Agenda and minutes

Holly Booker

(including renewable energy/waste reduction/recycling ideas)

Members of the Forum enjoyed a guided tour of the facility, which included viewing renewable energy/waste reduction/recycling ideas.

Julie Roberts, Town Centre Tourism and Markets Manager.

Holly Booker, RSPB Old Moor, welcomed those present and thanked John Silker for Chairing the meeting.

Joanne Edley, Tourism Officer, reported on the following:-

(i)       Rotherham Tourism Plan which had been compiled in consultation with Forum members.

An update on progress from April 2005 to January 2006 was distributed, together with action points identified to achieve the six objectives.

It was pointed out that there had been additions from the Museum, Magna, Chesterfield Canal Partnership and from a community group which wanted to open up two railway lines connecting Sheffield and Worksop, and the group had been working with the YES project at Rother Valley Country Park about getting one line up and running.

(ii)      Market Research Results

120 questionnaires had been sent out and the questionnaire had been made available on line.

22 responses were received and analysed.

The aim of the questionnaire was to find out the target market for the area, to see where there was partnership working and to see where to promote Rotherham.

The results were summarised as follows:-

Gender:-  both male and female

Age Group:- aim for people over 36, with a good cross section

Regions:-  (where promote to) – the north of England, followed by the Midlands

Overseas customers:-  only 5% targeted overseas customers directly;  cross section world-wide.  (It was noted that the Council had been looking at promotion in Ireland – however, that country was not identified in the survey)

Niche Markets:-  identified as walking, golf and history

Group travel:-  promote the weekend market to group travel market both as Rotherham and South Yorkshire.  Rotherham’s Tourism Officer had offered to lead on the production of a Group Travel Guide with the other three South Yorkshire local authorities.

Marketing budget:-  50% of the organisations spent from £0 to £500;  8% upto £30,000.

Exhibitions:-  50% attended exhibitions;  54% would benefit from partnership working

Minority groups:  10% targeted BME communities:  5% targettted Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Trans-sexual groups mainly for weddings.

(iii)      Access Guide

It was noted that work was currently on hold to ensure that information in the guide was accurate.

The Access Officer had carried out visits to various establishments and offered advice.

A free training course was held on 23^rd January and a further course was scheduled for 30^th August, 2006.

Organisations were encouraged to contact Joanne if they want the Access Officer to visit and if they wished to be included in the Access Guide.

Contact details:-  Joanne Edley,  Tourism Officer, Rotherham Visitor Information Centre.  Tel:  01709 336891 or Email:-  joann/edley@rotherham.gov.uk

(1)      Clare Warsop, Visitor Centre Co-ordinator, reported on the following:-

(i)       Visitor Centre

Book a Bed Ahead (BABA’s) – from April 2005 to March 2006 = 74 (7 were to areas outside of the Borough).

The aim was to increase this number by 5% to 78.

(ii)      Footfall

The target was 68,000 and the actual had been 70,040.  The same target had been set for the coming year.

(iii)      Income

This year’s income target was £19,000.

(iv)      Business Plan

The plan would include aims to improve customer satisfaction, services and products.

Forum Members were invited to discuss the plan and any ideas with RMBC Tourism staff.

(2)      Joanne Edley, Tourism Officer, reported on:-

(i)       Visitor Centre Customer Satisfaction Survey results – October 2005 to March 2006

A Summary of results compared with the highest scores for the Destination Performance City Group 4 Results was distributed to those present.

The survey had assessed:-

• Speed of service
• Quality of customer service
• Information made available
• Goods for sale
• Services available
• Ease of entry
• Ease of finding/signposting
• Overall impression

It was pointed out that this was the first survey of the Visitor Centre and it had only covered a six month period.

(ii)      Charter Mark

It was reported that the Visitor Centre was applying for Charter Mark status and the results of the visitor survey would be fed into the assessment application and recommendations.

(iii)      Visitor Centre products

Forum Members were asked to contact the Visitor Centre Co-ordinator if they had any CD Roms/DVD’s available to sell through the Visitor Centre.

Michelle Mellor, Assistant Tourism Officer, reported on the following activities:-

(i)       Dublin Holiday World – 4 day event

Approx. 50,000 attended.  The Yorkshire brand attracted a lot of interest and it was an opportunity to promote the new Airport at Doncaster.

A competition was run with prizes (e.g. golf weekend from Hellaby Hall).

Information gained at the event identified Ireland as an emerging market.  (documentation attached to the minutes at Appendix 1)

(ii)      Great Days Out Fair – group and coach organisers

Approx. 3,500 attended.  It was proposed that next year the stand would be bigger and would be organised with partners.

(iii)      Outdoor Show

To promote the Walking Festival and other outdoor activities.  This attracted approx 55-58,000 over three days.

(iv)      Forthcoming Events

Festival Market in the town centre – 11^th to 13^th May

Walking Festival – 3^rd to 16^th July

Thorpe Salvin Garden Trail – 29^th to 30^th July

Rotherham by the Sea – 7^th to 19^th August

Rotherham Show – 9^th and 10^th September

It was noted that the Rotherham Round Walk had been organised for 30^th April, 2006.

Caroline Wilson, South Yorkshire Tourism Officer, reported on the progress of the establishment of the South Yorkshire Destination Management Partnership.

