Annual Report 2012-2013

Cumbria Tourism Annual Report 2012/2013

The successful provision of commercial services has once again under-pinned the viability of

Cumbria Tourism over the last months. Encouragingly, commercial income has grown by

almost £80,000 offsetting the decline in funds from public sources.

Despite being one of the largest contributors to the tax revenues and in comparison to

many other areas in England, less and less public funding is being invested in tourism and

the county’s Destination Management Organisation.

DMO Annual

Value of

Tourism

Tourism

Dependent

Annual

County/Unitary

Council

Contribution

Contribution

per job

VisitYorkshire £7 bn 250,000 jobs £12,000,000 £48

VisitDurham £645m 10,000 jobs £850,000 £85

VisitWiltshire £1bn 21,000 jobs £500,000 £23

VisitBath £348m 9,000 jobs £350,000 £38

Northumberland Tourism £665m 11,000 jobs £130,000 £11

Cumbria Tourism £2.2bn 56,000 jobs £89,500 (CCC)

£24,000 (DCs/NPA)

£113,500

£2.02

The table above illustrates the excellent value for money Cumbria Tourism provides for the

County and District Councils. In many ways Cumbria Tourism is stronger for being less reliant

on public funds but unfortunately the downside is that many of our competitors have

considerably more funds for marketing posing a real and present competitive threat to the

county’s visitor economy. Despite these challenges, strong leadership provided by the

Executive Board of Cumbria Tourism has ensured that the organisation is focussed on

providing core marketing and business support services for the industry.

Source: STEAM 2010/11

Source: STEAM 2010/11

The pie charts above illustrate that all areas of Cumbria benefit from visitor revenues and

employment. Significantly, 55% of the economic benefit is derived from spending out with

the Lake District National Park, this indicates that the strategy pursued by Cumbria Tourism

£399.9 (18%)

£92 (4%)

£362.5 (17%)

£139.1 (6%)

£225.5 (10%)

£982.9 (45%)

Tourism Revenue (£m)

Allerdale

Barrow

Carlisle

Copeland

Eden

South Lakes

£990.5 (45%)

£1200 (55%)

Tourism Revenue (£m)

Lake District National Park

Outside

to spread the benefits to all parts of the County is working and again shows the importance

of tourism in these areas.

Destination Marketing

The Lake District, Cumbria brand continues to be vigorously promoted and this last year

benefitted from considerable support from VisitEngland and its ‘Growing Tourism Locally’

Regional Growth Fund (RGF). High impact poster campaigns on the London Underground

between the London Olympics and the Paralympics were seen by millions of people, and a

similar North of England campaign further extended the brand exposure in early 2013.

The RGF also supported the spring 2013 digital campaign and featured online competitions

and other contact building initiatives resulting in well over 10,000 new email contacts for

future communication. In addition, Cumbria’s key themes contributed content for

VisitEngland’s extensive Thematic Campaigns programme – Cumbria’s offer was prominent

in the Outdoor Activities, Rural Escapes, Coastal Escapes and the Cultural Cities campaign

which features on Classic FM, the Mail on Sunday and in The Guardian.

Providing the content and making sure the ‘back end’ works via the golakes website has

meant that the CT team has been at full stretch to ensure the maximum exposure for the

county’s tourism industry.

Golakes was re-launched in 2012 with improved navigation, search engine capability,

content refinement and an easier consumer booking process. The stats speak for

themselves with user visits increasing to 5 million and Facebook fans from 35,000 to over

50,000 in the 12 month period. Sadly however, commission revenue generated from golakes

declined indicating that visitors are booking on other sites or using golakes for research

purposes only. These trends present commercial challenges which we aim to address in the

forthcoming months.

The PR and Communications team have delivered record levels of achievement with over

£6m worth of media coverage and hosting 153 press and travel trade visits.

The UK achieved high global awareness in 2012, with the Royal Wedding, the Queen’s

Diamond Jubilee, the Olympic Torch, the Olympics and Paralympics. Cumbria Tourism

worked hard to be part of these historical events and made sure that our national partners

at VisitEngland and VisitBritain had our latest information and stories. This approach

delivered a stream of visits from national and international VIPs, travel trade and media

contacts. The direct benefit of this activity has only just begun, but already there are signs

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000Facebook Fans

2011/12

2012/13

£3.5

million

£6.1

million

£0

£1,000,000

£2,000,000

£3,000,000

£4,000,000

£5,000,000

£6,000,000

£7,000,000

2011/12 2012/13

Annual PR Coverage - AEV

52

153

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

2011/12 2012/13

Annual Press Trips

that the UK and Cumbria are poised for a growth in visitor numbers especially from

overseas.

