Taking England Overseas

1. Taking England Overseas William Smart Programme Manager 22 November 2018

2. Agenda • Aims and objectives for the Discover England Fund 2016-19 (DEF I) • Examples of DEF projects supported to date • Delivery of new Online Product Distribution Platform • Delivery of new Trade Education Programme • Current thinking on design of potential DEF II from 2020 onwards

3. Programme funds delivered since 2012 • Regional Growth Fund Project 2012-15: ‘Growing Tourism Locally’ £19.8 m • Northern Tourism Growth Fund 2015/16 £10.0 m • South West Tourism Growth Fund 2015/16 £5.0 m • GREAT UK Challenge Fund 2015/16 £2.0 m • Discover England Fund 2016-19 £40.0 m £76.8 million before cash co-financing and monetised in-kind

4. DEF Aims and Objectives • Grow tourism in the regions of England • Increase the competitiveness of England’s tourism offer • Develop world-class bookable tourism products • Improve connectivity, including ‘last mile’ • Promote partnership working between destinations

5. DEF Financials Year 1 20 pilot projects up to £250,000 Year 2 12 large-scale, multi-destination projects of up to £1.0m 8 small-scale projects up to £250,000 Year 3 12 large-scale projects continuing 10 new small-scale projects of up to £250,000 3 amplification projects continuing from Year 2

6. What is the Discover England Fund? • https://trade.visitbritain.com/

7. Year 2 Large Scale Projects

8. All DEF Projects 14 17 15 17 Discover England’s Great Walking Trails, led by Marketing Peak District and Derbyshire England’s Coast, led by National Coastal Tourism Academy Growing Manchester as an International Gateway to the North, led by Marketing Manchester Make Great Memories in England’s National Parks, led by Peak District National Park Authority The Great West Way, led by VisitWiltshire The Collection, led by England’s Historic Cities 14 17 Developing a new touring 120 route Between London and Bristol and link a package of tailored visitor experiences, including destinations, accommodation, attractions and transport options. The 'England's Coast' project will promote the coastline using interactive video technology which allows holidaymakers to create their own coastal itineraries. 3 to 14 night itineraries, will be designed to promote walking holidays in England combining stunning scenery offered by seven of our National walking trails with the warm hospitality offered by English pubs and accommodation providers. These rural and coastal itineraries will either be booked in their entirety or amended to suit individual needs. 9 This two-year collaboration of the National Parks in England will create a joined up, branded collection of experiences. It will also provide business support and a trade marketing strategy to create bookable tourism product This project will increase the volume of visitors coming through Manchester Airport by creating itineraries that showcase the city, and excursions that open up the North of England. The Collection tells the stories of 15 of England’s premiere Historic Cities and for the first time presents them as one product for US visitors. The bid focuses on people and events and uses augmented reality to bring the cities and their stories to life. 22 20

9. Cultural Cities of Northern England C Cultural Cities of Northern England • Lead body: Marketing Liverpool • Investment: £1 million • (Year 1 pilot project: Cultural Cities of Northern England) • Two brand-new ‘collections’ enabling us to develop and create curate and present new culturally led internationally attractive bookable and commissionable products across Newcastle, Hull, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool for pre-defined target audiences in near European markets. • ‘The Urban Collective’ & ‘The Cultural Renaissance Collection’ • England’s Urban Collective is the next big thing in exhilarating travel - an Instagram-ready portfolio of bookable cutting edge modern cultural experiences, set within the regenerating heartbeat of historic English northern cities. • England’s Cultural Renaissance Collection is the cultural adventure everyone deserves - a collection of bookable rich experiences that enable visitors to witness & soak up the heritage, history, regeneration and transformation of England’s northern cities. • Markets: Germany, Nordics and The Netherlands • Customer segments (Mangrove): Young Active Explorers, Cultural Adventurers • Product: The project is focussed on engaging with business sectors across all 5 cities to create new audience driven bookable commissionable products that fit our defined propositions and with connectivity through the rail network.

