Selling Britain – it can only get better: TravelMole Comment by Jeremy Skidmore

The recent TravelMole FastConference made for a fascinating debate. The subject was “Selling Britain” and as an industry we have been absolutely hopeless at it.

Travel agents have, at best, been disinterested in the UK as a holiday destination. Among the major retail chains this is hardly a surprise. Their advertising has always been based around selling a dream, convincing people to fly on their aircraft and stay at hotels they’ve contracted. Thomas Cook tells people it’s “time to get out of the country”.

But I think the problem goes deeper than that. Young people in travel agencies don’t get paid much money but are enticed into the industry partly by the thought of those familiarisation trips and cheap holidays abroad. No wonder they lack passion or enthusiasm for the UK.

On top of that, retailers know it’s a product that can easily be bought direct and so are unwilling to invest time and resources trying to sell a product to a customer who is likely to cut him out of the deal in future.

Meanwhile, marketing by tourist boards and companies with niche products to sell has often been naive and embarrassing.

The current incumbents at East Midlands Tourism have some interesting ideas to promote the region, but the previous regime wanted to blandly promote the area as a whole. East Midlands or the Caribbean anyone?  Hard choice, isn’t it?

We heard how at one trade fair the representatives of the Heritage Railway in the Isle of Wight, who shipped a steam train to Birmingham, were hugely enthusiastic about their product but didn’t have a clue how to sell it. Without wishing to sound patronising, the country’s top marketing and advertising brains are unlikely to be involved in such a product.

So, is there any hope for the future selling of Britain?

Certainly tourist boards are getting their acts together and promoting different themes via various websites. East Midlands has £5 million to spend and will be pushing nights out in Nottingham and food and drink breaks in Leicestershire. Apparently, Leicestershire does have a growing culinary reputation. It may still not rival Jamaica, but its ideas sound an awful lot better than a holiday in the “East Midlands”.

But as the tourist board’s chief executive Richard Dickinson admits, this is not necessarily going to help travel agents. The board’s websites will sell direct to the public.

Retailers have more chance of success pushing established resorts (don’t call them holiday camps) of companies like Bourne Leisure, which are spending money on their products and on educating retailers about them.

TUI is among companies that is sitting up and taking note, even if it’s only because other revenue streams for its retail outlets are drying up and they need the commission.

Amazingly a three-bedroom caravan through Bourne Leisure can cost £1,100 per week during peak season, so the earning possibilities are considerable. I can’t help thinking a rebrand is in order though, in the same way that the Americans have replaced the word timeshare with vacation ownership. The word caravan just doesn’t sum up the right image for me.

So, there’s hope for the future of selling Britain, particularly short, niche breaks and quality holiday resorts. It certainly isn’t going to be easy, particularly with more people going direct. But surely for some agents it’ll be a nice little earner.

What do you think? Add your comments below.