free images

Monthly

Jan 2020

May 2020

May 2020

Start Jan 2020

Marketing Campaigns

Mayflower

Build outputs for these campaigns and

Sustainability/Green Tourism focus

Focus on Group Travel Trade and tour operators

Short break stays in shoulder months.

Family Fun campaigns

Live like a local

Video production/Your Tube Channel

add timescales and budget for delivery in 2020.

Performance Reports

Develop a template for monthly reporting for the marketing contract post.

Using this action plan as starting point

Ensure these monthly reports are sent to members in the monthly update. Review how we communicate with members

Partnerships

Relook at the roles of the committee members

Look at meeting a town council a month

Engage with Tamar Valley AONB

Meet with Visit Devon and Visit Cornwall

By Jan 2020

Launch of this Destination Marketing Plan – Timescales

Nov 19 – Inform membership of the new plan at AGM

Jan 20 – send out Destination Plan to all members, key stakeholders and add to website

Feb 20 - Draft a press release of new destination plan and changes in TAVATA and send to local and national press

March 2020 – Launch new visual identity of the Tamar Valley

Feb 2020 - Send out proposal for marketing contract to deliver new plan

March/April 2020 – Start implementing new plan with marketing agency/person