In this month's issue:
1. Best Month Ever!
January 2007 was our best month ever! 12,121 unique visitors – 71% up on August last year – viewed 43,802 Staying in Wales web pages giving a total of 0.72m hits for the month.
Making a high contribution to this was the performance of new niche marketing sites such as http://countryside.wales.info and http://castles.wales.info, which saw increases of 443% and 500% respectively over August last year. All those with their new Wales.info websites please take note!
Subscription members shared 9,787 visits between them, with the top ten achieving 3 visits a day on average throughout the month.
2. Subscription Renewals
Many thanks to all those who have renewed their subscription this year and the increasing numbers choosing to take advantage of multi-annual booking discounts. Those that did so last year have done well.
Those that have yet to renew, have until this Friday, 9th February to prevent their web pages and new website from lapsing. Renewal before Friday also ensures inclusion in the first three online marketing campaigns scheduled for this month (see below).
3. Year-Round Marketing Opportunities
Our online marketing campaigns for 2007 offer active year-round marketing opportunities FREE to subscription members. Members can log in to their MyAccount pages, select their new MyCampaigns page (see next item) and choose from the list repeated below.
The campaigns include new web pages with links from the http://stayinginwales.com and http://wales.info home pages plus emailings to 10,000 holidaymakers registered with Staying in Wales.
February:
February:
February:
February:
March:
March:
April:
April:
May:
May:
June:
June:
September:
September:
October:
October:
November:
November:
|
Valentine's Day Lovers' Breaks
Pet-Friendly Accommodation in Wales
World Book Day Celebrations
St David's Day Celebrations
Easter Short Breaks
Hideaway Breaks in Rural Wales
Early Bank Holiday Breaks
Spring Bank Holiday Offers
MayJune Events Programme
Star-Graded Visitor Attractions in Spring
Best Beach Holidays in Wales
Summer Sunshine Breaks
Autumn Events Programme
Autumn Short Break Offers
Star-Graded Visitor Attractions in Autumn
Winter Events Programme
Christmas Events
Christmas Log-Fire Breaks |
12th February
15th February
22nd February
22nd February
22nd March
29th March
19th April
26th April
3rd May
10th May
21st June
28th June
6th September
13th September
4th October
25th October
22nd November
29th November |
4. New MyCampaigns & MyStatus Pages
Two new pages have been added to members' MyAccount pages. MyCampaigns enables members to control the online marketing campaigns they wish to take part in throughout the year and is FREE to Subscription Members. Their details will be automatically listed in the campaigns of their choice with a live link to their managed microsite pages. Active online marketing, year-round, couldn't be more simple!
MyStatus allows members to check their membership status at a glance and upgrade from Basic Member to Subscription Member to take advantage of the year-round online marketing campaigns and all other benefits.
5. Internet Marketing; How Do You Score?
Tourism businesses marketing online and monitoring their results do better than those that don't, according to a survey carried out last month by the Welsh Assembly Government's Tourism Unit. So what's new? Businesses that get their marketing right always do better; those that are getting their internet marketing right are simply doing much better!
So how do you score?
The survey found that the majority of tourism operators in Wales intended promoting their business through the internet; 55% via their own website, 42% through the Visit Wales site, and 40% through sites like Staying in Wales. On the other hand only 31% intended using brochure listings, 13% leaflets, and 12% were reliant on word of mouth. This translates to 5 favouring the internet as opposed to 2 sticking with old media as the gap widens.
84% of respondents felt confident or very confident in equal measure about prospects for the 2007 Spring and Easter season. 68% said that they had received the same number or more visitors over the Christmas–New Year period compared with the previous year, with only 31% believing they had fewer.
72% of respondents reported that their turnover in the 2006 holiday period had either increased or stayed the same as the year before, while 27% recorded a decrease.
Asked if they actively monitored how their guests or visitors had heard about them, 36% claimed to do so continuously, 30% occasionally and 34% never! Half of the businesses that monitored the effectiveness of their marketing had a better year in 2006 while only a third of those that never monitor managed to improve their performance. The 3 to1 gap is wider than the figures suggest at first glance.
Staying in Wales enables businesses to monitor their performance daily and provides individual monthly reports by email.
6. Last Year for Magazine Advertising!
'2006 will probably be remembered as the last year when traditional advertising in newspapers and magazines took place'.
This was the futuristic view expressed in last month's issue of the 'Destination Pembrokeshire' newsletter and when Julian Burrell, Chairman of the Wales Tourism Alliance, chose to quote this in his address last month to the Mid Wales Tourism Marketing Conference in Aberystwyth, one sensed that the game for print advertising was finally up. 'The responses to this sort of advertising have been slipping for the last 3 or 4 years but have suddenly become uneconomic' the newsletter went on to say.
This really is no surprise as tourism businesses turn in ever-increasing numbers to the Internet to attract bookings at far less cost. Julian needs no convincing himself. He owns a large agency for self-catering accommodation and has run a successful internet website since the mid 90s.
Print is both expensive and restrictive compared with the internet where tourism businesses can market direct to domestic and worldwide audiences as frequently as they wish at a fraction of the cost. Staying in Wales and Wales.info have taken on the challenge (see item 3)
7. Members Website Updates
MyAccount pages at
8. PayPal Account Tutorial
In the last Members Bulletin we emphasised the marketing benefits of becoming a PayPal account holder. If you wish to learn more, please email to info@stayinginwales.com to register your interest in a new tutorial on the subject.
9. Archive
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
|