Thematic and Area Development Highlights

Adventure Capital – Over the last five years this exceptional programme has delivered a

fantastic new brand for Cumbria and The Lake District. As well as measurable increases in

participation in outdoor adventure and ‘challenge’ events we’ve seen the influx of famous

brands like North Face, Montane, Patagonia, Merrell, Lyon Equipment and others expand

their operations in the county. Kendal has arguably the best climbing wall in the country

with Keswick, Maryport and Carlisle having excellent new facilities also in recent years.

Strong and consistently branded cycling, walking and water sports guides have been

produced and well received from visitors and the staff at Tourism Information Centres. The

independent evaluation has shown that the programme has generated over 360,000 bed

nights and an additional £2.6m visitor spend. Andrea Runkee and Jody Ferguson are

congratulated and we are very proud of their achievements.

Taste Cumbria and Food and Drink – Cumbria’s food and drink international reputation was

boosted with Simon Rogan achieving his second Michelin Star for his Cartmel based

L’Enclume restaurant. Cumbria Tourism is delighted to report another successful Taste

Cumbria Festival at Cockermouth last September, the ‘Food Village’ at the Bowness Torch

Relay celebrations last June and the phenomenal success of Cumbria Day with the Prime

Minister endorsing a number of first class Cumbrian food products. Food and Drink

generates £428 million annually for Cumbria. It’s a big business and a key part of Cumbria’s

reputation.

Cultural Tourism - The Arts Council continued to support CT’s work to develop and market

Cumbria as a cultural destination for visitors. A new ‘Cumbria Contemporary’ programme

pulling together some of the county’s cultural highlights is being promoted alongside other

events and festivals in the North West. One of the pilot events in the programme was the

‘Cockermouth Weekender’ at which Stuart Maconie the BBC Radio presenter hosted a series

of activities in the town including beer tastings, poetry readings, folk concerts and heritage

trails. During the year CT worked alongside businesses in several ‘off the beaten track’

communities such as Millom, St Bees, Eskdale, Ravenglass and Alston to develop

promotional materials and activities which reflect their special ‘Sense of Place’. This activity

was funded from the England Rural Development Programme.

2012 saw another strong set of entries for the Lakeland Book of the Year. Now in its 28th

year, the Awards saw 55 books entered, giving the judging panel a huge breadth of choice

across the whole range of subject areas. The judges with the difficult task of making the

final decision were, the Awards founder, author and columnist Hunter Davies; broadcaster,

writer and CT’s Chairman Eric Robson and BBC News broadcaster Fiona Armstrong, who

between them spent the spring months pouring over the submitted books to come out with

winners in each of the five award categories and an overall winner. The Lakeland Book of

the Year 2012 was won jointly by well-known Cumbrian authors and personalities with

‘Jack’s Yak’ - by Keith Richardson with colour photography by Val Corbett and

‘Dear Mary, Love Percy – a Creative Thread’ - edited by Mary Burkett and David Cross

Special thanks for help in keeping the Awards afloat go to former CT Chief Executive, Chris

Tomlinson (ne Collier) and stalwart and joint founder Vicki Robinson of Burn How Hotel,

Bowness.

West Cumbria Tourism

We are delighted with the progress and continued support for developing the visitor

economy in West Cumbria. From Millom’s contemporary Kite Flying Festivals, to traditional

Field Sports and Game Fair at Armathwaite Hotel, to a new Silloth Beer and Music festival,

to the quirky Biggest Liar competition in Santon Bridge, West Cumbria is developing a wide

range of events to attract people from far and wide. New Cycle and walking guides have

been established generating excellent publicity and exposure for the area. Residents too

are celebrating their pride with many signing up for the ‘You’re welcome to the Western

Lake District’ short course. Even an entire school year at St Joseph’s in Workington have

become west Cumbrian ambassadors with new and fresh insights on what’s best to do and

see in their local area. To cap a very busy year, West Cumbria featured strongly in

VisitEngland’s Coastal Escapes Campaign in particular reminding the UK population that

West Cumbria has some of the County’s award winning attractions like Muncaster Castle,

Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, Cumbrian Heavy Horses and the Beacon Visitor Centre and

Rum Story at Whitehaven. British Energy Coast, Allerdale and Copeland Borough Councils

are congratulated on their enlightened investment and using tourism to diversify local

economy.