10. Cycle England C Cycle England • Lead body: Welcome to Yorkshire • Investment: £1 million • Cycle England is the development of new and exciting cycling tourism breaks aimed at the Dutch and German markets. Cycle England will capitalize on the high profile of cycling in the North of England generated by the recent events. • The initiative is being launched in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and the holiday ‘packages’ will meet the needs of visiting cyclists of all levels – from total beginners to serious enthusiasts. • Markets: Germany (Secondary markets: Belgium, The Netherlands) • Customer segments (Mangrove): Outdoor Enthusiasts, Young Active Explorers, Lifestyle Travellers • Product: New bookable, end-to-end cycling holiday experiences across the region in order to make them available through European tour operators with specific commissionable elements that deliver a distinctive and tailor made experience.

11. England’s Coast C England’s Coast • Lead body: National Coastal Tourism Academy • Investment: £1 million • (Year 1 pilot project: Coastal Pass / Passport to the Coast) • England’s Coast provides a wealth of activities and experiences to engage and inspire the seasoned traveller to Britain. Escape the busy tourist routes to discover the rich heritage and outstanding landscapes of the English coast. • England’s Coast uses interactive video technology to turn inspiration into bookings and allow holidaymakers to create personalised itineraries. The stunning new footage will highlight the very best of our coastal assets featuring Northumberland, the Yorkshire coast, the East Coast, South East, Jurassic Coast and South West. • Markets: Germany, France (Secondary markets: Belgium, The Netherlands) • Customer segments (Mangrove): Outdoor Enthusiasts, Mature Experience Seekers • Product: England’s Coast will target the international travel trade and provide a dedicated online trade portal which will feature itineraries, trade product and access to online product knowledge training.

12. Small Scale Projects

13. Creating English City Food hubs C Creating English City Food hubs • Lead body: Visit Bristol • Investment: £30,000 • Bristol has a growing reputation as a destination for quality food and drink, now with 4 Michelin starred restaurants, and a thriving food scene of not just restaurants but producers. Destination Bristol’s DEF project will uncover the vast range of food experiences available in the city region, from tours to tastings and more, understand their customer base and booking processes and how these can be delivered these to an international audience, along with B2B opportunities. Alongside this, the project will explore the appetite for the city region using its experiences as a destination for culinary travel for specialist operators. Finally, developing a dedicated food tourism strategy to ensure a sustainable approach is adopted in the promotion and development of the Bristol city region as a destination for foodies into the future. • Markets: N/A • Customer segments (Mangrove): N/A • Product: N/A

14. Royal Racecourses – Sport of Kings C Royal Racecourses • Lead body: Marketing Cheshire • Investment: £250,000 • The core objective for this project is to develop a new proposition that brings together England’s premier racecourses, along with the luxury product offering available in their vicinity, targeted at high spend international markets within the GCC. • England boasts a significant racing heritage and a number of very special racecourses. Individually they enjoy strong domestic visitor numbers, but struggle to secure international profile. By packaging racing related itineraries across the partner racecourses involved in the project – Ascot, Chester, Newmarket, York and Windsor – with luxury accommodation in unique heritage destinations, there is great scope to develop the racing break offer for international markets. • Markets: Gulf States • Customer segments (Mangrove): Lifestyle Travellers, Affluent Trendsetters • Product: • • A season of horseracing across five racecourses and four destinations that can be promoted as a whole to target markets via the travel trade • • A selection of associated luxury itineraries that can be booked as an entire package (i.e. with flights and accommodation included), or in sections (dependent on trade feedback); • • A suite of collateral that showcases iconic English assets to a new, international audience.

15. Online Distribution Platform

16. Platform objectives • Key DEF success factor is the creation of bookable product and its distribution in international markets. • Many DMOs / Projectsacknowledge that DEF has highlighted the need for improved knowledge in the areas of product development and distribution. • Technical solution requirements include content aggregation, itinerary building, product book-ability and distribution, app and web solutions.

