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www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org

Issue 29 www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org June 2014

Following on from the success of last year’s inaugural Oxfordshire Cotswolds Tourism Superstar, we are delighted to announce that we will again be running this initiative.

We are searching for our very own Oxfordshire Cotswolds Tourism Superstar: an individual who is instrumental in giving the visitor the best possible experience. In association with VisitEngland, our national tourist board and the Witney Gazette, our media partner, we are now searching for the 2014 Oxfordshire Cotswolds Tourism Superstar.

We are looking for an individual working in the tourism sector in West Oxfordshire, either front of house or behind the scenes, who is passionate about the Oxfordshire Cotswolds and goes above and beyond the call of duty to make the visitor experience that little bit more special; a person who is welcoming, friendly and has demonstrated a commitment to making every visitor’s trip memorable.

It’s time for you to nominate someone from your business to give them the recognition they deserve.

We are looking to shine a light on the fantastic range of businesses and individuals that we have across the Oxfordshire Cotswolds whether the business is large or small, an attraction or accommodation provider, a tour guide or an events company. The individual will be one that interacts with customers and enhances the visitor experience so it could be a receptionist, waiter, customer services assistant, or tour guide – anyone you can think that really makes a difference.

We look forward to receiving your nomination!

The five shortlisted candidates will be announced in the Witney Gazette in July and there will then be an online vote, which will close on 29th July 2014.

The winner will be announced at the Oxfordshire Cotswolds Summer Networking Event that will take place at Eynsham Hall on Wednesday 13th August between 5pm and 8pm

The winner will be eligible for nomination to the 2015 VisitEngland national campaign.

Searching for our Tourism Superstar

The Criteria

The Oxfordshire Cotswolds Tourism Superstar must:

- Work in a business that welcomes visitors

- Go above and beyond the call of duty to make the visitor experience one to remember

- Be available and willing to attend the finalists’ event on Wednesday 13th August

- Be aware that they have been nominated and happy to participate in any related PR and media opportunities

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org/superstar

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org

VisitBritain in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds

North American Buyers’ Visit

Following on from the work we have been doing in the

North American market over recent years we were

delighted to host a travel trade delegation from North

America and Canada in March.

The group consisted of 30 delegates: key buyers and

agents; travel media and VisitBritain overseas staff. The

visit was a great success and was based on our new

Downton Abbey product, which is proving very

successful in this market.

We worked in partnership with the following businesses

to deliver the familiarisation visit and would like to thank

them for being involved: The Swan Inn Swinbrook,

Bampton Archive, Blenheim Palace, The Old Swan &

Minster Mill and International Friends.

Laurie Scott, the Partnership Development Manager for

VisitBritain in New York said:

‘The group thoroughly enjoyed their visit. It was great to

see so much of the product that we promote and really

interesting to see the new Downton Abbey itinerary.

The buyers and media were very interested in the

Oxfordshire Cotswolds and what it has to offer’.

One of the buyers, Laure DeMaio – Director at Global

Consolidated Services Inc., commented:

‘Now that I’ve seen how beautiful your part of the

country is, I need to make sure we’re showing it off the

best way and in as many ways as possible!’

VisitBritain European Staff Visit

We were also delighted to host VisitBritain’s European

B2B Team this month for their annual strategy day and

familiarisation visit -. a great opportunity to promote the

area to those who actually manage the overseas markets.

Representatives attended from London, Sweden,

Germany, France, Denmark, Poland, Spain, Norway,

Holland, Belgium, Italy and Russia.

We worked closely with local businesses to ensure this

will be a great showcase for the area and would like to

thank the following businesses for their participation:

Eynsham Hall, Oxford Bus Museum, Wychwood

Brewery, Blenheim Palace, The Bear in Woodstock and

First Great Western Trains.

This was a great profile-raising opportunity helping to

promote the Oxfordshire Cotswolds in these important

overseas markets.

Kevin Jones, B2B and Commercial Manager at VisitBritain

attended the visit and said:

‘We were amazed by the kind hospitality of the

Oxfordshire Cotswolds and all their destination partners.