Green Tourism – golakestravel

New bus services in the central Lakes, new integrated tickets, new bus stops, new jetties on

Windermere to cater for waterbus services, a new bike bus. Parking improvements, a new

electric car hire scheme, cycle path improvements on the west shore of Windermere, an

expanded electric bike network and a huge amount of new publicity and information

materials under the Drive Less See More campaign is just snapshot of the on-going GoLakes

Travel programme being delivered jointly by Cumbria Tourism, the Lake District National

Park and Cumbria County Council. Improving our sustainable tourism credentials remains a

key strand of the Tourism Strategy for Cumbria and this pilot initiative funded by the

Department of Transport is a strong commitment from Government that needs industry

backing and consumers to change their habits.

MyCumbria – Cumbria for Cumbrians

The low cost scheme to enable Cumbrians to enjoy a huge range of discounted local

experiences is steadily improving with www.mycumbriacard.co.uk showing well over 100

offers and special promotions offered by CT members. As well as benefitting Cumbrian

residents and businesses, the scheme has helped raise the profile and understanding of

Cumbria Tourism, the value and the quality of Cumbria’s extensive visitor based economy.

Destination Management and Development

As one of the key functions the official Destination Management Organisation for the

county, Cumbria Tourism plays an important coordination role, advising public, third sector

and private companies on the development of tourism in the county. Cumbria Tourism’s

strategy and market research function ensure that the best possible evidence is used to

inform all kinds of policy issues that impact on the visitor economy. In 2012 the three yearly

Cumbria wide Visitor Survey was undertaken adding to over 12 years of consistent research

into visitor trends. Qualitative research by specialists Ipsos Mori into the Brand perceptions

of Cumbria and The Lake District as a direct output of Cumbria Tourism’s participation in the

Managing Nuclear Waste Safely partnership. As it transpired, the importance of the visitor

economy was one of the many reasons that the County Council gave for discontinuing the

research for an underground repository in West Cumbria.

A refusal of the Honister Zip Wire planning application by the Lake District National Park is a

setback for the county’s Adventure Capital ambitions, we hope that the Government’s

economic and new planning policies will result in the decision being reconsidered. On a

more positive note, the Inn on the Lake was granted consent to add 36 new bedrooms and

other facilities.

The Cumbria Tourism Partnership continues to be well attended and the feedback from

both public and private sector partners has been positive. Meetings have proved a valuable

platform for receiving updates from VisitEngland, the Cumbria LEP, the National Trust, Eden

Tourism, West Cumbria Tourism, Hadrian’s Wall Trust and Morecambe Bay Partnership as

well as Cumbria Tourism.

Lobbying and Representation

When possible Cumbria Tourism via it officers, Board Members and Commercial Members

Committee seek to influence and encourage the wide range of improvements needed to

progress the tourism industry in Cumbria. We may need to influence at a national, regional

or local level depending on the issue and urgency. Over the last 12 months, CT has

continued to influence the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership and has provided evidence

to show the scale and importance of tourism in the Cumbria economy. Encouragingly, the

Cumbria LEP has agreed that tourism development is one of their four key priorities

alongside energy, manufacturing and the food/drink sectors. The Cumbria LEP is growing in

importance with significant resources now being made available from central Government

to take forward Cumbria’s economic development priorities. Clearly, CT will continue to

make the case for resources to stimulate growth in the tourism sector as a matter of

priority. Meanwhile the lack of superfast broadband and 3G connectivity is holding back

businesses and CT’s online marketing capabilities, this issue being one of the urgent actions

that need to be addressed to assist growth.

An increasing number of CT members are expressing their concerns about the cumulative

effects of wind turbine developments. These alien developments in our precious landscape,

coupled with prospects of more National Grid pylons and a possible Nuclear Waste

repository pose a real danger and threat to the precious, distinctive and untarnished

reputation the Lake District, Cumbria brand currently enjoys. Extreme care is needed to

accommodate these sometimes necessary developments.

General

We extend our congratulations to Hunter Davies who was awarded the Cumbria Tourism

Personality of the Year by Chairman of Commercial Members Janet Fallon at the AGM in

June. Hunter delighted the audience with his anecdotes and recollections of tourism and

thereby underlined his impeccable credentials as an ambassador and champion of Cumbria

and its famous tourism industry.

Finally, it is important to mention again the success of Cumbria Day and thank Cumbria’s

MPs, Lords and other prominent figures for giving their support and flying the flag for the

county. As well as achieving national publicity and the Prime Minister’s endorsement of

Cumbrian beer, sausages, pencils and running shoes, the MPs jointly established an

Associate Parliamentary Group (APG) to provide a platform for dealing with Tourism and

Business issues at a national level. Cumbria’s tourism industry needs more support and

profile at an international, national and local level, the APG is a new opportunity to enlist

national specialists in this endeavour. At the Cumbria Day, the Prime Minister hinted the

issues upper most in Government’s mind - ‘that we don’t make the most of the countryside’

and that ‘more of visitors from overseas need to extend their visits beyond London’. We

can only assume that places like Cumbria with its beautiful landscapes and heritage city and

historic towns should be higher on the list of places of to visit in the UK.

