ANNUAL REVIEW 2017
We are on the cusp of being a top UK destination with international recognition, and as a not for profit organisation every penny we get goes back into attracting visitors and investment to Lincoln. Our website VisitLincoln.com and marketing campaigns continue to support the growth of the visitor economy, meaning visitors to the city are spending over £190million a year and £1.3billion across the county. Visit Lincoln has had a fantastic year and with the help of our partners we took the Lincoln Knights’ down to London King’s Cross train station, launched the Cathedral AR app, won ‘Best use of Multimedia’ at the Lincolnshire Digital and Tech Awards for our tourism videos, took Lincolnshire to the British Travel and Tourism Show, won TripAdvisor’s Most Popular UK Castle vote as well as Favourite Christmas Market, won the #CathedralWorldCup public vote and won Best Small Festival in the UK at the national Festival Awards 2017. Our ongoing development work with Virgin Trains East Coast will make sure we build on the success of 2017 by marketing Lincoln as one of the cities to travel to by rail in 2019 and beyond. Visit Lincoln is doing an incredible job bringing visitors, investment and business into Lincoln City and the surrounding area. We’d also like to thank all our partners who support Visit Lincoln and work together to make Lincoln a great place to visit. The growth is a testament to everyone’s hard work which has attracted over four million visitors to Lincoln in 2016.
Lydia Rusling Head of Visit Lincoln
Lincoln is changing. The city is growing and attracting investment. It’s becoming more vibrant and there is a feeling of optimism and excitement in the air. By 2025 over £400million will have been invested in Lincoln creating new visitor experiences through Lincoln Castle Revealed and Lincoln Cathedral Connected; redefining the retail and leisure offering at St Marks, The Cornhill and The Lawns; remapping the infrastructure in and out of the city thanks to the Transport Hub and Lincoln Eastern Bypass, as well as launching a world-class Science and Innovation Park. As Lincoln changes so must the way we talk about it to friends, family, customers and business partners. Visit Lincoln is already marketing the city and surrounding area not just as a place to visit, but also a place to live, work, study and invest. It is challenging people’s perception of Lincoln and redefining what makes our great city great. Tourism doesn’t operate in isolation. Lincolnshire echoes the national picture, with Lincolnshire’s billion pound tourism economy being intrinsically linked to supply chains in food, farming, business services, transport, property, investment, training, education and much more. Understanding these links can be the difference between a local economy which is just ticking along, compared to one that’s pushing the boundaries and driving growth. Having delivered a platform for visitor economy growth, Visit Lincoln is being supported by partners and Lincolnshire businesses to take this next step into place marketing. But it doesn’t come without its challenges. Branding a place, whether it is a small village or a whole county, can be difficult because it’s neither owned nor controlled by a single entity. But when managed and delivered correctly it can result in immense benefits for all.
Mark Hollingworth Chair of Visit Lincoln
Lincoln
An unmissable city to visit in 2017
2017 - A very special year
2017 was always going to be special, with the 800th anniversary of the Battle of Lincoln and the Charter of the Forest, a busy events programme and launching the Lincoln Knights Trail; not to mention bringing national treasures to The Collection through the Battles & Dynasties Exhibition and Domesday Book being on display at Lincoln Castle. Visit Lincoln delivered an overarching marketing campaign which showcased Lincoln as ‘THE’ city to visit in 2017. Leading a coordinated marketing campaign for its private and public sector partners meant visitors and residents could easily access the right information, book online and share their experiences with friends and family.
STEAM Data
2.7m
Pageviews across VisitLincoln.com
The local visitor economy continues to grow with independent, official data showing a 20% increase in visitor numbers to Lincoln over the past five years, with the value of tourism now sitting at £190 million to the local economy. The data shows that since 2011 the number of people visiting the city per year has increased from 3.4 million to 4.1 million in 2016. We are thrilled that since Visit Lincoln launched in 2011 there has been such a tremendous increase in the number of visitors and wider economic impact for the city.
Digital Marketing Website – visitlincoln.com (all statistics according to Google Analytics)
More than one million visits to the Visit Lincoln website between January and December2017, with 2.7m pageviews. Most popular web pages The homepage has been the most popular landing page during this period: followed by the What’s On homepage, Lincoln Christmas Market, and the Things To Do homepage. Also popular was the parking page – with car park information and Park & Ride details – and the Asylum Steampunk Festival. The Visit Lincoln website attracted a significant increase in web traffic during the success of Lincoln City FC in the FA Cup. During February there was a 150% increase as a game was played live on BBC One, with the Cathedral in the background, 60% of the increase was from new visitors to the site. • Overall visits have increased by 6% compared to 2016
6%
Increase in overall visits to VisitLincoln.com
• Overall visits have decreased by 1% compared to 2015, due to the significant traffic for Magna Carta 800 and the British Cycling Championships in the city during that year • 75% of traffic came from organic search, evidencing the strong SEO of the website • 93% of visitors were from the UK • The next highest traffic came from the US (3%), Australia (0.4%) and Germany (0.3%)
150%
Increase in website traffic during Lincoln FC match
• 22% of visitors were based in Lincoln • Next popular cities were London (15%), Nottingham (3.4%) Sheffield (2.6%), and Grimsby (2.6%) Visit Lincoln total website stats: Month 2017 January February March April May June July August September October November December Total
75%
Traffic to the website is organic, proving the importance of SEO
Visits 57,471 60,142 79,359 77,858 87,163 70,688 91,909 114,038 92,329 98,844 108,884 77,966 1,016,269
Unique Visits 46,707 48,575 61,770 61,192 67,659 56,682 71,962 88,646 73,457 78,091 85,538 62,992 803,270
Pageviews 176,718 178,624 223,969 225,502 233,160 193,008 255,164 304,149 231,406 250,975 245,303 177,079 2,695,057
Unique Website Visitors The unique visits over the year shows the trend of popularity heading towards the summer holidays in August, which renews in November and December for Christmas. Apart from the spike in June 2015 (Cycling Championships, Magna Carta 800 anniversary) there is year on year growth in terms of unique visitors across the year.