It really was a great showcase and all of the VisitBritain

team went away enthused and knowing a lot more

about the destination that will help us to promote it out

in the different markets’.

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org

Learn the secrets of PR

Do you read the papers in the morning and wonder how on

earth that local business manages to get their news in the

press week in, week out? It's time to answer all of those

nagging questions and find out how you can do exactly the

same.

On Tuesday 24th June we are running a fantastic FREE half

day workshop in Witney, hosted by PR Agency Director

Catherine Warrilow of Seriously PR, in which you will learn:

How PR, marketing, advertising and social media are

different

How to prepare your business for PR

The basic principles of PR to help you start

communicating your news

How to really understand your target market

Finding your news story

Getting your news into the press and on the radio

Some really important do's and don'ts

Monitoring your efforts and maximising your impact

This is an interactive workshop with activities, question time

and lots more, all designed to help you get the exposure that

your business deserves.

Catherine has over 10 years industry experience and will be

able to answer all of your questions - she's full of great ideas

and really knows how to find the newsworthy stories within

your business. She'll give you tips specific to what you do

and help you to feel inspired and motivated to promote

your business effectively.

Seriously PR specialises in travel, tourism and leisure so this

workshop is especially beneficial if you fall into these

categories but will be relevant to all business sectors.

Please reserve a space in advance to avoid disappointment.

Date: Tuesday 24 June

Time: 11am – 3pm (light lunch included)

Venue: Committee Room 2, West Oxfordshire District

Council, Woodgreen Offices, Witney OX28 1NB

Moving Crocodiles

Congratulations to Shaun Foggett and his team

at Crocodiles of the World.

Not only did they successfully manage their

move to smart new premises on the Burford

Road near Brize Norton (the old Foxbury Farm

site) but they’ve also been busy acquiring some

great new exhibits including three young adult

female Salties (Saltwater Crocodiles) – the

world’s largest living reptiles!

The UK’s only crocodile zoo is now open seven

days a week and a great addition to both the

year round and child friendly attractions in the

Oxfordshire Cotswolds.

www.crocodilesoftheworld.co.uk

The Bedroom Browser

Many thanks to all those local businesses who

supported this year’s publication.

If any accommodation providers have still not got

their copies then don’t worry there are still some

available in the Visitor Information Centres in Burford

and Witney or you can contact Chris Jackson.

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org

The Cotswolds Destination Management Plan

In February 2013 VisitEngland invited local tourism partners and businesses across the Cotswolds to step forward and develop a Destination Management Plan. After a great deal of discussion and consultation a Destination Management Plan for tourism across the Cotswolds is now complete. The vision for the Cotswolds aspires to make it a year round destination through the sustainable growth of the Cotswolds visitor economy by 5% per annum. The plan aims to set strategic direction for tourism across the Cotswolds and harness collaboration across all sectors to bring growth in the industry. You can download a copy of the Destination Management Plan and view comments that were received as part of the consultation for tourism across the Cotswolds on The Cotswolds website: www.cotswolds.com/trade-room

The countdown to next year’s Rugby World Cup has begun – there are now less than

500 days to go.

When you’re planning next year’s marketing it may well be worth bearing in mind that:

many of our most important overseas markets have teams playing in the competition:

USA, Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand and Japan have all

qualified; Kingsholm (in Gloucester) is one of the official match venues; (with four fixtures

including USA v Japan on 11th October); there is a lot of ‘free time’ for fans to fill in be-

tween matches

If you have any ‘rugby connections’ or other possible rugby related PR stories then it is

probably time to start dusting them off and getting ready to use them.

The Rugby World Cup runs from 18th September until 31st October 2015.

www.rugbyworldcup.com

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org

Promoting the Oxfordshire Cotswolds

Destination Britain APMEA

In May we attended Destination Britain APMEA in

Malaysia in partnership with Blenheim Palace. This was

the 11th year of running the event and is VisitBritain’s

largest overseas trade mission.

Around 60 UK & Irish suppliers attended as well as over

100 buyers and media from China, Hong Kong, Japan,

India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Australia, New Zealand, South

Africa, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Thailand

and Cambodia.

