it's a hectic week in North America! I'm writing this blog from Toronto, half-way through our Britain Marketplace week which will see around 101 UK suppliers meet with over 116 buyers at events in both New York and Canada.
Thanks to Carl Walsh and his team, New York was a fantastic success this year - I think our best yet. Our US buyers from all over the country (as well as a Mexican contingent for the first time) flocked into New York and had a very positive story to tell about buoyant levels of bookings for late 2010 and an even more promising outlook for 2011.
Of course, on Sunday the US State Department issued a travel alert to some countries in Europe and we were all pleased to see very balanced media reporting. The general response from the US public so far is that being vigilant when travelling applies to any destination in the post-9/11 world.
Back at Marketplace, it was great to see the huge level of interest for old favourites and many newcomers as well. The team worked hard to get a real spread of product from around the UK, which really delighted many of US buyers looking for new ideas. With an amazing lunch of Welsh fare sponsored by VisitWales and an evening of Festival-esque comedy sponsored by VisitScotland and Edinburgh Festivals there was no shortage of ideas.
This year, we've also picked up some strong trends within the travel industry for particular categories of product including Celebration and Event Travel; River Cruising; a reinvention of Coach Touring; Soft Adventure; and Film Tourism.
So now we move onto Toronto. The Canadians have a great understanding of the depth and range of the British product, so I'm sure a lot of really positive meetings will be taking place over the next couple of days.
I've been visiting our team in Sao Paulo this week and getting to know two new team members - Claudio Lima, Travel Trade Manager and Priscila Moraes who looks after our online and CRM work across Latin America. Those of you coming to VIBE will be able to meet Claudio next week. They are both great additions to the team - really knowledgeable about the market and fired up to sell Britain.
Also visiting Brazil this week is the Rt Hon Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, who is here meeting senior people in business and government and flying the flag for Britain. His visit is great news for the UK's prospects here, because it sends out a signal that we are serious about the market and that we want to build a closer relationship with Brazil in the future.
All of this is well timed. The economy here is predicted to grow by around 7% this year and Brazilian tourists have spent $8.6 billion abroad in the first seven months of 2010, a 56% rise on the year before, according to central bank figures released last month. Only last week Florida announced that it now gets more Brazilians visitors than Brits (a major shift) - and when they get there they spend twice as much as the Brits do!
The good news for Britain is that both TAM and BA are due to increase the number of flights from Brazil to the UK during the latter half of this year. In addition, our trade contacts across the country are reporting increases in bookings for Europe in general and the UK specifically. London of course is still the main focus for trips, but increasingly we are seeing more interest in Scotland and Liverpool.
We're working really hard to get the Britain message out there. This year our Brazil Mission will see a record number of participants - almost double the number we had just two years ago. Later this year we will be launching our new marketing campaign in Brazil, building on last year's success as well as our new Brazilian website and e-newsletter programme. And just last week we hosted one of Brazil's top celebrities in London - the result - seven fabulously glam pages in the Brazilian version of 'Hello' Magazine.
To find out more about how you can get involved with marketing your business in Brazil or elsewhere in Latin America get in touch with Robin Johnson.
As this week saw the momentous two year countdown to the start of the London 2012 Games, I thought it would be useful to follow on from Chris's blog on Tuesday and show how the games are already benefiting Britain in the Americas across all of our activities.
Media coverage is the area that is often cited as the biggest opportunity for around the 2012 Games - and that has certainly been our experience already. This week in New York we held our two-year countdown event with the British Consulate and invited many of our local media contacts along. It’s clear already that there is a tremendous amount of interest from the media in Britain as the next host destination and it is our job to convert this into programmes, features and articles that will tell a story about Britain not just in 2012 but throughout the next three years. We’ve also started to work with our Olympic broadcasters who will be providing wall to wall coverage of the games during 2012. In the USA, the media giant NBC owns the rights to the Olympic and Paralympic Games and just a couple of weeks ago we hosted a senior delegation with Visit London and took them on a whistlestop tour of potential locations around London and southern England.