21%
Increase in event listings on VisitLincoln.com
The Visit Lincoln Website Content: • What’s On (events, festivals, markets, talks, exhibitions, open days) • Things To Do (attractions, museums, shopping areas, landmarks, trails, leisure, family days out, cycle routes) • Food & Drink (restaurants, tea rooms, pubs, cafés, bars, nightclubs) • Places to Stay (hotels, B&Bs, self-catering, campsites, glamping) • Travel Tools (parking, directions, taxis) • General Lincoln information (history, heritage, areas of the city and countryside)
19%
Increase in places to stay listings on VisitLincoln.com
• Corporate information (who Visit Lincoln is, what Visit Lincoln does, how businesses can work with Visit Lincoln) • Visitor Information shop (souvenirs, guides, tickets) • Blog (top tips, historic features, seasonal features) • Things to Do: 89 listings (17% increase from 76 in 2016) (392 listings on ShopLincoln.co.uk) • Places to Stay: 101 listings (19% increase from 85 in 2016) • What’s On Listings: 428 listings (21% increase from 354 listings in 2016) • Blog: 44 posts (decrease of 20% from 55 posts in 2016) nb. previous blog posts have now been replaced by more engaging and dynamic campaign pages, for example Easter Holiday or Summer Holiday round ups. Online Campaign Pages Campaign pages bring together written copy, external links, and lists of What’s On, Things to Do, Food & Drink, and Places to Stay listings. They serve as landing pages for seasonal activity and wider campaigns, integrating content from across the website. St Marks, new Corporate Partners for 2017, sponsored the Christmas Campaign page which proved to be the most popular campaign page in 2017. The most popular campaign pages in 2017 have been: • Lincoln Loves Kids: 18,033 unique visitors • Lincoln Street Markets: 13,711 unique visitors • Magna Carta: 7,948 unique visitors
29,535
Unique visits of the most popular campaign page Christmas in Lincoln, sponsored by St Marks Shopping Centre
• Lincoln Ale Trail: 9,261 unique visitors • Christmas in Lincoln: 29,535 unique visitors Digital Trails A number of digital trails are available on the website that allow users to follow a trail around the city led by their smartphone: Jewish Heritage Trail (new in 2017), Roman Trail, Boole Trail, 1217 Battle of Lincoln Trail (new in 2017), Aviation Trail and Frequency Festival Trail (new in 2017, limited edition). The top three used online trails were: • Roman Trail: around 3k users • Aviation Trail: nearly 1k users • Battle of Lincoln Trail: nearly 1k users Some of the trails have had printed counterparts which have now sold out. There is no funding for reprints so these trails now only exist in a digital format.
13,000
Discover Lincolnshire Weekend website hits
Discover Lincolnshire Weekend - March 2017 A Discover Lincolnshire campaign page for the county was created. Visit Lincoln led on coordinated activity to support Discover Lincolnshire Weekend, attracting nearly 13,000 visitors to the event page on the website.
