March 2008 E-Newsletter

Word from the Chair
	Welcome to the first edition for 2008 of the Partnership’s Industry E-Newsletter. There is a lot going on with The Partnership at the moment, and as always we are being kept very busy. A major development is the next stage in the re-design of the website. The marketing team are working hard at the moment with the designers, and are hoping for a re-launch at the end of April – Watch this space! The team is also out and about a lot during March, promoting the Western Lake District to potential visitors. They have attended a leaflet swap in Hutton-in-the Forest, The Best of Lakeland hospitality show in Windermere, and will be showcasing the area to the Group Travel industry at British Travel Trade Fair in Birmingham as well! Also coming up soon is our Annual Open Meeting, so look out for your invite. Here, I will be standing down as Chair as my term is over. The very capable Richard Copping from Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway will be taking over, stepping up from his current role as Vice-Chair. The rest of the newsletter will tell you more about what we have been up to. As always, if you have questions please don’t hesitate to contact us. Hope you all have a great (and busy!) Easter. Denise Smalley Chair of Western Lake District Tourism Partnership
Partnership News
Fiona Tubman and Allerdale's Tourism Porfolio Holder Margaret Jackson launching the publications in Workington Fiona Tubman and Copeland's Tourism Portfolio Holder, Tim Knowles launching the publications at The Beacon	Press Launch of Holiday Guide and Top Attractions leaflet 2008 The fantastic new Holiday Guide and Top Visitors Attraction leaflet have both now been printed for 2008, and distribution is now commencing well ahead of schedule. The Holiday Guide is distributed nationwide via BrochureLink which is the Tourist Information Centres ordering system, as well as being supported by a national media campaign which will begin in the new year. The Top Attractions leaflet is distributed in and around Cumbria with a print run of 250,000 copies. Due to the success of 2007's leaflet, the print run was increased by 10,000 for 2008 to ensure full coverage in the area. It is designed to be a handy and easy to use piece of information for visitors who are already in the area. Both publications were launched in the local press, with photo opportunities taking place in both the Allerdale and Copeland boroughs. Early distribution figures show that The Holiday Guide has already been requested over 2,000 times via our Media Campaign, which is a fantastic start to the distribution. As well as these requests, thousands of copies have also gone out to Tourist Information Centre up and down the country. Website Development Digital Brochure - To support the Holiday Guide, we are for the first time having a digital version of it available on our website. This will enable visitors to our website to read through the brochure, and search for specific information within it. Work on this project is ongoing at the moment and should be available in the New Year. This is a very exciting development on our website and another great way of promoting the area to potential visitors. Click on the link to the right to try it out for yourself - DIGITAL BROCHURE New Design - We are currently in the process of updating the overall design of the website to match the design of both our new publications. We are also looking at the way the search facility works on the DMS section of the website in order to make it more accessible and easy to use for the potential visitor. Both new developments should go live very shortly, which will then be followed by an online media campaign to raise the profile of the area and direct for traffic to the website. FREE Training Day a success! An events training workshop held by the Western Lake District Tourism Partnership on behalf of the tourism community has been hailed a complete success by Partnership bosses. The day was attended by a variety of event organisers in the area, and aimed to train those members to load up onto the county-wide system used by various organisations and tourist information centres. The system is also part of the Western Lake District’s website. It allows members to update their details online themselves enabling the information to be kept up to date on a daily basis, meaning visitors to the area are getting the right information at the right time. Event information changes so frequently, that this will enable event organisers to be more effective in their communication of event details. This is the first time the Partnership have run a workshop of this kind in the area, given the take-up was 100% they are now working with members and Cumbria Tourism on future workshops. One of the members who has found the day extremely useful is Wendy Black from The Rum Story in Whitehaven: “I found the day to be a very