Promotion
Why marketing makes sense

When the economic climate turns stormy, it is often the case that marketing budgets are among the first to be cut. And the Larking Gowen Norfolk Tourism Survey suggests that some local businesses have been thinking this way.

When asked “What is the single most important factor that will affect your turnover in 2010?” only 13pc said “marketing”, whereas 46pc cited the economy and 25pc the weather. In addition, when asked “What proportion of your turnover is spent on promotion/marketing?”, 37pc of people said “up to 5pc”, and 34pc of them said “up to 2pc”.


There ought to be a one-stop shop for Norfolk, where everyone can look for events, a calendar, places of interest.


Of course, the weather is a serious factor in determining the fortunes of many businesses in Norfolk’s tourism economy. Of the types of business making up the sector, some pray for the rain to stay away — for instance, the many Broads boat-hire businesses, or the zoos and other outdoor animal attractions — while others, such as museums and historic buildings, benefit from people wanting to stay indoors.

The survey suggests that there is a significant degree of scepticism about the way that the county is marketed. Just over half (53pc) think that Norfolk is sufficiently well promoted as a tourist destination, but among the 47pc who disagree, there are certain recurring themes.

“Too many agencies all trying to do the same thing,” states one respondent. “There ought to be a one-stop shop for Norfolk, where everyone can look for events, a calendar, places of interest. It would be better for advertising, better for clients.”

Others strike the same chord, citing a “lack of joined-up promotion among the various stakeholders and tourism bodies”, or saying that “the relationship between what the county offers and the distinct destinations, for example the Broads, remains haphazard” and there are “too many publicly funded organisations with differing and selfinterested agendas”.

Michael Timewell, a director of Blue Sky Leisure and head of Norfolk Tourism, perhaps unsurprisingly, rejects the idea that there is a lack of cohesion.

“I don’t think that that’s the case,” he says. “We work very hard to bring the different organisations together. All these people have been involved in the drawing up of a sector marketing plan. There is co-ordination, and maybe we need to bang the drum a bit more. Perhaps we need to start communicating that more effectively. And maybe they (business owners) need to start to engage more with us.”

Chris Scargill, tourism and hospitality partner at Larking Gowen, chartered accountants and business advisors, says of these comments: “It was interesting to see that 47pc of businesses say that Norfolk is not sufficiently promoted. We have seen elsewhere in the survey positive growth in Norfolk tourism business so something must be working somewhere! There does seem to be concern that there needs to be greater collaboration between the likes of Visit Norwich, Visit Norfolk, the Broads Forum, the Greater Yarmouth Tourism Authority and other similar bodies but I believe that is happening to a certain extent but may not yet necessarily be promoted as such.

“Of the 47pc of businesses desiring greater promotion, some 73pc state that they would not be willing to pay any more to better promote the county which suggests, by implication, that they believe it is Local Government funding that should start the ball rolling, rather than it being something for the private sector. With the current economic climate and cut-backs, this is not going to happen, and therefore the challenge for the tourism bodies is to obtain greater “buy in” from the many businesses in the sector who can, when working together, offer a greater promotion product.”