Funded campaign pages
Access Lincoln – cycling ‘micro-breaks’ with Energy Cell Lincoln Since launching Lincoln MicroBreaks the project has focused on building the MicroBreaks brand, promoting the idea on social media and working with partners including Doddington Hall, Woodland Trust and more to lay the initial groundwork. Inspirational images, videos and simple cycle maps have been created for the first MicroBreak destinations, with plans in place to include printed assets and advertising in the coming year. Visit Lincoln Partners eligible for the MicroBreaks offer will be given cycling maps and other supporting content to help promote cycling to their destination. In the New Year the Access Lincoln Community Engagement team will be driving demand for these types of cycling and walking based activities, furthering the idea of MicroBreaks, which could include destinations such as International Bomber Command Centre - if a safe and easy cycle route is in place. The New Year also brings a new website for Access Lincoln which will offer more information regarding MicroBreaks and will promote the Visit Lincoln site for MicroBreaks and its partners. Central Lincoln content To feature information from North Kesteven (Heart of Lincolnshire URL) and West Lindsey (North of Lincoln URL) campaign pages were developed to bring together all content and listings in both areas. North Kesteven District Council The Heart of Lincolnshire campaign page focuses on the NK district: • There is copy explaining the area with links to order the visitor guide
43%
Increase of unique visitors to ‘The Heart of Lincolnshire’
• There are links out to listings for things to do, where to stay and events • NKDC retained businesses/sites are listed in addition to the private sector businesses who pay for Visit Lincoln Partnership packages • 1,391 unique visitors in 2017, an increase of 43% on 2016 • Addition of One NK and Sleaford Leisure Centres, as well as the North Kesteven Airfield Trail in anticipation for the centenary of the RAF in 2018 • Map and travel toolkits West Lindsey District Council The North of Lincoln campaign page focuses on the WL district: • There is copy explaining the area with reference to Caistor, Market Rasen, and Gainsborough • There are links out to things to do, where to stay and events • 1,264 unique visitors in 2017
16,746
Followers on Facebook
• Map and travel toolkits
Social Media @VisitLincoln
Social media is a tool to raise awareness of Lincoln city and countryside and it encourages click throughs (referrals) to the Visit Lincoln website. Facebook: • 16,746 followers, an increase of 3,172 from 2016 • 11.4m impressions • Average of 950k impressions per month • 67k referrals to website • Average of 5.5k referrals per month Top posts of 2017: 1. Peterloo filming – photos and videos • Behind the scenes at the filming of the feature film Peterloo reached more than half a million people • A complementary blog post was written to give context and link Lincoln to the historic event • A great example of viral content that can’t be planned 2. Experience Cultural Lincoln – video • The première of our ‘Culture’ video in February reached 399,522 people in one post • This was helped by announcing the video to businesses involved to ask them to share the post • It captured the local public imagination and caused proud
176,000 People reached through Lincolnshire Day Facebook marketing
residents to share the video, reaching friends and family 3. Happy Lincolnshire Day – video • Our heritage video was re-purposed for a Lincolnshire Day post, reaching 176,604 people • Residents used the inspirational and emotional images in the video to celebrate the county The best performing non-video/non-photo posts were linking to an article from The Telegraph (reaching 42k) and BBC (reaching 29k) showing the importance of Lincoln’s inclusion on nationally recognised websites and media. It is clear that video and photography are the best performing content for raising awareness on Facebook.
15,913 Followers on Twitter
Twitter: • 15,913 followers • 3.4m impressions • Average of 200k impressions per month • 14.6k referrals to visitlincoln.com • Average of 1.2k referrals per month Top tweets of 2017: 1. Lincoln City FC – FA Cup
70,000
National Media boost to website
• Riding on the crest of Lincoln City FC’s football success • Linking the Lincoln Imp’s mythology to the unbelievable feats of the football club • 33,528 impressions, 970 engagements 2. Experience Cultural Lincoln • The première of the Cultural Lincoln video also did well on Twitter • 25,878 impressions , 610 engagements 3. Red Arrows photo – User Generated Content • A photo was taken from our Flickr community group • Aviation links and a beautiful photo helped its popularity • 21,355 impressions, 1,134 engagements In comparison to Facebook, Twitter doesn’t reach as many people or produce as many referrals to visitlincoln.com. It is still however the second highest source for traffic to the website, after organic search and Facebook.
Instagram • 4,658 followers
22%
Increase in consumer e-Newsletter subscribers
Consumer e-Newsletters • 23 campaigns sent in 2017 • 6,184 subscribers (increase of 22% since 2016, 5,071 in 2016) • Celebrate All Things Lincolnshire at the Show (June 12th) 1,680 opens (28.3%) • Industry average open-rate for tourism and travel is 20.9%; average open-rate for consumer mailing list is 27.7%. • 7,475 referrals to visitlincoln.com during 2017 (4th top source for traffic to website) Top performing e-newsletters: • Christmas Shopping and Festive Events (November 16th), 1,947 opens (31.9%) • 8 Reasons to visit Lincoln in 2017 (January 20th),1,566 opens (30.8%) Video Marketing – Visit Lincoln Visit Lincoln launched three new videos promoting the city using the themes – Take Time and Discover (Heritage), Events and Festivals and
1m
People reached by Visit Lincoln video marketing
Experience Cultural Lincoln. They won the Best Use of Multimedia at the 2017 Lincolnshire Digital & Tech Awards and have been viewed and shared by hundreds of thousands of people. The reach is currently 1 million. Take Time and Discover Lincoln • Facebook: 285,323 views, reached 266k in posts during 2017 (launched December 2016) • YouTube: 8,109 views Experience Cultural Lincoln • Facebook: 229,697 views, reached 547k (launched January 2017) • YouTube: 2,393 views Events and Festivals • Facebook: 34,743 views, reached 83k (launched January 2017) • YouTube: 964 views Maybe the biggest impact from the videos has been the increase in reach on social media due to their popularity. Notice the increase in impressions from December 2016 when the first video was released.
Digital Screens Visit Lincoln has worked with Lincoln BIG to include campaign content on the digital screens around the city centre. Featured on the screens in 2017: • The three promotional videos • An advert for the Battle of Lincoln campaign • Christmas advert created in coordination with the City of Lincoln Council • A general advert for the Visit Lincoln website 2017 Campaign Content For the 2017 campaigns, the website served as the official landing page online.