A special thanks is extended to everyone who invests in Cumbria Tourism be they private

businesses or public bodies. In the last 12 months CT has continued to attract investment

funds from the Arts Council, DEFRA, the DfT, the Lake District National Park, Britain’s Energy

Coast, Cumbria County Council, Allerdale Borough Council, Carlisle City Council, Copeland

Borough Council, Eden District Council and South Lakeland District Council. Finally, may I

thank everyone, my colleagues at CT, the Executive Board, Commercial Members and our

Partners for supporting Cumbria Tourism and collaborating together in the ambition to

deliver a better tourism industry for the county.

Ian Stephens

Managing Director

The 2012 Award Winners

VisitEngland Awards for Excellence

Silver Award Winners

Tourism Experience:

Via Ferrata, Honister Slate Mine

Taste of England:

The George & Dragon, Clifton, Penrith

Large Visitor Attraction of the Year:

Muncaster Castle

Outstanding Customer Service:

Ullswater Steamers, (member of staff David Hall)

Bronze Award Winners

Small Visitor Attraction of the Year:

Lakeland Climbing Centre, Kendal

Large Hotel of the Year:

The Trout Hotel, Cockermouth

Highly Commended

Access for All Award:

The Beacon, Whitehaven

Caravan Holiday Park/Holiday Village of the Year: Park Cliffe Caravan & Camping Estate, Windermere

Sustainable Tourism Award

Ullswater Steamers

The British Travel Awards

Best UK Visitor Guide Website (Silver): Cumbria Tourism - golakes.co.uk

Best UK Holiday Region (Silver): Lake District, Cumbria

Great Taste Awards – Guild of Fine Food

Herdwick Hogget & Herdwick Mutton – Yew Tree Farm, Coniston

Sourbread Miche – More Bakery, Staveley

Salted Butter Winter Tarn Cheese -- Appleby Creamery

Countryfile Magazine

Favourite British Holiday Destination 2012:

3rd place – The Lake District

Caterer and Hotelkeeper – CATEY Awards

Gilpin Lodge & Lakehouse – Independent Hotel of the Year 2012

A Case Study

The Fells and Lakes Hotel – Why are we a Member of Cumbria Tourism?

On Membership – ‘CT is the only organisation that seriously promotes the County as a

visitor destination – membership keep us connected to the local area and other businesses’

On the ‘golakes’ website – ‘we have real-time booking because it’s what customers

increasingly want. The delay caused by a non-bookable system was losing us business’ ‘We

make sure that golakes has the best room rates so that our Tourist Board can compete on

even playing field with the huge Online Travel Agencies. Ultimately we’d rather pay

commission to CT rather than to an overseas based company’

On other digital marketing – ‘we occasionally buy into monthly email newsletters;

these have generated bookings and been a great way of selling our hotel to different

interest groups’. ‘It’s Facebook, Twitter and other social media next, CT’s digital team are a

great help in these new communication channels’

On Quality and Awards – ‘we recognise that ‘quality’ means many different things but

we use the accreditation system as an independent health check and value the advice and

comments of the inspectors’ ‘The Awards are great for doing a structured review and can

positively involve and motivate staff’. ‘Winning an award is a great way to boost publicity

and to generate new business’

On MyCumbria – ‘this new initiative helps us talk to the local Cumbrian resident

community in a positive and interesting way. Everybody wins, we get business (especially in

the quieter times), residents get great value for money and CT gets an income to help retain

their services’.

On policy and research – ‘we are grateful to CT for helping us obtain planning

permission for our extension, they helped make the case drawing on a great research and

market knowledge; they wrote in support for our plans and helped us get brown and white

signs. They sometimes have grants to help businesses but if they don’t, they always know

where to get further help.’

‘Its great value for money and it would be a tragedy if any of these services are

lost or undermined by initiatives that duplicate or overlap with Cumbria

Tourism. As a CT member, we feel we are pulling together and not fragmenting

our efforts’

Cumbria Tourism

Windermere Road

Staveley

Cumbria

LA8 9PL

Tel: 01539 822222

Fax: 01539 825079

Email: info@golakes.co.uk

www.golakes.co.uk

www.cumbriatourism.org

Photography courtesy of Cumbria Tourism, Golakes Travel Programme,

Hermione McCosh, Juiced Orange, Ben Barden, Steve Barber,

Tony West & Dave Willis