Minutes of Brecon Beacons Tourism Meeting at The Swan, Hay-on-Wye on Tuesday the 30th of November 2010
Nicola (Punch) Maughan (Director General), Elizabeth Jefferys (Chair), Anna Heywood (Drover Holidays), Catherine Maggs (Treasurer), Gwenllian Jones (Pen-y-Dre Farm), Frank Marr & Alexandra Marr, Susie Suter (Glifaes Country Hotel), Edward Hillier (Ty Newydd Country Hotel), Edmund Inkin and Laura Miles (The Felin Fach Griffin), Sue Collins (Ty Gwyn B&B), Lucienne and Neil Bennett (The Wern Horse & Rider B&B), David Thomas (Cric), Bill Richards (TRAM), Ian Foster and Julie Davison (Westview Guest House), Bogda Smreczak (Capital Regional Tourism), Sharon Birch (Glasbury House OEC), John Evans (Hay Tourist Bureau), Peter Williams and Alison Kidd (The Prospectory), Annie Lawrie (BBNPA Sustainable Transport Manager), Oscar Brown (Beacons Bunkhouse)
Agenda Points
Welcome
Elizabeth thanked everyone for making their way through the snow and welcomed everyone to the last BBT meeting of 2010.
BBT Update
Last year the Brecon Beacons National Park was defined as a Marketing Destination by Visit Wales, which will allow the area to be marketed in its own right. The marketing strategy regarding this has now been signed off and Hay has been identified as one of the key gateways for visitors to the Park. Alexandra Marr and Associates have been appointed as the Coordinator of this process. Alexandra is looking for content and images for press releases for immediate use. Please see separate Marketing Opportunities document or email Alexandra for an update on her requirements:
breconnews@gmail.com
BBT and partners are currently pooling together images for an image library that members can access.
The visitor survey has been sent out to a range of Brecon Beacons visitors this year and at the end of September there have been 245 responses.
As part of the survey, the survey e-mail addresses are picked up on a monthly basis for Tourist information Centres. It is planned that this TIC run will be extended to provide a leaflet drop for BBT members and details will be sent out about this in the new year. If you might be interested in this opportunity please email info@breconbeaconstourism.co.uk – drops will also be made at local pubs / attractions / caravan parks etc
Hay Cluster Group
Anna Heywood, chair of the Hay cluster group, introduced the work of the group and the results of the recent town surveys – the final report of which will be available by Mid December. On the survey feedback received there was an opportunity to try and extend the season by organising a walking festival in September / October. Also a paper based weekly events listing will be created for next year, so all businesses & visitors know what is happening in the town.
Crickhowell Walking Festival
David Thomas introduced the Crickhowell Walking Festival and how it has been developed with the aim of extended the tourism season. It takes about a year of planning to get a walking festival up and running. The aim was to bring people across the Severn bridge and have them stay in the area at a time they would not normally stay.
Things you need to think about:
- Who do you need? – someone to organise the event and be a central contact point; someone to plan the walks; someone to market the event; someone to do the admin; and an event’s organiser.
- What do you need? – An information leaflet/brochure with all the information included (paper copies are essential). Coordinate other events around the festival (Twmpath, map reading workshop, mountain first aid courses).
Other things to think about:
- Is there a theme that the festival is based around?
- Insurance (you have to be a properly constituted group/business to get this)
- Car-parking and starting points of the walks – most people use stat navs and want postcodes, which are not specific. Full descriptions of the walk start point should be given.
- Booking procedures – the booking system needs to be very good, as it can become quite complicated. Every walk needs to be bookable to avoid large numbers turning up unexpectedly and downloadable booking forms are vital.
Stats – Total number of walkers: 2008 – 500; 2010 – 1,000. On average people walk one and a half walks each.
Geographical spread of the walkers: 46% are local (30 miles), 30% are from 2 hours away, 19% from greater than 2 hours away (more likely to stay). The festival wants to increase the further a-field people to around 40%.
Nights stayed – most 1 or 2 nights, about 12 people stayed for the whole week. 40% of the tourism businesses say they get business from the festival.
Publicity – In the first year alot of marketing was done in magazines, but this was not felt to create a great response. The best publicity is from being involved last year or hearing about it from a friend. Consequently all past attendants are now sent flyers ahead of the festival. Websites have not produced a huge response.
For more information e-mail david.f.thomas@btinternet.com
B-bug
Alison Kidd and Peter Williams introduced the B-bug project, which will be running next summer. http://beaconsbuggy.wordpress.com .The Beacons Buggies (B-Bugs) are road legal electrical buggies, which will be available for visitors to hire for short journeys and day trips. Part of the trial is a research project, testing new behaviours and exploring different transportation.
Pre-trial research included visitor questionnaires looking at visitor journeys to see how many short journeys they do while on holiday in the Beacons. 400 journeys were recorded and it was found that visitors do more miles than anticipated. The median day trip mileage was 15 miles (for people staying on caravan sites) and 18 miles (for people staying in cottages). Even people who were specially coming to cycle or walk, there was car journeys to get to the start of their routes. This research showed 37% of the journeys would be possible in a B-bug.
Currently two B-buggies are being developed and tested and the trail details are being developed ahead of next summer. There is a problem with insurance at the moment, which may result in the rentals being for free.
Help needed with:
Promotion – tell your visitors about the trail
Charging points – offers to host a changing point. Very eager to have one or two charging points in the Hay area.
For more information contact Alison Kidd on alison@prospectory.co.uk
Beacons Bus
Annie Laurie, BBNPA Transport Manager, introduced a new brochure ‘Mountain Walks by Bus’, which features walks you can do using the local weekday bus services. The Beacons Bus usage and income is up 13% this year compared to previous years. Currently the BBNPA is waiting to see if the bus will run the same way in 2011. Next year there will be a competition running challenging visitors to leave their car behind and use alternative methods of transport including bus, train, bikes….horse, canoe! ..those that send in proof will be entered into monthly draw – there is hope that this will spark good media coverage!
For more information contact Annie.Lawrie@breconbeacons.org
AOB
Spaces left on an upcoming course:
E-marketing – online marketing and chatter; 19th of January 2011 at 10am in The Brynich Barn, Brecon – please email medrwn@tpmw.co.uk to book
Hay Cluster meeting at 6pm on Tuesday 7th of December in the The Swan, Hay – just turn up
Next Meeting
BBT 2011 meeting dates
- 25th January 2011
- 29th March (AGM)
- 24th May
- 12th July
- 20th September
- 29th November