Campaign page for the Battle of Lincoln • Explaining the history behind the battle and its links with Lincoln
today • Bringing together all the related events and blog posts • 3,775 unique visitors • www.visitlincoln.com/battle Campaign page for the anniversaries in 2017: Battle of Lincoln and Charter of the Forest • Explaining both anniversaries and their significance • Bringing together all related events and things to do • www.visitlincoln.com/2017 The branding for both anniversaries has been on the homepage of visitlincoln.com and used as cover images on social media channels. Blog posts were mainly historical, working with historian Erik Grigg, to explain what the events were and to reach visitors through SEO: • What is the Charter of the Forest? • Who was William Marshal? • Who was Nichola de la Haye? • What was the Battle of Lincoln?
Battles & Dynasties
The Battles & Dynasties project included promoting and advertising the exhibition at The Collection and the Domesday exhibition at Lincoln Castle. Website listings for both exhibitions received 5,500 unique visitors • The majority of traffic came from organic search
5,500
Unique visits to Battles & Dynasties webpage on VisitLincoln.com
• Video marketing to launch the Domesday exhibition in coordination with the National Archives and Lincolnshire County Council • Promotion and ticket sales of three related lectures • Events listings and banner advertising on the Visit Lincoln website • Promoted posts on Facebook receiving nearly 200k impressions • £1.2k of ticket sales were made through the Visit Lincoln website • Banner advertising on the Visit Lincoln website amassing more than 300k impressions • Both exhibitions and the three events also featured heavily in social media and email marketing throughout 2017
Campaign Marketing
Lincoln 2017 Raising awareness of Lincoln & Lincolnshire through a coordinated branding toolkit, commemorating the Battle of Lincoln and Charter of the Forest 800th anniversaries. This campaign has been funded through the Cultural Destinations activity programme, Heritage Services, Lincolnshire County Council and venue partners.
496
Downloads of the 2017 Business Toolkit from VisitLincoln.com
Business Toolkit 2017 In 2017, 496 people and businesses accessed the toolkit. The 2017 branding toolkit was available for businesses and partners to use in their own marketing, helping to strengthen the Lincoln 2017 brand and coordinate the range and variety of activity taking place throughout the county in 2017. Street Dressing Lincoln’s streets were dressed with flags, bunting and banners thanks to Cultural Destinations funding delivered in partnership with Lincoln BIG. They coordinated events and activities across the city and helped drive traffic to VisitLincoln.com. Battle of Lincoln Weekend Visit Lincoln was able to build excitement around the Battle of Lincoln weekend and the beginning of the Lincoln Knight’s Trail through its marketing, working with Lincoln Business Improvement Group. The weekend saw thousands of people come into the city and kick-started the summer marketing campaign. Visit Lincoln created a Facebook event in addition to its web listing which saw 4,725 unique visitors. Live tweets helped build excitement and an album of professional photography afterwards continued the interest in the anniversary.
3 million
Reach from the Kings Cross Ticket Barrier
Lincoln Knights in London Visit Lincoln was awarded silver at the National Community Rail Awards for best Marketing and Communications Campaign after the Lincoln Knights invaded King’s Cross train station in May. Visit Lincoln and Lincolnshire County Council’s Community Rail Partnership attended the award ceremony in Derby and were joined on stage by East Midlands Trains. The event at King’s Cross lead to key partnerships being formed with Virgin Trains East Coast and East
LINCOLN YO U R H I S T O R I C C I T Y A D V E N T U R E
WIN TWO NIGHT STAY IN LINCOLN FIRST CLASS RAIL TRAVEL WITH VIRGIN TRAINS OPEN TOP BUS TOUR LINCOLN CATHEDRAL & CASTLE TICKETS
visitlincoln.com
Midlands Trains. Discussions are taking place to see how we work together in 2018 and beyond. For the London King’s Cross event Visit Lincoln coordinated with Lincolnshire County Council’s Community Rail Partnership, East Midlands Trains and the National Archives to promote Lincoln as a place to visit by rail. Visit Lincoln coordinated the exhibition stand and all promotional literature with a ‘cultural’ offering for people to come to the county which included not just the Lincoln Knights, but Domesday, Battles and Dynasties exhibition and the SO Festival on the Lincolnshire Coast. An A5 Map Fold was created for the London King’s Cross event. It was also displayed in the train carriages of Virgin Trains East Coast and East Midland Trains (5,000 printed). A competition postcard to win a shortbreak also captured 600 new email addresses. National Advertising A takeover of King’s Cross Underground Ticket Barrier using the 2017 branding on the Northern Line ticket barrier reached over 3 million+ people. The Event supplement distributed with The Sunday Telegraph on 28th May included an A4 landscape ad (1/2 tabloid) in the Culture and Days Out section, plus editorial recommendations were featured. 255,000 printed copies and 250,000 digital copies + weblink to visitlincoln.com.