17. Tourism Ecosystem – market failure Suppliers Search Agents Aggregators Traditional Media eg Newspapers Airlines Traditional Agents Eg. American Express, Flight Centre Search Engine eg. Google, Bing GDS eg. Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport, TravelSky Meta eg. Kayak (Priceline), Trivago, Skyscanner DMC / Wholesaler eg. Chain Hotels Tour Operators/ Specialists TUI, Thomas Cook OTAs Priceline, Expedia Car Rental International Travellers Accommodation Aggregator eg. Hotelbeds, AirBnB SME/Independent Accommodation Market Failure Gap Attractions and Events Search Engine DMOs eg. Visit Manchester, London & Partners Rail Local Transportation OTAs Meta Experience Aggregators eg. Viator

18. DEF Platform B2B only – Not Competition but Complimentary Search Agents Aggregators Suppliers Press Airlines Traditional Agents Search Engine GDS Meta DMC / Wholesaler Chain Hotels Tour Operators/ Specialists Car Rental International Travellers Accommodation Aggregator SME/Independent Accommodation • Positioned as Business to Business only, not in competition with commercial players: • No role in the commission, contract or negotiation • Focus on enablement of the tourism suppliers and role of the DMOs • Integration capabilities for large or small suppliers OTAs DEF Platform Attractions and Events DMOs Rail Meta Experience Aggregators Local Transportation

19. Trade Education Programme

20. Context The national implementation of the DEF Online Distribution Platform (subject to approval), will provide the technical solution to enhance product book-ability and distribution, the challenge remains on how we educate small and medium-sized tourism businesses on practical and commercial information building their expertise on becoming ‘International Ready’. Supporting both Discover England Fund and the wider responsibility for product development and distribution, a new Trade Education Programme is proposed.

22. Basic checklist for ‘international readiness’ Findings from DEF projects have shown that organisations have the following knowledge gaps: • Know their organisation’s UVP (Unique Value Proposition). • Secured a strong foothold in the domestic tourism market. • Conducted a careful assessment of their competition. • Researched all potential international markets for their business to determine which will best fit as target markets for their product. • Identified the different travel styles of inbound travellers. • Understand the travel distribution system and have relevant rate structures in place. • Have booking systems in place to accept online including international bookings. • Developed a working tourism export plan and budget to target international visitors. • Identified, or have started working with complementary product in their area to package jointly and promote internationally (market nuances). • Developed a range of promotional collateral with targeted message for both consumers and the travel trade in overseas markets.

23. Market Entry • Determine where the business is in terms of export ready • Types of traveller • Understanding of markets • Cultural influence • Market insights • Tourism distribution • Pricing and selling • B2B / B2C • Sales calls and materials • Trade Ready • Commission structures • Contracting and negotiating • Tradeshow planning • Focus USPs • Pitch preparation and pitching • Health & safety considerations when contracting with tour operators (i.e. facility service, food hygiene, insurances) • Start Trading • Product pitching • B2B meetings • Meet international managers • Ongoing B2B engagement • International wholesaler engagement • Relationship management

24. How would a future DEF Programme differ?

25. Proposals for DEF II (2020 - ) • Amplifying and replicating what has worked well in DEF I projects (recognising long lead in times for RoI on product development) • Developing new products in response to identified market gaps/opportunities aligned with VE/VB strategy(i.e. through a clearly defined framework) • Generating international and domestic overnight trips and spend (to increase opportunities to participate by industry and to reflect importance of the domestic market to England) • Product development that addresses seasonality in order to aid national productivity

26. Proposals for DEF II (2020 - ) • The need to ensure product is accessible and joined up for the consumer through working with transport hubs and gateways; addressing last mile issues and digitally • Distribution and promotion (international and domestic) • Strategic solutions to national barriers • Strengthening sector expertise and capability in important areas such as working with the trade, international distribution, market readiness

27. Proposals for DEF II Work-Streams • Grant funded projects – to amplify or replicate what worked well in DEF I and develop new products for identified markets/gaps/opportunities • Distribution – through DEF online platform and VB intermediary strategy (partnerships and DMC activity) • Promotion – domestic and international, could be project level plus national level • Capability and expertise – Trade Education Programme, VE/VB resource, within projects • Strategic challenges – nationally delivered and opportunity to work across Britain (with match funding)