The event saw us attend a full schedule of one-to-one

business appointments that gave us the opportunity to

meet over 100 of the best travel agents, tour operators

and media from 17 markets throughout the Asia Pacific,

Middle East and Africa region to promote the

Oxfordshire Cotswolds as a must see visitor destination.

We met with qualified leads that will help secure

business in these fast growing and dynamic regions.

Interest in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds was extremely

high and we have already seen a significant number of

enquiries come in as a result.

Brochure request campaigns

Every year we run a number of brochure request

campaigns, sending out the Visitor Guide in response to

these requests. This year the campaigns have been very

successful with over 12,000 brochures sent out already

this year in response to the main campaigns:l

The Oxfordshire Cotswolds website

The Oxfordshire Cotswolds website is currently

breaking all records: unique visitor numbers were up

60% during the first four months of the year (compared

to the same period last year) and website hits are now

close to 1m a month.

Emarketing

We’ve been slowly building our media, travel trade and

consumer contact databases sending out regular

enewsletters to each sector – an average send of almost

10,000 per month and with an open rate of just under

30%.

Social Media

While continuing to work on our Twitter and Facebook

channels we’ve recently started putting some concerted

effort into Pinterest with the creation of a number of

new boards and additions to existing ones.

Great for Groups - Manchester

The Oxfordshire Cotswolds will be having a stand at

this year’s Great for Groups exhibition at Trafford Park

in Manchester on September 3rd.

After doing a four day event earlier this year at the

Trafford Centre it became evident that there’s a vast

audience out there wanting to visit us.

We have already booked a stand and will represent the

Oxfordshire Cotswolds as a whole but if any tourism

business wishes to partner us then please let us know.

To find out more information about the show please

visit www.greatforgroups.co.uk/north/

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org

Rugby World Cup 2015

The countdown to next year’s Rugby World Cup has

begun – there are now less than 500 days to go.

When you’re planning next year’s marketing it may well

be worth bearing in mind that:

Many of our most important overseas markets

have teams playing in the competition: USA,

Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, South Africa,

New Zealand and Japan have all qualified

Kingsholm (in Gloucester) is one of the official

match venues (with four fixtures including USA v

Japan on 11th October)

There is a lot of ‘free time’ for fans to fill in

between matches

If you have any ‘rugby connections’ or other possible

rugby related PR stories then it is probably time to start

dusting them off and getting ready to use them.

The Rugby World Cup kicks off on 18th September

and runs until 31st October 2015.

www.rugbyworldcup.com

The winner is announced!

We received over 250 entries for this year's photographic competition, making the choice of shortlist and then winner

exceptionally difficult . A big thank you to all the entrants and congratulations to you all - the standard of entries was truly

exceptional.

However there can only be one winner and that is Howard Sherwood, who took this wonderful picture of a wheat field

near Lyneham. He will receive a beautiful reproduction of his entry mounted onto a 30 x 20 inch art canvas – ready to

hang on the wall - which has been kindly donated by Blueprint Imaging Limited plus a scrumptious afternoon tea for two

served in the Wedgwood Lounge compliments of De Vere Venues Heythrop Park Resort

The Oxfordshire Cotswolds Visitor Guide 2015

We are just starting work on the 2015 Oxfordshire Cotswolds Visitor Guide, so look out for the information and entry forms arriving very soon.

This year there will be a change with regard to our management of tourism accommodation in the guide as we recognise that the rigorous assessment of Quality Assurance (star rating) might not be so relevant now or suitable for every business.

In response we have introduced a Quality Charter – please read it carefully when you receive it.

2014 Photographic Competition

The Cotswolds

Discoverer - it's just the

ticket!

The Cotswolds Discoverer pass is the perfect and hassle-free way for your guests to travel around and explore much of the Cotswolds by bus and by train.

With either a one-day or three-day pass offering unlimited* travel, they can visit a wide range of attractions, towns and villages including gardens, historic buildings, picture-postcard villages.

As well as enjoying a great day out or short break, they can also save money on travel costs, as well as helping to look after our precious environment by leaving the car behind.

*not valid on rail services before 08.50, Mondays to Fridays.