Printed Literature & Events
City and Countryside Visitor Guide- 60,000 print run Over 65,000 city guides have been circulated nationally. The guides have been distributed to partners, through the Visitor Information Centre and at Visit Lincoln events, press trips and through marketing activity. The 2018 Visitor Guide was produced, ready for the Lincoln Christmas Market. In order to make the production of future Visitor Guides
sustainable, Visit Lincoln has produced the 2018 guide with local media partner, KM Media. KM Media’s proposal included sales, design, print management and distribution of 50% of the guides at no cost. What’s On Guide– 65,000 print run Visit Lincoln identified a need for a comprehensive events guide which provided information about all events taking place across Central Lincolnshire. Working with the Bailgate Independent a new ‘Visit Lincoln What’s On’ magazine was created. The first print run saw 25,000 copies printed in May. The second ‘What’s On Guide’ was published in September, 40,000 print run, offering another comprehensive events listing (from September to the New Year) plus a Christmas shopping guide. The magazine was distributed throughout the city centre, via direct door drops and in high profile retail racks in Waitrose, M&S, Co-Op, WHSmiths & Virgin Trains. PC Coaches also requested copies for their staff room and for bus tours which go all over the country. The third edition is being planned for March 2018 and will focus on the RAF Lincolnshire marketing campaign. Lincoln Loves Kids -15,000 print run The 2017/18 edition of Lincoln Loves Kids brochure was printed and delivered in June. Over 6,000 Lincoln Loves Kids booklets were included in the VIP goodie bags of the family focused ‘Gloworm Festival’, which took place at Clumber Park in August. The event attracted 22,000 people from across the UK, but mainly the East Midlands. A full page advert was also included in the festival programme. The booklets were also distributed through partners, Lincoln Mum’s Network, Lincolnshire County Council’s Heritage Services venues and through the Visitor Information Centre. Molly’s Guide The first co-branded Molly’s Guide (A5 magazine) with Lincoln Loves Kids, was published in September and distributed to 111 schools across Lincolnshire. As well as the Lincoln Loves Kids branding appearing on the front cover, it also included a welcome message from Lydia Rusling, Head of Visit Lincoln introducing the readership to Lincoln Loves Kids. The partnership will promote Lincoln Loves Kids to a family audience based in Lincolnshire. Lincoln Family Fair On 29th July the first Lincoln Family Fair took place in Lincoln City. The day included ‘Hook a Duck’, stalls, activities and entertainment. Jointly organised with Lincoln BIG’s event team to piggy back on Lincoln By The Sea (City Square). Over 500 Lincoln Loves Kids booklets were handed out, and each handover generated a discussion about Lincoln Loves Kids and what it could offer families across Lincolnshire. The new Duck Mascot was used for the first time and generated lots of engagement with young children and photos for social media.
Visitor Literature Other visitor focused marketing literature which is produced by Lincoln Business Improvement Group and distributed / managed by Visit Lincoln includes: • A3 Map Pads – tear off maps for people to navigate around Lincoln which are also made available to businesses. • Joint Ticket to Castle and Cathedral – producing a money saving joint ticket to visit both attractions with one purchase. • Tour Lincoln Leaflet – promote the open top bus tour around Lincoln and its hop on and hop off service. Bedroom Browser A stylish hard-backed A4 book for hotels to display in their guest rooms has been produced by Kingfisher Media and sponsored by Visit Lincoln. The 2018 Welcome to Lincolnshire Bedroom Browser is now available. In addition to 58 hotels, Welcome to Lincolnshire is also circulated to leading restaurants, bars, salons, spas and visitor centres. The guide also helps encourage inward investment and relocation to the area by showing it off as a great place to live, work and do business in – as well as visit. Copies are also distributed to local councils. The publication is also online and available as an app. Scampton Airshow Visit Lincoln used the Scampton Airshow as a soft launch for its 2018 RAF Lincolnshire campaign. The event attracted 50,000 visitors and information about RAF Lincolnshire proved really popular with over 1,000 leaflets being handed out and 400 email addresses being captured in a competition. Visit Lincoln had two stands, the first with International Bomber Command in the Heritage Hangar and the second with Lincoln Loves Kids outside. A new RAF Lincolnshire leaflet was produced listing all the key events in 2018. Virgin Trains East Coast – research visit to Lincoln Visit Lincoln invited a group of senior managers from Virgin Trains East Coast to Lincoln - many had never been before but they left full of ideas about how we can promote Lincoln by rail. Visit Lincoln is not just thinking about 2019 when the increased rail service begins, but also next year as we mark the centenary of the RAF across Lincolnshire. Conversations have already begun about marketing the opening of IBCC and the wider aviation campaign through the Virgin Travel marketing channels. Visit Lincoln brokered a business development opportunity between Lincolnshire Coop and Virgin Trains East Coast, enabling a conversation about one of the buildings opposite the train station (currently under development) which could be used as a first class lounge for Virgin Trains East Coast. Most Popular Castle and Most Popular Christmas Market in the UK & Winner #CathedralWorldCup Lincoln Cathedral won the #CathedralWorldCup public vote on twitter, beating York Minster to scoop the top award. Visit Lincoln heavily promoted the public vote, which resulted in Lincoln Cathedral being interviewed live on BBC Radio 4 and further coverage on Radio 2. Visit Lincoln also supported the public vote by TripAdvisor which named Lincoln as the UK’s Most Popular Castle and Christmas Market.
