I Love Great Britain

I bloody love Great Britain.. 

As we wait with baited breathe for the government update on whether tourism can begin to open up in England on the 4th July I wanted to share some thoughts on how best to market our great ‘at home’ destination out of this crisis. I have no quick fixes or miracle solutions, but I’ve got enough grey hairs and have been through Foot & Mouth, 9/11, Iraq, SARS and more working for a myriad of UK and international destinations to hopefully offer help to those of you working in domestic tourism to simulate some ideas. 

I’ve lived and breathed tourism since I was in my late teens .. running off to America at 19 to work for the summer clutching my fake ID so we could bypass the legal drinking age (I’m generally law abiding now!). We worked in Virgina, visited DC and then did the iconic road trip down the west coast.

It was cracking and proved to be the catalyst for so much of what came next; the Australia/ south east Asia year off, road tripping in Morocco, driving across Cuba staying at Casa Particulars, hiking in South Africa’s Kwa-Zulu Natal, heading off the beaten track in East Iceland, discovering the tranquillity of Spain’s Basque Country out of season, the list goes on, I’m so lucky.

However, there was one thing which defined all of these trips, it was the journey – going from A to B in exploration. 

So, as we wait with baited breath for more definite timelines on how we can get back ‘on the road’ again, remember we don’t have to go that far for adventure. 

All of us working in this sector need to embrace this and concentrate on explaining how to make those journeys work and to bring them alive. Think through your target markets and then think about those people who you discounted before. Everything is different now and new groups of people could be your easiest wins. 

For example, we have tons of gap year students who feel robbed of their big adventure having been recalled from every corner of the world as Covid took hold. They will be far less risk-adverse than some other age groups. There is an opportunity to show them how they could swap standing under a waterfall in Lombok for wild swimming and kayaking adventures closer to home. Or, maybe how they can hike the Offa’s Dyke now the Inca Trail is off limits, or even take a cycling trip across the Cambrian mountains.

Whether it’s a train journey up the west coast of Scotland, or hopping on and off a bus around the south coast, or a road trip through the Welsh Valleys, let’s show Brits how they can holiday at home and create some pretty epic adventures. These may be ‘nano’ trips for those very close by at first embracing the new buzz word radical localisation. But, that’s OK, we have to start somewhere. 

Then later when it is possible to explore further afield let’s show people how, instead of racing down to Cornwall in 4 hours, they can actually make the journey part of the holiday and take in a few lesser known areas as stops along the way. Let’s make sure that slowing down, becomes the new normal in domestic travel.

We need to speak their language and use the right channels to communicate with them. By working on creating really good content we need to explain how the UK can be explored but in far greater depth and using example itineraries and driving routes. We need to bring our shores alive by introducing characters such wildlife guides or even a coastal forager or a wild swimming coach.

Let’s throw away the rule book of how we have done it all in the past. Working in silos and with lists of where to stay and what to do won’t cut it. I believe that to win new visitors you need to tune into the different way everyone is going to be thinking about travelling now and introduce them to the story of their next journey. 

Video content will be a key way to do this. At Travel Tonic we have been working with our partners Dream Beach Media over the past year producing some incredible footage for many clients both in the UK and overseas. We have always aimed for the content to bring emotion and relevance to those who view it.

Josh Stockdale of the Dream Beach Media believes that engaging and relevant social-first video content can influence more people than any other digital form.

This will bring alive the journeys we should all be promoting. Our team creates the concept, writes the content and storyboards, shot lists and finds the talent.

We are coming into a key time for filming with hopefully more reliable weather and if new footage can be shot with some clever editing this can be used with existing video to bring staggering results. Never underestimate the power of a good edit.

So, my advice would be - think of your best assets and how these make an adventure. Then show people how they can experience these journeys using beautifully written itineraries and stunning footage to help them imagine being there. 

If we can help anyone during this time of recovery do drop me a line. I love talking about the UK !

This showreel is some we did earlier as they say... hope you enjoy... mostly UK with a sprinkling of Finnish Lapland.