2023 Destination Marketing Activities

Here we summarise our key 2023 Destination Marketing activities.  Destination Marketing projects are delivered in partnership with professional agencies and specialist contractors in order to secure best value and fast turnaround when required.

From 2023 onwards, we have been producing a monthly Marketing Report which includes updates and data on campaigns, website activity, the Visitor Information Centre, social media, photography and videography and ERBID communications to both consumers and businesses.  Please click the link at the end of the monthly summary below to view the full monthly report.
 

ENGLISH RIVIERA WEBSITE TRAFFIC CAMPAIGN 2023

We continue to invest in driving high volumes of traffic to the English Riviera website englishriviera.co.uk.  Please click here to view a campaign summary of 2023.

ERBID MARKETING REPORT 2023 ROUND-UP

At the end of 2023, the ERBID Co produced a round-up of the year's Destination Marketing activity:

Introduction

2023 has been another challenging year for Global Tourism with the cost-of-living crisis deepening and seriously impacting holiday choices and visitor spend. Increased energy costs and staff shortages also seriously impacted business operations. As a result and like so many holiday destinations the English Riviera has not got back to pre-covid levels of business. Our total visitor numbers and spend for 2023 will be lower than 2022, with the exception of international visitors, for which we have seen a revival.    

Market conditions continued to be very fluid with later and later booking and we worked hard to respond to these market changes investing close to £400k in professionally coordinated national, regional and local marketing activity, including a new late booking marketing campaign actively targeting couples and empty nesters who are less impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.  

A focus on developing signature events has continued with £100k invested by the ERBID Company, working in partnership with Torbay Council including the Bay of Lights in efforts to extend the season.

Government funded product development projects were started with the new Geopark Discovery Experiences, recognising that visitor experiences, particularly by cultural explorers wanting to visit new places are in increasing demand with the English Riviera needing to diversify its visitor base and visitor products for the future. 
The full yearly report for 2023 can be viewed and downloaded here.

December 2023

The most engaging Instagram posts in December have been based around beautiful user-generated content that we’ve been able to utilise through our CrowdRiff platform and featured key events such as the Bay of Lights. The introduction of user-generated content (via the Crowdriff platform) has provided the English Riviera with an extensive and ever-growing library of images and videos that we gain full rights to use for all future marketing and is an integral part of our ongoing social media activity.

A paid digital campaign for Bay of Lights continued to run until 31st December and achieved over 573k impressions in the month. 

To view the full December 2023 Marketing Report click here.

November 2023

One paid digital campaign was undertaken in November 2023 for the Bay of Lights. The campaign began on 16th October and will run until 31st December. This campaign aims to raise awareness of the Bay of Lights & the English Riviera as a Christmas destination and targets audiences within a 2 hour drive time.

In November 2023, the English Riviera brand was in front of potential visitors over 1 million times through a variety of digital marketing activity. This led to almost 64,000 website users. And almost 1,000 visitors helped through the ERBID Company Visitor Information Centre.
To view the full November 2023 Marketing Report click here.

October 2023

A paid digital campaign was undertaken in October 2023 for the Bay of Lights.  This campaign began on 16th October and will run until 31st December.
In October, the English Riviera brand was in front of potential visitors over 700,000 times through a variety of digital marketing activity. This led to 67,000 website users. And over 3,000 visitors were helped through the ERBID Company Visitor Information Centre.

To view the full October 2023 Marketing Report click here.

September 2023

The three paid digital campaigns undertaken in August were continued into September.
In September, the top two most viewed pages on englishriviera.co.uk were 'Visit the English Riviera in 2023' and 'England's Seafood FEAST'.
To view the full September 2023 Marketing Report click here

August 2023

In August 2023, the English Riviera brand was in front of potential visitors almost 4 million times through a variety of digital marketing activity.  This led to 142,000 website users.  Over 5,500 visitors were helped through the ERBID Company Visitor Information Centre.

Three paid digital campaigns were undertaken in August 2023: a general 'website boost' to increase web traffic whilst people are actively planning summer holidays, England's Seafood FEAST, and the third campaign was for the English Riviera Autumn Walking Festival.
To view the full August 2023 Marketing Report click here

July 2023

In July 2023, the English Riviera brand was in front of potential visitors almost 4.5 million times through a variety of digital marketing activity.  This led to 135,000 website users and over 5,000 visitors were helped through the ERBID Company Visitor Information Centre.  In July, the website englishriviera.co.uk averaged around 5000-6000 users per day, which is 2.28% up on July 2022.

Five digital paid campaigns were undertaken in July 2023 including one to increase awareness of the English Riviera with couples in the shoulder season, a ‘last minute deals’ campaign and a ‘website boost’ campaign to increase web traffic whilst people are actively planning summer holidays.  Other campaigns were to promote the English Riviera Autumn Walking Festival, and England’s Seafood FEAST.
To view the full July 2023 Marketing Report click here

June 2023

ERBID's new digital campaign ‘Ready for.... Last Minute Holidays' is set to run from mid June to mid July, as a final push to capture those last minute summer bookings. The late booking pattern continues with visitors booking later and later.

The campaign will drive users to a new and improved Special Offers landing page on the official English Riviera website.  View some campaign images below:

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In June 2023, the English Riviera brand was in front of potential visitors almost 5 million times through a variety of digital marketing activity. This led to almost 125,000 website users. And almost 4,000 visitors were helped through the ERBID Company Visitor Information Centre.