Christmas in Lincoln Visit Lincoln worked with Lincoln City Council to promote the new Lincoln Central Car Park opening, using Christmas as an incentive to come to the city this year. Visit Lincoln shared its ‘Christmas in Lincoln’ branding with Lincoln City Council and with the help of Lincoln BIG it created all the marketing assets for the campaign. This included printed adverts and a rotating movie clip which was screened on digital billboards in Nottingham and other neighbouring cities. All marketing signposted people to VisitLincoln.com/Christmas which shared information about the new car park under the travel tools section. Frequency Festival Frequency Festival joined as Visit Lincoln Partners. Visit Lincoln introduced Frequency Festival to local connections and networks including Lincoln Mums and Lincoln Train station. It created a new digital map for the festival and supported the press visit by negotiating a discounted rate with two hotels and a meet and greet during the visit. Visit Lincoln was given two free adverts in the Frequency Festival programme 2017 (Charter of the Forest and Christmas in Lincoln). Lincoln City Football Club Visit Lincoln supplied information packs to Lincoln City Football Club for its new players (x25), which included essential information about things to do, see, eat and drink and where to host visiting friends and family. Lincolnshire Lancaster Association Visit Lincoln delivered 1,000 Visitor Guides to IBCC for their Lincolnshire Lancaster Association conference, encouraging repeat visits in 2018. University of Lincoln Open Day Visit Lincoln supported the University of Lincoln’s Open Days with information about Lincoln as a place to live and study for students and their parents.
Relocate
Visit Lincoln attended the British Medical Association Careers Day to promote Lincoln as a place to live and work
United Lincolnshire Health Trust Careers Day Visit Lincoln supported United Lincolnshire Health Trust at the British Medical Association Careers Day in London, promoting Lincoln and Lincolnshire as a place for Consultants to relocate. It’s the first time this partnership has ever happened, and a meeting to discuss a more formal agreement is being set up. Sausage Festival Visit Lincoln attended with copies of the What’s On Guide, the City Guide and also Lincoln Loves Kids. Over 600 copies of the event guide were handed out, plus 180 of the Lincoln Loves Kids booklet and 250 City Guides.
15
Private investors attended workshop
Investors Day Lydia Rusling was asked to speak at an independent Investors Day held at The Collection. In total 15 investors from London attended the day to learn why Lincolnshire was a great county for private investors. Visit Lincoln gave an overview of the city, the work that is being done to raise the profile of Lincoln and developments including the Transports Hub, St Marks, Lincoln Castle Revealed, Virgin Trains East Coast and Eastern bypass. Annual Economic Development Officers’ Seminar Lydia Rusling was ask to present at the Annual Economic Development Officers’ Seminar which focused on Place Marketing. Visit Lincoln’s approach was shared with the group and hailed as a best practice example. Other speakers included those from North Nottingham Business Improvement Group and Sherwood Forest. Standard Life – St Marks £150m development Charlotte Goy met Brian Kelly, Investor at Standard Life to update him on the marketing being done by Visit Lincoln, and the connection between a city DMO and the investors leading on St Marks £150million redevelopment. As a result of the introduction Standard Life have joined Visit Lincoln as Corporate Partners so they can support the work we’re doing to grow Lincoln.
Media & Public Relations
Working with the media to promote Lincoln and Lincolnshire as a place to visit is central to Visit Lincoln’s marketing activity. Our close working relationships with VisitEngland and VisitBritain make us the go-to organisation for media trip and proactive PR. Visit Lincoln attended VisitEngland’s Meet the Media event in London and pitched Lincoln as a travel destination to feature in the media in 2018. Selection of Press Trips delivered in 2017: • Best of Britain Magazine, January 2017 (31,000 circulation) • Life in Our Van, February 2017 (2 nights 3 days + return visit, family blog) • Mamas Spot, May 2017 (200,000 monthly subscribers / 1million reach on Facebook) • Mummy Travels, June 2017 (family blogger & award winning journalist )
• Travel GBI, May 2017 (UK leading group travel publication 12,000 subscribers) • Visit Britain UK Cathedrals, June 17 (Visit Britain travel journalist) • Candis Magazine, September 17 (leading women’s lifestyle magazine) • Group Travel World, December11 (leading group travel magazine)
Group Travel
Winner
Innovation in Tourism Award 2017 Group Travel Organiser Magazine
Groups Marketing
Tourism & Travel Trade Show (BTTS) The ‘Welcome to Lincolnshire’ stand won the Innovation in Tourism award at the Group Travel Organiser Awards in London (June). The team travelled to London to attend the award ceremony and accepted the award. Visit Lincoln exhibited at the British Tourism & Travel Trade Show in March 2017 promoting partners to the travel trade and group tour operators. Visit Lincoln shared a stand with International Bomber Command Centre, Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire, South Kesteven District Council (SKDC) and The Petwood Hotel. Coverage of the award winners appeared in the April edition of Group Travel Organiser. IBCC has confirmed it would like to attend BTTS in 2018. Visit Lincoln has offered to coordinate the event management, booking and branding (using the RAF100 branding that’s being developed).The event also generated media interest from group media and enquiries from agencies. Partners supporting the event in 2018 include North Lincolnshire Council, International Bomber Command Centre, the Petwood Hotel, SKDC and Lincoln City Council. The exhibition stand will be branded RAF Lincolnshire ‘Welcome to Lincolnshire’.
