Domestic Promotions

Domestic Marketing Services

Contact:
Anne Morgan
Senior Economic and Tourism Officer
Dorset County Council
1st Floor - County Hall
Dorchester
Dorset
DT1 1XJ
Tel: 01305 221003
Email: a.d.morgan@dorset-cc.gov.uk

Background:
The Dorset Domestic Tourism Panel was formed to strengthen and co-ordinate domestic tourism marketing and to establish a clearly defined programme of activity enhancing and emphasising Dorset's image. It has been recognised that in the past Dorset has suffered from fragmented marketing from within the private and public sectors. Therefore a partnership approach has been essential in helping to attract business in the shoulder months, whilst main season promotions are carried out by individual destinations. Local Authorities maintain and promote their own identities but joint working allows the Panel to promote a strong united image of Dorset as a quality short break holiday destination.

Objectives:
  1. To generate, co-ordinate and implement domestic tourism marketing initiatives in the area.
  2. To provide an efficient vehicle for co-operation and sharing of experience between District, Borough, Unitary and County Tourism Officers.
  3. To carry out an audit of marketing initiatives, identify target markets, generate and implement a programme of marketing initiatives and monitor the results.
  4. To consider views expressed by the Dorset and New Forest Partnership: Steering Group and Executive Panels and initiate action as appropriate.
  5. To generate financial support for the implementation of joint tourism initiatives.
  6. To co-ordinate with the various training, planning, transportation and economic development initiatives in the area and working in conjunction with the arts and museums services.

Membership:
Tourism Officers of all District, borough, Unitary and County Councils in the area, the Marketing Officers of the two Regional Tourists Boards, and a representative from Dorset TEC.

Annual Projects:
1997/98
The Panel's campaign focused on the marketing and distribution of a joint pictorial Flyer entitled, "Discover Dorset- Far From the Madding Crowd". This enhanced visitor appeal and promoted both the coast and countryside. 75,000 copies were distributed to past recipients of the "Discover Dorset" guide and via direct mail to potential new visitors. The Flyer proved extremely successful with over 60% of recipients using the guide to plan their holiday to Dorset. Additionally the Flyer triggered 7.5% of new holiday business for the county.

1999
Actively searching out new target audiences we produced a staggering 1 million copies of the Dorset Flyer. Extra funding allowed for distribution within a variety of national and special interest media- the CSMA Motoring & Leisure Magazine, The Daily Mail, and The Sunday Telegraph. Evaluation into the effectiveness of the campaign was extremely impressive, with more than 50% of the visitors surveyed stating that they had used the Flyer to aid to their decision to visit Dorset. The number of people prompted to visit because of this publicity was 18,447 bringing with them a healthy £4.2 million in revenue.

2000
The 2000 campaign is well underway with 450,000 Flyers already printed. In Spring, the Dorset Flyer featured as an insert into the newly published Boots Health & Beauty Magazine, the Safeway Magazine, and the BBC Good Homes Magazine.

Media Activities:
Editorial coverage has to be one of the most effective forms of publicity. Dorset Tourism, on The Panel's behalf, maintains a press database with over 500 travel writers and photographers from national, regional, and local media. Media interest is always welcome and 70 journalists were recently targeted with an invitation to 'Discover Dorset' for themselves. Prominent titles already hosted include the Holiday UK Magazine and Woman's Realm. You may have seen some of the recent media coverage for Dorset including The Daily Telegraph (February), The Daily Mail (March), The Guardian (April), Holiday Which (Spring), The Rambler Magazine (Spring), Four Nations Travel Magazine (Summer), and The lady Magazine (April). Top TV Holiday programmes have also been here too!

Promotions:
A series of joint promotions are also currently underway -and by promotions we generally mean exhibitions of varying descriptions. Dorset has been represented at The Caravan, Camping, and Boat show at the NEC, and the Destinations Show at Olympia, as well as Day Out Fairs throughout the South and South West region. Next year, new promotional venues are already being sought in order to develop our visitor markets.