To view the full June 2023 Marketing Report click here

May 2023

May was a very busy month including three Bank Holidays, a Coronation, Pirate Festival (ERBID are a sponsor) Spring English Riviera Walking Festival and a very successful Attractions Showcase event working in partnership with English Riviera Attractions.   

ERBID work remained focused on maximising the availability of high quality inspiring imagery, arranging additional photography and videography during periods of good weather and ‘pushing this out’ on our Social Channels and website. There are now over 2,500 additional licensed images available via the Crowdriff UGC platform for the company to use to promote the resort.   

To complement this work and to attract additional staying visitors after a slow start to the year the ERBID made the decision to invest further in a dedicated Digital Couples Campaign, noting the later booking trend and shorter durations and keenness to secure best value. This will run up to the main summer school holidays.  

Strategically, the ERBID have supported the government’s consultation to argue the case for the need for a national compulsory register for all commercial accommodation to level the playing field and been in contact with our local MP and DCMS regarding this to present our views. 

To view the full May 2023 Marketing Report click here

April 2023

April was a very busy month for the Company working with our promotional agencies on the last big push promoting the first Spring Walking Festival and planning a new early summer short breaks couples Marketing Campaign to complement the national summer families campaign.  

Ongoing discussions held regarding the Agatha Christie Festival programme, Seafood FEAST and Bay of Lights.

In addition plans started in earnest working on the new collaborative Riviera Connect EXPO event with the Torbay Business Forum to take place on the 3rd October.

The new South West DATA Hub project working with the Great South West Tourism Partnership commenced with Levy partners invited to take part. This will provide a rich data source going forwards. 

Stagecoach have confirmed sponsorship of the VIC as really value the service we offer and many new marketing initiatives are being discussed.

To view the full April 2023 Marketing Report click here

March 2023

March saw a number of exciting projects being undertaken by the ERBID Company to promote the area: 

• Extension of the national Family - Ready for the Riviera Marketing Campaign right up to the Easter Holidays with maximum exposure across Birmingham. £100k in total has been invested.  

• Plans commenced in designing a new Couples - Ready for the Riviera Marketing Campaign to target bookings for the shoulder months and 2-3 hour drive time for 40+ market.

• We attended the Group Travel Trade Show at the NEC (known as BTTS) to target year-round Group Stays and supported local Group Travel Trade Shows working with DATA.

• We finalised the plans and walks for the first English English Riviera Spring Walking Festival. 

• Working with the English Riviera Global Geopark we were successful in securing UK Shared Prosperity Funding to develop a programme of new Discovery Trails in the future. 

• We took part in a major piece of Regional Research to evaluate the impact of Cost of Living crisis and rising costs impacting businesses. Much shorter stays and later booking trends are expected. 

• Meetings have commenced to plan a new Tourism and Business EXPO on October 3rd 2022. 

• Packed full of lots of information the new style Monthly Levy Payers Newsletter was dispatched early March achieving a 50% opening rate.
  
  To view the full March 2023 Marketing Report click here

February 2023

February saw a number of different projects taking place including:

• The establishment of six new Board Sub Groups including: Finance & Governance, External Relations, Destination Marketing, Food & Drink, Events and Groups. The new External Relations sub group has been set up to assist Levy Paying Partners in external communications surrounding areas of concern including managing the Asylum Seeker Hotels and our town centres.      

• A new B2B Levy Paying Partners monthly newsletter was launched with an opening rate of over 44% and many businesses clicked through to the new ERBID Image Library to download the many new images and videos now available to help with their own marketing.     

• The major 2023 National Poster and Digital Summer Family Marketing Campaign - Ready for the Riviera and investing £85k was launched on 27th February in Birmingham and South Wales.  

• A new Digital Marketing Campaign was launched to promote the new Spring Walking Festival. 

• A new Things to Do Directory was published for visitors and has been well received. 

• Many English Riviera businesses did exceptionally well in the Devon Tourism Awards.

• Decision taken to not hold the ERBID Spring Tourism Exhibition but combine with Torbay Business Forum to make bigger event on October 3rd.

To view the full February 2023 Marketing Report click here.   

ENGLISH RIVIERA SUMMER NATIONAL CAMPAIGN 'READY FOR THE RIVIERA'

To view the English Riviera Summer National Campaign posters click below:
Landscape poster
Portrait poster

January 2023

Reflecting continued global economic concerns and in particular the unprecedented increase in domestic and business energy costs forward holiday accommodation bookings have been very sluggish across the country and across the English Riviera, with year on year differences being up to 60% down in some instances which is worrying. In response to the delays in forward booking the ERBID Company have delayed their £85k poster and digital national advertising campaign ‘Ready for the Riviera’ to start at the end of February focusing on our core family market areas in the Midlands and South Wales.

To view the full January 2023 Marketing Report click here.

VISITOR INFORMATION PUBLICATIONS

 New publications in 2023 include:
Things to Do Directory - information on the area plus listings for attractions, trips, entertainment and beaches. 
English Riviera Spring/Summer 2023 Visitor Guide - in partnership with Clear Sky Publishing and in response to specific requests from Levy Payers during the ERBID2 Consultation.