Visit Isle of Wight’s first visitor economy conference saw over 120 representatives of business head to Newport’s Medina Theatre to hear from a wide range of speakers on Thursday 01 Feb.
An opening speech from Visit Isle of Wight’s Chair David Curtis-Brignell MBE welcoming candidates set the tone for working together, followed by presentations from speakers from national organisations VisitEngland and the Travel Foundation, local companies Hovertravel and HTP Apprenticeship College and a presentation from branding agency Designate alongside Visit Isle of Wight MD Will Myles, with opportunities to ask questions to each speaker.
Stokes: Working in partnership from top to bottom
Andrew Stokes OBE, Director of VisitEngland spoke about the recent Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) status awarded to Visit Isle of Wight, emphasising the importance of working together.
Andrew said that he came away from the conference buoyed by the positive attitude of Island businesses,
“I think the thing that has really impressed me most about the Visit Isle of Wight Visitor Economy Conference is absolutely written all over it, is working in partnership, and that’s from top to bottom and the way that they’re approaching some of the major strategic interventions around accessibility and sustainability [is] really top notch and you don’t get that everywhere. It has a really nice individual feel to it.”
Calladine: A lot of low or no cost changes that businesses can make
Ross Calladine, Accessibility and Lead Inclusion at Visit England and the Government appointed Disability and Access Ambassador for Tourism gave a presentation with Neil Chapman, MD at Hovertravel, highlighting the importance of accessibility and ways it can be addressed.
Ross said that accessibility covers many different elements and businesses should embrace the push to greater accessibility awareness:
“I think there is a natural fear factor, businesses don’t want to get accessibility wrong, but there are a lot of low or no cost changes that businesses can make.
“Some of those are to do with physical adjustments, but actually more to do with the welcome, training yourself and your staff to be disability aware.”
Ross continued,
“This isn’t a one size fits all, businesses can go on a journey with their accessibility, and they can make improvements over a long period of time, so you want to keep that information up to date.”
February Webinars
Visit Isle of Wight will be hosting two webinars in February, working with the HD Sunflower organisation and encouraging Island businesses to become more aware of non-visible disabilities and how to make the Isle of Wight a welcoming and inclusive location for all.
The drive towards more sustainable tourism was addressed by industry expert Rebecca Armstrong from the Travel Foundation, with Amy Summers, Sustainable Travel manager from Visit Isle of Wight providing key insights into approaches from businesses across the world and what Visit Isle of Wight is doing to promote sustainable tourism and travel to and from the Island.
Visit Isle of Wight backed this message with the opportunity of sustainable bus travel to and from the conference, in association with Southern Vectis for all delegates.
Staffing in the hospitality sector
Rachael Randall CEO and founder of local training provider HTP Apprenticeship College looked at ways to tackle the growing problem of staffing in the hospitality sector, from attracting recruits and retaining staff, providing examples of strategies that have worked for businesses, including clear career progression, improving the employee experience and rewarding staff members.
Twixmas campaign
The final presentation of the day included an overview of the current marketing strategy of Visit Isle of Wight, the success of the recent Twixmas campaign, with examples of how businesses can get involved with the marketing team, followed by an early sneaky-peak at an ongoing branding analysis of how the Isle of Wight is viewed and ways that this can be distilled to project a strong image of the Island for visitors.
Myles: It was an encouraging day, with plenty of interaction
Speaking of the success of the Visitor Economy Conference, Will Myles, MD at Visit Isle of Wight said,
“I’d like to thank all of our speakers at the Visitor Economy Conference and those who attended. It was an encouraging day, with plenty of interaction between speakers and attendees.
“The opportunity for networking at lunch time gave everyone a chance to talk. We all work hard to make sure that visitors to the Island enjoy their stay, so an event like the Visitor Economy Conference is vital to give people the chance to talk to each other, catch up with old friends, make new connections and hopefully everyone came away with new information that will help them in their businesses.”
All presentations are available to view on the Visit Isle of Wight industry website Visit Wight Pro.
Mews shared by Simon on behalf of Visit Isle of Wight. Ed
