So how do you go about marketing the ancient city of Chester and the county of Cheshire in the UK?

Visit Chester & Cheshire is the tourism management organisation for Chester and Cheshire, which not only includes the ancient city of Chester, [One of Chester’s ancient Roman streets looking towards the Catherdal is pictured right] but all the amazing little towns, villages countryside and canal network of this amazing county, which is so close to Manchester International Airport, yet relatively undiscovered.

It is without doubt an amazing place to get off the beaten track and discover little hidden villages, towns, pubs and restaurants, but more about that later in the Mole on location in Europe.

In terms of the structure of tourism in the UK, there are interesting comparison with Australia in that Visit Chester & Cheshire is one of five tourism boards in the Northwest, rather like an RTO, but it is funded and supported by North West Regional Development Agency, 7 local authorities and over 400 private sector tourism stakeholders in Cheshire.

Set up in April 2004 it has a clear mission:  “We will build our tourism industry to generate economic return for all, through our vision, passion, positive action and effective partnership working.”

In its first year VCC sought to build its partnership base, develop a strong corporate profile locally and regionally, and begin to enthuse its partners to the possibilities for developing the tourism economy of Cheshire.

[Pictured left: An example of Chester’s famous double level “Rows” shopping streets]

The task for year 2 was to continue momentum but also to begin to raise the profile of Chester and Cheshire’s tourism assets to selected target markets within the UK and no in year 4 VCC has successfully merged with the Chester and Cheshire Conference Bureau and relocated to Chester Railway Station.

Visit Chester & Cheshire brings together a cross section of businesses throughout Cheshire & Warrington, from hotels and attractions to B&Bs, shops & restaurants, to build a vibrant, sustainable visitor economy and by working together they are able to present a unified voice at local, regional and national level.

Visit Chester & Cheshire says that members demonstrate their commitment & passion for their county and industry and to help them, Visit Chester & Cheshire has created an online Membership Lounge, where the industry can find the benefits available to their business and members’ news, together with details on up and coming members’ meetings and members’ contact information.

[Pictured right: One of Cheshire’s many canal lock side local pubs – where the locals go for a drink on a Sunday lunchtime!]

Visit Chester & Cheshire is clearly committed to quality and to become a member, all accommodation providers must participate in the National Quality Assurance Standards, as operated by VisitBritain (Quality in Tourism) and the AA.

They also believe that a successful visitor economy depends upon the people and the product that visitors will come into contact with on arrival in their destination and their various support activities aim to help businesses to develop, so the products they are marketing are of the highest standard and accordingly they also operate an extensive business support programme offering training and skills development, grading of accommodations and attractions, careers in hospitality, 1 to 1 advice for new and existing businesses, networking and clusters and information on legislation and accessibility.  They also have dedicated advisors based at the Rural Enterprise Gateway who are committed to helping businesses access the support they need and they have local visitor economy managers in the towns of Crewe, Nantwich and Macclesfield can help provide a local support to businesses.

[Pictured left: Yes, the canals are narrow and yes, this is a narrow boat – Cheshire boasts Britain’s most extensive canal network and while a legacy of Britain’s industrial heritage, this is a great holiday product.

In the area of marketing, Visit Chester & Cheshire offers an very extensive range of marketing opportunities, working in partnership with private and public sector stakeholders to raise the profile of the destination and generate short breaks to the region.  

Interestingly, their marketing activity is based around key thematic experiences and often leads with what they call the attack brand of Chester, leveraging off its well known name and reputation in both domestic and some international markets.

Consultation is also key to their success, with Visit Chester & Cheshire saying that they ensure that they  have support for all of the activity they undertake and that they carry out a consultation process every year sharing their business plan with stakeholders, in the belief that working in partnership and pooling ideas and resources can have a greater impact on the visitor economy of Chester & Cheshire.

They also encourage members to add a Visit Chester & Cheshire destination message to their own marketing through, linking to their our consumer websites (www.visitchester.com and www.visitcheshire.com) from the operators own website, promoting the Visit Chester & Cheshire websites on their own literature and adopting the ‘Cheshire Brand’ in the operators own marketing, with many taking up the offer.

So have a look at what Nicolas Said, Visit Chester & Cheshire’s Corporate Development Manager had to say when John Alwyn-Jones had a chat with her for TravelMole TV by clicking on this link:

http://www.travelmole.tv/watch_vdo.php?sid=75&id=14528

and you may find that there are some excellent lessons for Australia!

A TravelMole on location in Europe report.