| Follow up from the Bateaux Brainstorm The “Bateaux Brainstorm” took place on one of the
Summer’s last glorious days and brought together over 100
tourism companies who wanted to share ideas on how to counteract
the effects of the London bombings and work together.
We also invited representatives from VisitBritain and Visit London
so they could tell the audience more about their initiatives. One
of the common complaints had been the lack of communication and
consultation.
It
wasn’t as if the tourist boards were sitting back and
not doing anything but many people in the industry either didn’t
know what the tourist boards were doing or didn’t agree with
some of the ideas (discounts) but felt there was little choice
but to go along with them.
If
you’d
like a copy of the notes from the meeting email susan@tourismnetwork.org Please
note that we don’t normally provide notes from meetings – you
usually have to come along to get the information!
Thank
you VisitBritain!
We’d like to say a big “thank you” to
VisitBritain for being so pro-active and positive. Kenny Boyle
and Bernard Donoghue
spent time advising and speaking to participants and then followed
up by making sure everyone at the meeting was on the VisitBritain
mailing list, sending out a special update bulletin and writing
the following brief article for this newsletter.
Here’s
what Bernard Donoghue,
Head of Government and Public Affairs at VisitBritain has to say.
“Delight
and despair came in quick succession when on July 6th London
won the right to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic
Games, but the following day terrorism revisited London.
The
events of the 7th and 21st of July are now estimated to have
cost the
UK’s tourism economy £750million, approximately £550
million is specific to London’s tourism economy.
Within
an hour of the first news coming through on July 7th VisitBritain
initiated
its own crisis management procedures as well as calling
a meeting of the Tourism Industry Emergency Response group (TIER),
the industry’s national crisis management group.
TIER comprises Visit London, British Airways, Association of British
Travel Agents, the Society of London Theatres, London Development
Agency, UKinbound, the British Hospitality Association and Association
of Leading Visitor Attractions well as the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport, amongst others.
TIER
commissioned research into the economic effects of the bombings,
updated Ministers,
agreed media lines for its members to take and
became a ‘clearing house’ for a deluge of information
pouring in from businesses, big and small, across London and the
UK who were affected.
VisitBritain’s
own industry intelligence network – from
our overseas offices which kept us updated on how overseas media
were covering the London bombings, through to e-mail newsletters
and meetings with businesses – has enabled us to accurately
assess the impact and, crucially, to determine what is required
to recover our domestic and overseas business.
For
more information about VisitBritain’s marketing activities
and the latest industry news go to www.visitbritain.com/ukindustry.
You can also sign up online to receive our monthly e-newsletter
and any special bulletins relating to serious incidents impacting
on UK tourism.
The
Tourism Network’s Bateaux Brainstorm was another great
opportunity to let people know what we have been doing and, equally,
to hear from individual businesses about their experiences and
ideas for recovery.
Good
communication between and within our disparate industry is crucial
at times
like this, especially if we need to build a case
for additional support from central or local Government. In the
meantime let’s keep talking and listening to each other,
work hard to get our business back and provide our customers with
a fantastic experience.”
We
haven’t heard from Visit London since we sent them the
follow up notes after the meeting so we don’t know if they
have listened to what some of the partners said about no more discounts
or lower membership fees for smaller companies. Presumably they have been in touch with anyone directly affected.
Message from Superbreak
We also received a message from Ray Jones at Superbreak:
“Following
the excellent meeting on Bateaux London, I am pleased to let
you know that Superbreak will be working alongside
Visit London and Cameron Mackintosh to stimulate demand from the
domestic leisure sector this autumn and winter.
I was conscious of the fact that I did not know all of the people
in the room and was very impressed with the level of energy and
commitment shown by all.
Could I ask you to pass my details to all participants. If anyone
wishes to explore how Superbreak might promote their product I
would be delighted to hear from them by e mail Ray.Jones@Superbreak.com
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