Shearing Holidays
now including Lincolnshire itinerary in 2018 brochure
1,500
Women Institute visitors plan to visit in 2018
RAF Lincolnshire with Q-Hotels Visit Lincoln created a bespoke five day groups itinerary for Q Hotels (through Forest Pines) which includes many sites across Lincolnshire (NKDC – IBCC, Cranwell Aviation Museum, RAF Digby, Washingborough Hall, Lincoln Castle and Lincoln Cathedral). Mayflower 2020 Activity is being lined up for a 2020 marketing campaign for Mayflower Pilgrams. Visit Lincoln worked with Mayflower 400 by supporting a fam trip with Anton de Flon, chief sales executive for Kuoni Travel. His visit included a visit to Lincoln Castle and also Lincoln Cathedral before he left for Boston. WI Group Trip – July 2018 Visit Lincoln has secured a group visit from Johnston Coaches which will see 1,500 WI ladies from Suffolk coming to Lincoln for the day in July 2018. Visit Lincoln is working with its partners to create vouchers and goodie bags for the trip, to help generate increased spend in the city and encourage repeat visits. National Women’s Register & Guild of Plumbers Visit Lincoln hosted two (high spend) groups to Lincoln in June, the first being the National Women’s Register and the second being the Guild of Plumbers. The groups found Lincoln through the Meet Lincoln and Lincolnshire website, and Clare Williams supported in the planning stage by hosting familiarisation trips in the lead up to the visits. The Guild of Plumbers included aviation heritage in their visit with a trip to RAF Cranwell – with many saying they plan to return in 2018. Collectively the group generated £50,000 of income for the local economy. International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) Talks are progressing well with Nicky Barr, from International Bomber Command Centre, to present a coordinated groups offer throughout 2018, and to offer marketing support around the official launch of the centre in April. Visit Lincoln is also exploring how it could offer PR support which specifically focuses on stand out media coverage for IBCC and Lincolnshire’s aviation offer in 2018.
Contracts, partnerships and projects
£1m
Discover England funding for Lincoln Cathedral AR App
England’s Heritage Cities - £1million Discover England Funding Visit Lincoln continues to play an active role in England’s Heritage Cities consortium meetings. By attending we continue to gain valuable insights into the operational framework of other heritage DMOs and their activities. Lincoln Cathedral’s augmented reality (AR) app launched in June with significant press interest from BBC Radio Lincolnshire, BBC Look North, Lincolnite, Lincolnshire Reporter and the Lincolnshire Echo. The app was only made possible thanks to Visit Lincoln working with England Heritage Cities. Lincoln is one of 12 destinations to receive funding from the £40m Discover England Fund. A share of £250,000 was invested in the Lincoln App and shows investment in new technology to enhance the experience people have in Lincoln. The app transports the user back in time to unveil hidden history and access to areas often off limits, or inaccessible for some visitors. It is free to download – for residents and visitors, mainly those from overseas.
£1m
Cycle England funding, working with Welcome to Yorkshire
Cycle England £1million Discover England Fund Visit Lincoln has been named as the lead organisation in Lincolnshire for a new Cycle England bid submitted to the Discover England Fund. The project will be delivered jointly by Visit Lincoln and Welcome to Yorkshire and will deliver cycle tourism breaks across the two counties for the Dutch and German Market. The work will tap into the high profile of cycling in the North of England generated by the recent Tour de France and Tours de Yorkshire / Britain Cycling Championships hosted (Lincoln in 2015). Access Lincoln – Energy Cell Lincolnshire County Council’s Access Lincoln contract (delivered by The Energy Cell) is ongoing, with information about cycle routes and
Representation At English Historic Cities Consortium
rides across Lincolnshire. Lincoln BIG won another element of the Access Lincoln project in September. The winning proposal included marketing activity delivered by Visit Lincoln. Cultural Destinations Cultural Destinations funding was secured for 2017 and 2018, which has led to Visit Lincoln supporting a coordinated 2017 brand for the key anniversaries of Battle of Lincoln and Charter of the Forest. The work included street dressing, a business toolkit and a coordinated marketing campaign. The Cultural Destinations Conference, in March, welcomed headline speakers Lady Penny Cobham Visit England and Darren Henley Chief Executive at Arts Council England. Feedback from the event was successful and business engagement was strong across the county. In 2018 the focus will be on the Centenary of the RAF. Work has already started on the branding, which is going to be centred around RAF Lincolnshire’s three themes of Past, Present and Future.
New Toolkit
for RAF Lincolnshire marketing campaign 2018
Meet Lincoln & Lincolnshire
Meet Lincoln and Lincolnshire activity continues to perform strongly and interest in the free venue finding service is growing. At this stage it looks like the marketing could include more video content through the Meet Lincoln & Lincolnshire account, investing time to build a MICE media database, producing Meet Lincoln & Lincolnshire branded promotional tools that corporate partners can use at their own industry events and offering a new intelligence led offer. • Continued regular social communications through twitter, the Meet Lincoln blog and consumer e-newsletters • Meet Lincoln Operational Plan developed for 2017 • Free Venue Finding service ad in The Business magazine available to all Lincolnshire Businesses • Exhibited at the Lincolnshire Business Expo in January, representing Visit Lincoln and Meet Lincoln & Lincolnshire. The Meet Lincoln & Lincolnshire service also showed a conversion value of over £150,000 since the scheme launched • Digital remarketing adverts have proved a success at raising awareness of Meet Lincoln, driving traffic to the website and
£150K
Contributions to economy through Meet Lincoln & Lincolnshire event bookings
£50,000
Income generated through two MeetLincoln bookings in June 2017
supporting enquiries through the free venue finding service • Investigating producing a Meet Lincoln & Lincolnshire partners brochure, promoting the county as a place to do business and supporting partner promotion
Venue Finding
150 Venue Finder Enquiries £150,000 Converted Business to date 28% Average Conversion Rate
Social Media
Av 1,000 profile visits per month Av 30 new followers per month
Webstats Average 1,500 unique visitors per month Consumer Database 1450 database email addresses in our communications. Average subscriber count per month 32
Business support T-Stats T-Stats monitoring continues as an intelligence gathering service, funded by Visit Lincoln for its partners and the wider visitor economy. Acorn T-Stats brings together all data relevant to Lincoln and Lincolnshire in one web-enabled database. It is custom built, as
LEP Visitor Economy Board Lydia Rusling invited to attend LEP Visitor Economy Board.
