Client

 Northwest Development Agency - 2003

Challenge

 Following the disbanding of the former English regional tourist boards, regional development agencies (RDAs) took on the role of tourism development. Rather than merely addressing the region’s marketing needs as before, the RDAs adopted a more holistic approach, which looked at all aspects of destination management required to grow tourism. This required a framework that clarified who should do what in growing the region’s tourism over the next 5 years. It was critically important to identify what could best be done at a regional, and what could best be done at a more local, level in this new landscape.

Solution

• We developed a 5-year strategic marketing framework. This identified the roles, responsibilities and relationships of new and existing players in the region’s visitor economy

• We developed a 5-year action plan to deliver against the region’s core objectives:
  - To increase the gross value added (GVA) to the regional visitor economy.
  - To maintain and create employment throughout the region.
  - To improve the sustainability of tourism businesses and therefore their ability to create full-time long-term employment

• We prepared marketing planning templates for the newly established Destination Management Organisations (DMO) in the region.

Result

• A clear strategic marketing framework, which clarified who should intervene at what point in developing the region’s visitor economy

• A clear understanding of their roles, and where they could focus their resources most effectively, amongst new and existing players in the region’s visitor economy

• Buy-in from regional stakeholders into the way forward for the region’s visitor economy  

• The marketing planning templates were not just a practical tool for individual DMOs in their first year’s marketing planning; they also provided the basis for a uniform approach to marketing planning across the region