Hosting the games also gives a great opportunity to strike up new relationships. The Americas team has spent the last year getting to know the National Olympic Committee (NOC) in each of our four markets. These organisations run their nation’s participation in the Games so are a natural partner. In Mexico we’ve been talking with the NOC about locations in the UK and joint promotions. In the USA, we are building close ties with the US Olympic Committee with their athletes helping us with PR activity and around ten current and former Olympians attended our event in New York last week. Over the next few months we’ll be extending our work to include Olympic sponsors in each market and are looking to strike up marketing partnerships that will help us in extending our reach over the next two years. In Brazil, we’ve gone as far as to sign a formal agreement with Embratur (VB’s Brazilian equivalent) which will see both organisations co-operating on the London and Rio Games.
On the travel trade side, there are both challenges and opportunities. We’re finding that the trade across all markets are concerned about availability of accommodation, crowds and pricing during the Games. We’ve been holding trade panels across the region to ensure we capture all of this information properly and then plan to roll out a trade programme, starting at Britain Marketplace in October. We’ve also made contact with the official Olympic travel companies where there are opportunities to help them extend their product and work on joint promotions.
The team here have been working on a strategy for over a year and we are now starting to see results. There’s still a lot to do but with just under two years to go, it’s clear that the world’s biggest event is already bringing us huge benefits! Watch this space.
Recently I've been doing a lot of work with our Latin America team on further developing the excellent strategy they introduced last year. When, like me, you have spent many years marketing Britain domestically and in mature markets like the US and Canada, it's fascinating to get to grips with life on the other side of the tracks in places like Brazil and Mexico.
The reality for Britain in these markets is that we're lower down the pecking order of desirable destinations, with the USA, Canada, France, Italy and Spain being more dominant. Also, our recent research has starkly shown that the level of understanding about Britain is much lower than the competition. This means we need to focus more on the basics which in other markets we can take for granted. Getting our message across on things like value for money, getting around Britain, food and welcome is going to be vital to making the difference in Latin America. So while we're often tempted as marketers to push the boundaries, in the case of Latin America less is certainly more - stick to the core messages ...relentlessly!
Alongside this focused communication through advertising, online and PR, we're working closely with the travel trade to build out the range of product. Getting tour operators to take risks and break away from what they know is never easy. But as we introduce more and more destination ideas through activities such as the Brazil and Mexico missions, UK fam trips and training programmes, we're seeing more and more of our trade partners starting to consider places like Scotland and Liverpool as part of their programmes. This wouldn't be possible without the pioneering work done by our UK suppliers to the Brazilian and Mexico market. They have worked hard over the years to develop the market and have invested in product that works. There is still a long way to go but as a team, alongside the industry we can really ride the wave of economic growth in Latin America!
Back in January, I remember hearing the CEO of a leading US research company say that “2010 will be the year that sucks less than 2009.” As we get to the half-way point in the year, his assessment is looking pretty accurate to me with a steadily improving picture for outbound travel in general but an atmosphere of cautious optimism among consumers and businesses.
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been involved in a few industry panels around the US - a good chance to cut through the hype and find out what’s really going on in the industry in the American market. There has been plenty to talk about - volcanoes, strikes, airline mergers and air passenger duty to name but a few. But overall, the view coming from the industry is positive – not ecstatic – but definitely positive. Tour operators are telling us their business is back to 2008 levels. Travel agents are seeing growth in volumes and those at the top end of the market are incredibly busy. Airlines have cut capacity by around 10% but are able to command higher fares than last year which is helping their business a huge amount. Even the business travel sector appears to be re-awakening.
It’s also clear that the ‘big three’ – Britain, Italy and France – have bounced back better than the rest of Europe. Many of our tour operator partners are telling us that they are seeing a huge amount of pent-up demand for their programmes to these three countries and it is fantastic to see them introducing new product to respond to that. And with the exchange rate hovering around $1.45 to the pound our value message is really compelling.
However, as the CEO I quoted pointed out, it’s important for us not to get carried away by an improving picture in the USA. Yes, the economy is predicted to grow by 3.1% this year. But high unemployment and shaky consumer confidence means that things are still a little fragile. We also have 10% less air capacity than last year. This will come back as the months go by but in the short term it could have the impact of capping demand and causing fare increases, especially in the summer months.
The inbound US figures from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) are telling us that the USA was 3% down on visitors in the first quarter of 2010. Things will undoubtedly improve in quarters two and three and there’s a strong likelihood that we will see growth in 2010. But it might be 2011 before we really have something to sing about. Unless England win the World Cup of course…
I’ll be posting again in a few weeks, but in the meantime you can stay up to date with the Americas team’s monthly market reports, and our corporate newsletter of course.