constructive training session, providing a useful addition to our existing marketing tools, allowing me to be more productive and focused with my marketing time.” Events are fast becoming a major draw for people into the county, and with the vast amount of events that are organised in the Western Lake District, from major festivals such as The Maryport Blues Festival to the smaller more frequent events such as the Whitehaven Male Voice Choir performances, it is not surprising the organisers are switching on to their internet audience. The Partnership have supported a variety of events in the area over the last few years, from the Whitehaven Maritime Festival, to the Maryport Black Pearl visit, the latter of which drew 45,000 people into Maryport over the three days; and hope that continued focus on events in the area will pave the way for wider recognition of the variety of activities on offer to visitors in the Western Lake District. Paul Sherwen, Allerdale Borough Council's Entertainments Manager and organizer of HMS Bounty's visit to Maryport said: "We asked the Western Lake District Tourism Partnership's Marketing team to take on the responsibility of publicising the ship's visit to Maryport in August 2007. The next thing we knew was when we googled ' Bounty - Maryport ' and four full pages of news stories appeared from all around the UK. Consequently an estimated 45,000 people turned up in Maryport over three days. We will definitely want to sign - up the Tourism Partnership to market all our future events. " Look out for future events and workshops from the Partnership at www.western-lakedistrict.co.uk Spreading the Word about Western Lake District The Partnership has attended 3 different tourism exhibitions during February & March to market and promote the Western Lake District to potential visitors. These exhibitions are: 28th Feb - Hutton in the Forest leaflet swap - This is a local networking event, where accommodation providers, attractions and other tourism businesses gather to swap leaflets for 2008. 4th & 5th March - Best of Lakeland Show - Windermere - Tourism businesses gather at The Hydro in Windermere to showcase what they have to offer visitors. 11th & 12th March - British Travel Trade Fair - Birmingham - This is a large Group Travel exhibition that gives the Partnership the opportunity to promote itself to the Group market. The Partnership is on a Cumbria wide aisle and will be joined by the likes of Cumbria Tourism and Muncaster Castle. All of these types of exhibitions are great opportunities to promote what the Western Lake District has to offer the visitor, and it is essential the The Partnership is there to raise awareness of the area not only to potential visitors, but also to fellow tourism industry members. Familiarisation Trips The Partnership is in the process of investigating the possibility of running some Familiarisation Trips for WLD stakeholders. The idea would be to take staff who are in regular contact with visitors and potential visitors, on a trip to see new attractions or lesser known areas etc. This would enable them to give informed advice when asked 'What can I do in the Western Lake District?' If this is something you are interested in, either as a potential attraction to visit, or a member of staff to go on the trip please contact Lucy Wilson on lwilson@western-lakedistrict.co.uk or 01900 818741.
Other News from The Western Lake District
	The Beacon As part of British Tourism Week (10th to 18th March), The Beacon is offering Accommodation Providers local to the Whitehaven area a chance to visit the newly refurbished museum for FREE. They want you to be able to experience The Beacon so that you can tell your visitors all about us. Please use this (PDF) voucher. Simply print this off and bring it with you to The Beacon where you will be entitled to 2 free adult admissions. Please note that the voucher is valid throughout British Tourism Week ONLY (10th to 18th March). The Beacon’s opening times are Tuesday to Sunday 10 am to 4.30 pm (last admission 3.45pm). Please note that we are CLOSED ON MONDAYS. Don’t forget that children Under 16yrs get in free at The Beacon, so why not bring them along too. The Beacon will look forward to seeing you during British Tourism Week. Cumbria Chamber of Commerce and Industry - Tourism Sector Forum Tuesday 25th March, 12.30 - 2.30, The Rosehill Theatre, Whitehaven A forum is being held to discuss the current status of Tourism in West Cumbria. Fiona Tubman, the Marketing Specialist for The Partnership is the guest speaker. If you would like to attend this forum and take part in the discussions, please reserve a place using this RESERVATION FORM Cockermouth Gets Cittaslow Awards Cockermouth has become the first town in the North West and the seventh in the country to receive the Cittaslow award. The award recognises the town as one that has a good quality of life at a relaxed pace. Cittaslow is