London, England reorganizes its visitor attraction program

This week, the Finanical Times offers free webaccess, if you register. Yesterday's paper has an excellent article about the Visit London program, "London lures back the crowds REBRANDING THE CAPITAL: City authorities are attracting visitors by combining marketing, advertising and PR initiatives," by Matthew Garrahan. From the article:

The starting point for Ms Ingram back in 2002 was to change VisitLondon's priorities. "Three years ago the London Tourist Board was dominated by hotel groups and had lots of partnerships (with other businesses). We completely changed the idea of it as an organisation. "It was just about tourism before. But now (VisitLondon) is about turning London into an experience for all Londoners, people in the UK and people internationally, whether they are business people or tourists."

One of her first tasks was to oversee a new campaign which would highlight what London had to offer to visitors from the UK or abroad. The "Totally London" campaign used London street signs and typography with the aim of boosting interest in the city's museums, retail outlets, parks and other attractions. Central to the campaign's success was the support of Ken Livingstone, London's mayor. "Working with Ken we realised it would be best to take an integrated ap-proach to promoting the city. So we connected transport, theatre, retail, museums and built a programme around all of them. No one had done that before." ...

VisitLondon says more than £300 million of spending by visitors in London could be attributed to the campaign. "For every £1 spend we achieve a return of £25," says Ms Ingram, adding that keeping the campaign consistent was vital to its success, with the Totally London brand continuing to be a fixture on buses and in print advertising. "We saw the whole thing as a holistic effort and created the notion of one campaign that will last forever. Everyone who works in marketing knows that chopping and changing (your campaign) does not help." Since the launch of Totally London, VisitLondon has targeted different visitor groups, producing guides for the gay and lesbian community, for example, as well as study guides for international students...

"It's what makes London completely different to cities like New York, that sense of history and the making of history."

The point is to have a great place that appeals to in-city and in-area residents as well as to visitors from out-of-the-area (tourists, business travellers).

See these links from the Tourism Resources section, Visit London: the Mayor's Plan for Tourism and Visit London Tourism Action Plan. And this from Mayor Livingstone's website:

Totally London is a major tourism recovery campaign targeting Londoners, people from the rest of the UK and Europe. It is organised by Visit London (formerly London Tourist Board) and funded by the Mayor's London Development Agency. The next major phase of the campaign will launch in October, targeting both the European and domestic short breaks market.

Over one million Londoners took part in the second phase of the campaign, the Totally London Tour, which ran from 31 August until 28 September 2003. It featured a series of spectacular free festivals and events all over the capital that showcased some of the best of London's entertainment, shopping and attractions.

Commenting on Totally London, the Mayor said: "Londoners have really participated in every phase of the Totally London campaign so far and the Tour gave everyone a fantastic opportunity to enjoy the enormous breadth and variety the city has to offer. Over one million people getting out and about in London is great news for the capital's tourism industry."

And compare the Visit London website to the Washington Tourism website produced by the Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation. (It's as attractive as the DC Government website... which apparently continues to win awards, but is hardly well-organized, with weak search capabilities.)

If tourism promotion is a competition amongst "world class" capital cities, DC is losing.
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Also see this short from last week's Montgomery County Extra section of the Washington Post, "Tourists Bringing More Money, Greater Stature to County" which states:

When people think of tourism in this region, they think of Washington. Naturally. They think of monuments, museums and the majesty of history. But maybe they should also be thinking Strathmore Hall, Silver Spring, National Institutes of Health. Visitors to the county left behind $1.38 billion in 2004, according to a new study released by Global Insight Inc., a market research firm, and D.K. Shifflet & Associates Ltd. That's up dramatically from 1992, when the total was about $592 million.

As I say to small business owners, "To stay the same is to fall behind, because the best of your competition is constantly changing and improving what they offer in terms of products, marketing, and service."


Index Keywords: tourism