You can buy the Cotswolds Discoverer at any mainline train station in the UK or on participating bus services in the Cotswolds: (Cotswold Green; Johnson's Excelbus; Pulham's Coaches, Go Ride CIC and Swanbrook.)

Costs Adult 1day £10 Adult 3 day £25 Child 1 day £5 Child 3 day £12.50

www.escapetothecotswolds.org.uk/discoverer

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org

Winners, one and all!

Congratulations to all the local businesses who have won awards and

accolades over the past few months! Here are just a few of the

recent winners…

At the West Oxfordshire Business Awards (WOBAs):

Witney Lakes Resort won the Heythrop Park Leisure, Tourism and

Hospitality Award

Aston Pottery wont the Blenheim Palace Rural Business award

At the Oxfordshire Business Awards winners aren’t announced unitl

the awards dinner on June 20 but we are guaranteed a local winner

in the Four Pillars Cultural Evets & Tourism Award as all three

finalists are from the Oxfordshire Cotswolds! Good luck to The Old

Swan & Minster Mill; Chipping Norton Literary Festival and Aston

Pottery

VisitEngland Awards for Excellence

The Feathered Nest

Country Inn won the

coveted national Tourism

Pub of the Year category –

for the second year running.

Last, but by no means least,

a special mention should

also be made of our very

own Burford Vis itor

Information Centre, who

got a Gold Award from the

Green Tourism Business

Scheme.

Summer Showcase Spectacular

Come and meet leading venues and suppliers from Oxford and Oxfordshire who are renowned for hosting meetings and events on every scale.

• World class venues and services • Face-to-face discussions • Local businesses who can help with incentive planning • Completely free of charge to attend, including complimentary drinks and refreshments •Workshops and events scheduled throughout the event

Date: Wednesday 13th August 2014 Time: 3–7pm Venue: Saïd Business School, Oxford OX1 1HP

Register on line at www.meetoxfordshire.com or contact the Meet Oxfordshire (T: 01865 252799 E: enquiries@meetoxfordshire.com)

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org

Eynsham Hall

Refurbishment

Following the acquisition of Eynsham Hall by

The Cathedral Group, Eynsham Hall has

undergone significant refurbishment works - in

total, £2m has been spent to date with a

further £500k planned for this year.

The conference, wedding and leisure venue, set

in 3,000 acres of manicured parklands and

grounds, has seen a total renovation of all the

function rooms including the impressive library

which combines traditional oak panelling with

geometric wallpaper and striped furnishings.

The bedrooms in the main hall as well as those

in the separate lodge and court buildings are

being made over with many already completed.

Dining facilities are impressive - many guests

credit the food and the service from all staff as

being the real draw to this venue, on top of the

Jacobean grandeur of the mansion house.

www.eynshamhall.com

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org

Join the Oxfordshire Cotswolds (OxCots) on

A big summer ahead in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds

The Times recently ran an article on the best music festivals this summer and of

these no less than three were right here in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. When

you consider the other major events taking place, like the CLA Game Fair at

Blenheim Palace, you can see that there’s a

great summer season ahead.

Major events this summer include:

Blenheim Palace Flower Show - 20/22 June

Cornbury Festival – 4/6 July

CLA Game Fair – 18/20 July

Wilderness Festival – 8/10 August

The Big Feastival – 30/31 August

Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials

– 11/14 September

For more information on these (and any other

events taking place locally) then visit the

What’s On section of ourwebsite

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org/whats-on

Hayley Beer Tourism Services Manager

hayley.beer@westoxon.gov.uk

01993 861561

Chris Jackson Tourism Development Officer chris.jackson@westoxon.gov.uk

01993 861563

Diane Blackwell Tourism Development Officer

diane.blackwell@westoxon.gov.uk

01993 861553

Wendy Dancer Visitor Information Centres

wendy.dancer@cotswold.gov.uk 01285 623261

West Oxfordshire District Council Tourism Team

DIARY dates

11 June Using Social Media for your Business

Subsidised workshop

24 June Learn the Secrets of PR

Free workshop

13 August Summer networking/Tourism Superstar Event

15-21 September West Oxfordshire Week