Italian for ‘slow town’ and the Cittaslow movement is an international network of towns all working towards improving the quality of life for residents and visitors alike. The assessors visited the town in November and were impressed by what they found. They judged it against 60 criteria. The award looks in particular at the environment, high quality local goods and produce and the town’s uniqueness, particularly heritage and culture. Margaret Jackson, Deputy Leader of Allerdale Borough Council and regeneration portfolio holder, greeted the news warmly and said: “We are delighted with this award. It highlights the qualities of Cockermouth for those who live, work and visit there. The quality and pace of life there have long attracted people. This is very special for the town.” Sam Standage, Chairman of the Cockermouth Partnership and Mayor of Cockermouth, said: “This is great news. It recognises what we have long known, that Cockermouth is a jewel of a town, and this award marks those very qualities that make it so.” For further information, contact Debbie Keir on 01900 702772 or email cittaslow@allerdale.gov.uk Workington has a new Festival planned Plans are well under way for a major summer festival for Workington called Paint The Town Red. The festival, scheduled to take over the town on Saturday, August 30, is being designed to boost shopping, bring in visitors and raise cash for charity. Entertainment, street theatre, sporting yesterdays, a funfair and motor show have been pencilled in. Vulcan Park will be dominated by a children’s fun fair and a motor show featuring vehicles supplied by Lloyd Motors of Cockermouth. There will also be a hog roast and a barbecue and there’s been a key decision taken that all selling franchises, including soft drinks and ice cream, will be local. Another major initiative in Workington this summer will be beautification of the town for the Cumbria in Bloom judging in July, and the organisers of that have promised to adopt red as the main colour for floral displays. This is a fantastic event for the Western Lake District and will add to the already jam packed summer schedule of festivals and events! Click here for further details on Workington's Paint the Town Red Festival
Business Profile - Caroline - Ventures West
	Ventures West – sailing and powerboat adventures on Cumbria’s coast Background on the owners of Ventures West Ventures West is run by its three founders, Darren, Simon and Caroline. Fate first brought us to Maryport. Caroline was at a meeting with someone from Allerdale Borough Council and ended up in Maryport for lunch, fell in love with the town and harbour and brought us all up at the next available weekend. A month later we started the move from Lancaster. We set up at Maryport Marina in 2005, with the sailing school part of our business first - and have been adding to our activities ever since. We all come from different backgrounds, united by a desire to see sail and powerboat training – and other adventure activities – in the North West. Each of us done our theory qualifications and resented the fact that most of the sail training took place either down south in the Solent or far north in Scotland, making it an expensive and exclusive option. Darren came from the building trade, Simon from the hospitality sector and Caroline from a career in project management and academia. Four years in and we’re only just really finding our feet. We’re committed to Maryport, and love being here for the quality of life, sailing grounds of the Solway Firth and, not least, the friendliness of the West Cumbrians. It’s not all been plain sailing, though, excuse the pun. We’re having to work hard to make the case with the RYA (Royal Yacht Association, the industry’s governing body) to run training off Cumbria’s coast. And of course the tidal nature of the Irish Sea presents practical challenges for running a business here. But we’ve learned a huge amount and relish the opportunities this area offers. All about Ventures West Ventures West runs a mixture of sailing/powerboat training and adventure activities from Maryport Marina. Our adventure activities include: RIB ride and drive trips, where all members get a go at driving one of our 21 ft RIBs (Rigid Inflatable Boats) and giving their friends/family a good soaking in the waves; half day trips over to Scottish harbour towns, such as the lovely Kippford with a stop for lunch; water taxi to Isle of Man and Ireland for events such as the TT races; fishing and bird watching trips; and team building/corporate events. We’ve had a few large groups up for team building and adventure weekends – the largest being 20 students from across the country who were winners of the national SIFE competition (Students in Free Enterprise). This was in part a treat for their hard work on social enterprise projects and in part a team building exercise for their next competition in New York. We also do a lot