We can't resist a compliment, especially when it comes from the trade! It puts a spring in our step and motivates us to do even more for members; so thanks Anne and Sasha for your kind comments:
"What a wonderful website! I must admit I hadn't been on for a few years, when I did, I was so pleasantly surprised. Well done! Regards, Anne"
Sirhowy Arms Hotel, Blackwood, Argoed (March 2007)
"Your site is quite impressive now. Thanks, Sasha"
The Boat House Hotel, Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey (April 2007)
We've also upgraded the MyAccount Admin pages reached by login in at
http://members.stayinginwales.com/. This will help members convert increasing levels of traffic to enquiries and firm bookings.
2. Another Record-Breaking Month!
Visits in March were 28% up on January, our previous highest-performing month and a traditional time for enquiries. It goes to show how patterns are changing.
During March we received 18,583 visits from a total of 14,016 visitors who viewed 57,607 pages and made .85m hits. Visits to subscription members' microsite pages were up accordingly.
The new Wales.info website at
http://wales.info experienced the highest growth in March with visitors up 28% on February. This will be good news to subscribers who have their own Wales.info websites this year.
These figures are real! They're not pulled out of thin air. Each one can be accounted for. That’s the power of internet marketing.
3. Unique Visitors v Total Visits
What's the difference between unique visitors and total visits quoted in the monthly reports received by subscription members on their microsite performance? We've been asked by a number of members to explain this.
Total visits are the number of times a microsite is visited in a month, whilst unique visitors are the number of people making those visits. One visitor, for instance, may visit two or three time or more during the month but they are only counted once. Hence they are unique.
If you have a paying guest in spring that returns to you in summer and again in autumn, he/she will have made three visits but is uniquely the same visitor.
Of course, subscription members don't have to wait until they get a month-end report to know how their miscrosites are performing. They can go straight to their
MyAccount Admin pages any time and click on 'My Stats' to see how many visits/unique visitors they are getting. They can then fine tune their microsites to help increase performance and monitor the results.
4. Subscribers Benefit Most
Because subscriptions support the Staying in Wales website as a whole – including basic members' free listings – it's only fair that subscribers get the lion’s share off the action and gain most benefit. We work at this all the time.
For example, the uplift in the annual subscription rate this year to £60 gave subscribers their own websites in addition to their high-performing microsites. A programme of seventeen internet marketing campaigns were then introduced this year where subscription members get first call and all the top slots. Internet marketing campaigns unique to subscritpion members will also be introduced throughout the year (see next item).
Basic members, meanwhile, get static free listings with long odds but visitors to the website get a wider choice. Subscribers benefit yet again because visitors stay on the site longer. It's a simple formula, one that works for everyone – most of all visitors, which is what it's all about.
Basic members wishing to subscribe should go to
http://members.stayinginwales.com and choose the payment plan that best suits them.
5. Luxury Breaks in Wales
In the ‘CONSORTIA’ searches at http://stayinginwales.com we feature Great Little Places and Welsh Rarebits and their members, whilst at http://Wales.info we invite visitors to take a
luxury break listing members of Welsh Rarebits.
Luxury breaks are also featured under ACCOMMODATION in the
Site Map at Wales.info and under L in the
A-Z Listings. We leave no stone unturned!
A new internet marketing campaign, unique to subscription members, will be launched next month featuring all subscribers offering luxury accommodation including well-appointed self-catering opportunities for visitors. Please click
here to be included before the end of this month.
In parallel with this campaign, we shall be launching a ‘Star-Quality Restaurants’ campaign similar to the
Spring 2005 but with the new formula applied. Please click
here to be included before the end of this month.
6. UK Internet Users
EDid you know that the UK accounts for over 90% of staying visits to Wales and has 33.7m internet users? No wonder newspaper and magazine advertising is suffering but they're not going to tell you that in case you stop advertising too!
Yet it takes a fair amount of courage to change the habits of a lifetime and inertia is still propping up publications whose performance should have rendered them extinct by now, no matter how good they look.
The best money is busy chasing the internet but ‘because it's got nothing to do with pretty pictures and big budgets it's not sexy adland’ (according to The Independent) but my goodness how it works!
7. New Star-Grading Logos
Here are examples of the new Visit Wales star-graded accommodation logostyles that we shall be using to replace the old WTB styles in all microsites and Wales.info websites in future.
We’re not changing things immediately, however, until we run a quick Yes/No email poll in the knowledge that many of you may not want to see a switchover until the end of the year. Please let us know.
8. Consultation Responses
In between working out what's best for members, we take time to respond to Welsh Assembly Government consultations that have a direct or indirect bearing on tourism to Wales. We do so because we work close to the coalface and when it comes to the internet we can provide a good reality check. Most recently we - and in the case of the Wales transport strategy, STTW - responded to the following consultations (please click to view the responses):
E-Wales Strategy
Welsh Coastal Tourism Strategy
Integrated Food Tourism Action Plan for Wales
Wales Transport Strategy
We would welcome any comments to
info@stayinginwales.com.
9. Archive
The archive contains back issues of all
Members Bulletins and
Online Tutorials to date.
10. Next Bulletin
The next Members Bulletin will be published in June. Any views should be emailed to us by the end of May at
info@stayinginwales.com.
Click here to unsubscribe
Staying in Wales-Aros yng Nghymru
Unit 4, Penamser Business Park, Porthmadog LL49 9GB Wales UK
