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We are keen to hear your comments regarding what you see as a limiting factor to your businesses success or what annoys / causes confusion with the current South West tourism industry. We will then review, discuss and explore possible ways of rectifying these factors for the future.
For example:
Unnecessary red tape
Skills, labour supply and rising labour costs
Confusing structures
Increasing costs of energy and insurance etc
Lack of marketing the region and its destinations.
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15 comments:
I have just been 'contacted' by Business Link, by phone, asking me if I would like business advice as I haven't been in contact with my advisor for some time...etc.
This is what annoyed and confused me:
A correspondence arrived confirming date of meeting etc. So far so good! Then I read the next page, and I quote.
"Business Link is required to measure the performance of businesses it works with. Provision of the following finacial data is a requirement for our Business Adviser services"
I find this very annoying and very intrusive. The data they reqiure is my entire business finacial arrangements, profit and loss, wages etc. They even require the ethnicity of my cleaner! all this in order to ask advice on non-finacial matters??? I think they are merely ticking boxes in order to get Goverment funding for...small businesses? NO! In order to get Government funding for BUSINESS LINK. Call me a cynic if you like! :-)
I have spoken to 'B L' who assured me that none of this information is required. The meting is in 2 weeks time. We wait with baited breath! I just hope that they are able to give me advice in the areas where my knowledge is lacking.
I fail to see why all the B & B's in Sidmouth are cutting each others throats by underselling what could be a much better structured price for such a wealthy town.
Why oh why have the fire authority stated treating family homes that have paying guests as if they are multi national hotel chains?
Marketing through SWT could be more effective and with improved government support cost less
The main problem for the Cornish tourism industry is the complete lack of coordination and direction from Visit Britain, to South West Tourism down to Visit Cornwall.
As an accommodation provider for the last 3 years, I have yet to receive an enquiry from the Visit Britain/Enjoy England sites, let alone a booking. I gave up using the SWT site for the same reason last year and now the new Visit Cornwall site is going the same way.
I believe the main issue with all the tourist boards sites is not of Search Engine Optimisation, but of usability for the visitor. They just find it too tedious to find what they are looking for on what should be the “Flagship” website for the industry.
Please give up the self gratifying award ceremonies and concentrate on why you are there, to get visitors into the region and bookings for the accommodation providers in England and the South West.
1.The demise of the Newquay Guide - first its taken over by VisitCornwall who charge more for less wording, symbols and a picture you may not want and its landscape and my guesthouse is tall and slim and now Newquay is being put with other destinations. VisitCornwall - my summer guests assume it just advertises big hotels etc and not little guesthouses so they don't get the publication. Next year I am not bothering.
2. Red tape - mini-busuinesses have to apply the same as big businesses with less staff i.e. me and its expensive proportionately.
This is our 1st year running a furnished holiday let in Devon. Of course there are the usual marketing, pricing, competition challenges, and that is to be expected. However, I have been really taken aback by the apparent lack of structure in how the various local, regional, national, public sector, private sector and quango bodies are supposed to be working together for the benefit of tourism in the South West. Perhaps we're just on a steep learning curve, but it just doesn't appear to be at all coordinated. Too many cooks, I think. It needs to be significantly simplified.
I completely agree with the comments made by IVAn.
The Visit britain site is rubbish at generating enwuiries because it is amateurish and soooo slow.
Get in some professionals please.
The problems facing all businesses, not just the Hospitality/Tourism sector is exactly the same and can be summed up by simply saying 'This Labour Government'.
It is simply impossible now to see a future for small pubs, B&B's, small hotels etc when we are being strangle by legislation and regulation which is being compounded by the very organisations apparently set up to help us. Surveys for this, polls for that. Where the heel do people like business link, the FSB, BII English Tourism etc think we get the time or money to go to meetings, fill out forms etc.
What can be done to help small business.
1. Step 1. Get rid of this Government.
2. Step 2. Leave the EU.
3. Step 3. Reduce rates and utility bills.
4. Allow a more flexible working regime by allowing employment differences. IE not be expected to pay holiday pay etc to casual staff.
In short leave us alone to run our businesses.
Hi anonymous
Re business support, the free marketing helpline provided by Veromar on behalf of various Destination Management Organisations may be your answer. It is one of several membership benefits. It provides confidential advice, no data gathering other than your business name and it is impartial. In short it supports businesses like yours.
The service is offered on the first Thursday of each month. Ask your DMO for details.
We are in Highcliffe right on the border of Hampshire,but in Dorset.
As a member of South West tourism we never get any inquiries unlike other web sites we are on.Reason being,we do not exist as in Highcliffe,but are refered to as Christchurch.Unlike Christchurch we have beaches,next to the new forest etc.Christchurch cannot offer this because it is mainly a shopping town .When i ask will south west tourism accept we are not Christchurch but Highcliffe so we can enjoy bookings from those who are looking for our type of location?
Point 2.We joined South West tourism many months ago,completed and were approved paperwork wise for a visa system.Many months later we are waiting for someone to ring us back with an installation date!!
The mind boggles what happened?
Hello Castlecake.
I was very interested in your comments regarding membership and your entry on our website.
membership has evolved this year. Instead of just joining SWT you now get the added benefit of joining your local destination management (DMO). This gives all the benefits of the regional tourist board plus the benefit of more local promotion. I would be happy to receive calls from anyone who would like futher clarification on how this works.
As regards the entry on the website. I have checked the website and we do have entries for businesses in Christchurch, Nr Christchurch and Highcliffe. Please call me regarding this as I am happy to look at the details on your website and amend them. One of the reasons for having the website is to invite consumer interest with the prospect of increasing business for our members. We are happy to offer assistance to our members in order to maximise this. ( We also have a free marketing helpline on the first Thursday of each month - they also offer help with marketing issues and queries).
Your last point regarding "the visa system" is easily remedied. I believe this is a simple error of your being overlooked. Streamline are usually excellent in responding to any enquiries within 72 hours. Please contact me and I will ensure this is done.
Vanessa Last
membership manager
01392 813085
Rapidly rising energy & waste services costs are such that to recover them we are looking at having to increase our charge by about 7 - 10% and even then, that may not be sufficient!
Will the market stand an increase of this nature at this particular time?
Completely agree with Ivan - really do struggle see any real evidence that Visit Britain's programs are working for Cornwall, let in Gloucestershire outpost.
Support from District and County Councils - by reducing their funding provision, Cotswolds looks dead set on reducing, even eliminating expenditure on Tourist Information Centres. There appears to be little or no concept of "tourism" being an industry worth their while preserving or enhancing in the Cotswolds. Is this exception or the "Tory norm"?
The problems I have in growing my business is many! *Licencing councils who cannot see past the rule book and have little or no idea about the "business". *Lack of local and national enforcement to combat the growing numbers of illegal traders.*Lack of response from the people who are meant to help promote the services we provide such as airports, local councils and tourist web sites.with the current economic climate all businesses and facilitators need to communicate much more easily and raidly
We are in Dorset with a 4 star B&B with a silver award.We feel local council controlled web sites re tourism etc and bookings are a waste of time.If for example you go on the most common(typed in)slot on the web, say B&B Christchurch etc, the local tourist site does not appear but local B&B's web sites do.
We decided as a test to ignore our local tourist office methods and systems insisted upon this summer and just note bookings coming from our own web site.We have in fact doubled our summer sales this year.All guests when asked said, they simply typed in B&B Christchurch and up we came!!!
We have had a year without filling in silly boxes the tourism site insists upon and life has got so much better bookings wise.
Perhaps people who run B&B's should be suggesting ideas,not non experianced B&B business people?
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