of work with youth groups from all over the country, including scouts, Duke of Edinburgh, boys clubs, Connexions and Young Cumbria. Our training courses range from 1 day shorebased teaching to ‘FastTrack’ programmes, which take people from beginner to professional skipper standard in 16 weeks. Most of our training is with individuals or small groups but we also do a fair amount of training for organisations such as the Environment Agency, RNLI crews, MIRB (Maryport Inshore Rescue Boat), as well as commercial work such as surveying and training skippers for working on offshore wind farms etc. We also have work in the pipeline hopefully with the MoD . Secret’s of running a successful tourism business We’re not sure we’ve cracked it yet! Probably offering something different and quality that both makes the journey worthwhile and makes most of this unique part of the world be that on land or sea. And collaborating, working with other tourist attractions to share marketing and raise awareness of things to do in the area. The importance of tourism in the Western Lake District Increasingly important, we imagine. For our industry, the forthcoming marina and harbour development, perhaps even the cruise ports being discussed, will help bring high value visitors to the coast. We already have visitors from across the country who tend never to have heard of West Cumbria, let alone Maryport, but appreciate it straight away for its rugged beauty, friendliness and the stunning sailing grounds. For our adventure activities, aimed at tourists as well as locals, the push to bring tourism into the Western and Northern parts of the county is important. We’d like to work more closely with tourism developments and existing providers in future. Working with the Partnership Marketing has got off to a slow start for us as we’ve been so busy delivering activities and finding our feet. The partnership has helped us focus on joint marketing opportunities and we’re very glad to have a presence in the brochure and website, as well as on stands at trade fairs. Continuing the good work to raise the profile of the Western Lake District has to be valuable. We’ve found we are approached by so many advertising/marketing opportunities covering Cumbria that are simply too expensive and not cost effective for a fledgling business as ours. Bringing coherence to that by providing one main portal for visitors is an important role for the WLDTP as we see it. Can you do anything about our weather though?? News from Ventures West After a lengthy refurbishment, our 40’ Nelson (similar to an old lifeboat) will finally join our fleet in summer 2008 to run gentle day trips and visits to the wind farm being constructed in the Solway. We’re hoping to build our tourist trips generally, as well as do more of our work with young people. A plan we’ve been working on, hopefully for 2009, is to acquire one or two larger yachts to run youth sailing expeditions as a social venture. Clipper Ventures and Ocean Youth Trust have been running similar programmes for a while but they don’t serve this area and tend to be expensive and therefore exclusive. We think there’s an inclusive way to offer West Cumbrian children, who otherwise might not have access to these adventures of a lifetime, the leadership skills and teambuilding benefits of a sailing expedition with young people from different backgrounds. What Ventures West think the WLD has to offer tourists A completely unspoilt coastline and places, with some of the world’s friendliest and down to earth communities. And without the prices and crowds you often find in the better known areas of Cumbria and the Lake District. Also, areas that are incredibly welcoming and safe for families and children, with a lot of interesting and slightly ‘off the beaten track’ visitor attractions to explore. Favourite place in the Western Lake District The wild and beautiful stretch of coast north of Maryport that makes up the Solway AONB and everything the Solway Firth has to offer (weather aside!). Sum up the WLD in one word ‘Untapped’. To find out more about Ventures West please log onto their website www.ventureswest.co.uk or phone them on 01900 819439
And finally...
	Plans for the year ahead Please look out for your invite to the Annual Meeting of The Partnership's which is to be held very shortly. Here we will tell you all about what we have planned for 2008/2009, as well as what we have achieved in 2007/2008. The marketing plan for 2008/09 will be unveiled, and we will be able to answer any questions you may have. This is a great opportunity for us to get your feedback, so we hope that you will all make the effort to attend, and take part in discussions. The invites will be going out very shortly. In the meantime if you require further information, or would like to put yourself forward for the Steering Group please contact Lucy Wilson on lwilson@western-lakedistrict.co.uk or 01900 818741