Visit Isle of Wight’s new Managing Director, Will Myles, has been in the job almost five months.
With his feet now firmly under the table OnTheWight went over to Newport’s Guildhall yesterday (Monday) to have a gentle chat to the man in charge of promoting the Island as a tourism destination and find out what his plans for the future are (jump to the podcast).
Established background in tourism marketing
Will has been living on the Island for five years, working previously as Head of Sales and Marketing for UKSA. Prior to that he spent many years working in tourism industry at Ripley Castle, Yorkshire Tourist Board and P&O Ferries.
During our conversation he talks more about his previous experience in destination marketing and his journey to this point in the podcast.
Taking the Isle of Wight off the Island
As we talk to Will, he begins by highlighting the importance of the brand marketing campaigns at Waterloo Station, how his organisation is tasked with taking the Isle of Wight off the Island and telling potential visitors about the amazing things we’ve got here.
Stats from last year show that 6% of visitors were not UK residents, but from continental Europe and beyond. Will says they plan to grow that market, adding that camping walking and cycling on the Island are big attractions for Benelux countries.
Listen to the podcast to hear Will’s top five things that sell the Island to visitors.
‘Stopping power’
Marketing campaigns have to have ‘stopping power’, and that’s the aim for 2019, says Will. The Visit Isle of Wight team are currently working with creatives coming up with ideas for 2019’s marketing campaign.
He explained that once the ideas are more established and polished, they’ll be taken to the BID levy payers and partners and see how they feel about the ideas and how they can get further involved.
Involvement of those at the coal face
Will believes the BID levy payers should have a say and some input into how the Island is marketed. “People have to be engaged with the campaigns,” he says.
He added how important the contributions from those at the coal face of tourism can be and explained that as a previous BID levy payer himself, he believes it does work.
Getting ‘more bang for your buck’
Going forward, Visit Isle of Wight will working towards getting ‘more bang for your buck’.
Up against the likes of Devon, Cornwall and Scotland, who all have massive marketing budgets, the Isle of Wight will have to be more creative with how they spend their money. They plan to be doing more digital work, ensuring that everyone is engaged in the conversation.
BID future
The Isle of Wight is just about to enter the third year of the BID, with another three years to run. There are no planned changes at the moment, but Will said the vast majority of BID levy payers are happy.
“There’ll always be some who don’t want to engage, but that’s democracy we live in,” he said.
Ferries not a barrier
We touch on the – thorny for some – issue of ferries to the Isle of Wight.
For those living here, the situation is very different of course, but as Will explains, it’s just not an issue for most people visiting the Island for a holiday.
“It’s part and parcel of their holiday,” he said.
Watch this space
We finish by looking to the future, Will explains that 2019 will be ‘our year’ and to watch this space. The marketing campaign for 2019 will be revealed around late November/December 2018.
In the meantime, with a second set of eyes, he’ll be tweaking plans for this year and points out some of the great events coming up, such as UK Pride (this Saturday, 21st July).
Listen to the podcast in full (22 mins)