The following appointments had been made:-

Appointment of Chairman:  Chris Welsh

Appointment of Chief Executive:  Richard Jones

The Partnership Agreement had been agreed by both Barnsley and Sheffield.  It was expected that Rotherham and Doncaster would approve it within the next two months.

Appointment of Non-Executive Board Members:-  there had not been a lot of response to the advert and therefore late applications were being accepted.

Funding:-  Yorkshire Forward had approved £2m to run the organisation and a bid was being written for £1.5m Objective 1 money for marketing of South Yorkshire.

South Yorkshire Tourism Website:-  this was now running and was edited regularly.

YTB Membership:-  it was reported that because the DMP was not in place in April the YTB Membership would remain.  In the longer term a joint membership was being looked into i.e. join the DMP and access YTB through one payment.  It was hoped that this would open up many more benefits.

Skills Event:  held in March for businesses to look at taking advantage of courses and training available.

COVE: work continued with the South Yorkshire colleges.  A Careers Event had been held for teachers to talk about why youngsters should take up employment in the tourism sector.

Annie Websdell

Annie Websdell, Learning and Skills Council, gave a presentation about skills development opportunities, and detailed the following three programmes:-

(i)       Invest in Skills Phases 1 and 2

(ii)      Train to Gain

(iii)      Apprenticeships

A handout of the PowerPoint slides is appended to the minutes (Appendix 2).

For further information contact:- 

Annie Websdell, Learning and Skills Council, The Straddle, Victoria Quays, Wharfe Street, SHEFFIELD.

Tel:  0114 267 5076

Mobile Tel:  07876 546164

Email:  annie.websdell@lsc.gov.uk

Joanne Edley, Tourism Officer, reported that there would be a full audit of the Council in June and an audit of Culture and Tourism was scheduled to take place week commencing 3rd July, 2006 for one week.

There would be opportunities for Forum Members to be contacted to discuss how the tourism service was performing and what services were provided.

Forum Members were asked to contact Joanne if they wished to be involved in the audit.

The following items were raised:-

(i)       Visitor Centre – goal

In the light of the results of the recent visitor centre customer survey, what was the goal for the centre?

The results provided a benchmark against other towns such as Wakefield, Bolton, Wigan, Barnsley   It was the first time Rotherham’s visitor centre had carried out a survey and the information would provide a baseline to aspire to being top in the category.

(ii)      Tourism Plan – proposal to introduce quality standards for conference venues - How would the venues be graded?

It was proposed to look at a pilot being undertaken on Merseyside to see what could be learned from it.  It was thought that the results of the pilot would be rolled out nationally.

It was thought that this would be very important particularly as the DMP would be looking to bring more to the corporate and conference business element in South Yorkshire.

It was noted that both Matthew Beck and John Silker were members of the YTB Tourism Operators Group, and that Matthew was the Champion for Conferences.

(iii)      MAGNA

It was reported that Magna had received a national Business Tourism Award (part of the YTB White Rose Awards/England in Excellence), which helped to raise the profile of Rotherham and South Yorkshire.

Magna would be hosting this year’s YTB Awards on 19^th September, 2006.

The Regional Sports Awards with Look North would be held at Magna at the end of November.

Magna was also part of the Bollywood bid.

The aim was to bring more bed nights into South Yorkshire.

The 1^st UK indoor bungee jump in the Face of Steel was proving to have an increasing market.

Living Steel was launched in February on the main walkway funded from the Heritage Lottery.

“Illuminate” – scheduled for October half term; this was a touch based computer generated activities system.

Animated Adventures was launched in March and would run to the end of the Summer features a Wallace and Grommit Curse of the Weir-Rabbit travelling exhibition.

Aqua Tech wet play area was now open from Easter to end of October.

Arctic Monkies Home Concert was held on 22^nd April with a 3,000 standing venue at Magna.  The Centre was looking to do more concerts.

Team Building exercises had been developed for the corporate market.

Fireworks Event – Saturday, 4^th November – themed on steel (tickets only)

The Forum agreed that Magna should be congratulated on its success.

(iv)      Hellaby Hall – Golf Package

The Sales Team along with local golf courses at Rotherham, Thrybergh, Doncaster, Lindrick and Sitwell had worked together to compile a package to attract gold associates from Ireland with target dates of Easter and Summer.

(v)      “Expand” - brochure

Joan Binns referred members to the brochure which related to three events for businesses to take advantage of the opportunities available through the adoption of ICT:-

26^th April – Pastures Lodge, Mexborough

10  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

(i)       Assistant Tourism Officer post – cover for maternity leave

It was reported that a temporary post to cover for maternity leave had been advertised with a closing date of 5^th May, and interviews taking place on 17^th May.

Best wishes were conveyed to Michelle Mellor.

(ii)      DMP

An acknowledgement was made of the work of the Shadow Board.

(iii)      Booklet – “Be Ready” from Springboard

Copies of this booklet which featured training for young and older  workers were made available.  Contact John Silker at Hellaby Hall.

It was agreed:-  That the next meeting of the Tourism Forum would take place as follows:-

DATE:           TUESDAY, 10^TH OCTOBER, 2006

VENUE:        ROTHERHAM UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB,

CONFERENCE FACILITY (to be confirmed)

TIME:           4.30 p.m.