every destination collects different data and has different needs and priorities. Sharing information is easy, as it’s online, which also allows data to be collected from the accommodation and attraction sectors. By bringing all Lincoln’s data together iwe can generate reports for accurate analysis will allow decision makers to know what is going on in the visitor economy, in real time, across Central Lincolnshire. LEP Visitor Economy Board A regular agenda item at future Corporate Partner meetings will include and update about the LEP’s Visitor Economy Board, of which Jayne Southall (Chair of Corporate Partners Meeting and CEO Lincolnshire Showground) and Lydia Rusling, Head of Lincoln, both sit on. Eviivo Online book-ability is supplied to all Visit Lincoln Partners through Eviivo on VisitLincoln.com. Eviivo’s award-winning products and services are designed to save our partners time, hassle and money whilst providing an easy and up to date online booking function for visitors. Hotel Demand Study Visit Lincoln briefed its Corporate Partners on progress of the Greater Lincolnshire Hotel Demand Study. Representative from Lincolnshire County Council and the LEP attended the meeting and presented the draft finding. It gave hoteliers the opportunity to hear about the development plans in place, plus insight into current demands, bed stock and occupancy levels across the county. New Head of Visit Lincoln appointed Lydia Rusling joined Visit Lincoln in January 2017 to lead the organisation. Over the last 12 months she has been actively developing a new business plan and shaping the city’s destination management plan as it enters its next crucial phase. With 14 years’ experience working across Lincolnshire’s tourism industry, she has played a central role in many of the county’s most prominent tourism projects. Talking about the new role she said:
New
Lydia Rusling appointed new Head of Visit Lincoln January 2017
“I’m thrilled to be joining Visit Lincoln, especially after working closely with the team during 2015 on the opening of Lincoln Castle Revealed and Magna Carta celebrations. I’m looking forward to continuing their excellent work and building upon their reputation, as well as reaching out to a broader business community. Tourism should not be seen in isolation, if we are to grow as a city we should lead the promotion of Lincoln as a great place to live, invest and learn as well as visit. I am initially focussing on meeting and talking to our partners, and I’d urge anyone who’d like to work closer with Visit Lincoln to get in touch with me. There are exciting opportunities for 2017 with the forthcoming celebrations around the Battle of Lincoln, the Knights’ Trail plus an array of events planned”.
Type of Partner
Number of Partners 160 140
11%
6%
120 100 80 60
83%
40 20 Partners
Corporate Partners
Destination Partners
0
% of income
Partners in 2016
Partners in 2017
Retention Rate of Visit Lincoln Partners 6%
23% 54% 23% 94%
Partner
Corporates
Retention Rate
Destinations
Attrition Rate
Visit Lincoln Partnership
Visit Lincoln is continuing to attract new partners, with a significant amount of growth in 2017. New Partners in 2017 • 41 new partners have joined Visit Lincoln in 2017, brining the total number of partners to 139, which is an increase of 41.8%
41%
Partnership increase in 2017
• The retention rate for partners is 94% • New Corporate Partners include St Marks (Standard Life) and Siemens. Visit Lincoln Tourism Conference: February 2017 The Visit Lincoln Partnership event attracted 130 businesses to the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in February. Lydia Rusling, the new Head of Visit Lincoln, welcomed everyone to the event. As well as an overview of the previous year, delegates saw the new plans for marketing Lincoln in 2017. The partnership with Bailgate Independent to produce a new What’s On Guide publication to promote the summer event programme was also announced. The delegate list indicated that as well as traditional tourism businesses the event also attracted the attention of those in the service sector, showing a natural progression towards Visit Lincoln being perceived as the group to promote Lincoln as a place to live, work, visit and invest.
94%
Partnership retention
October 2017 – RAF Lincolnshire Visit Lincoln hosted its second Tourism Conference at RAF Cranwell College, supported by Lincoln BIG and Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire. Over 120 businesses attended to hear about the RAF Lincolnshire 2018 marketing campaign. Highlights included a preview of the 2018
Service Sector
Visit Lincoln receiving partnership enquiries from businesses in the service sector
campaign video and a special presentation from Maggie Appleton MBE, Chief Executive Officer at The Royal Air Force Museum which set the scene for what is being planned across the country for RAF100. She was followed by a presentation from John Lilley and Bill Ramsey from The People’s Mosquito and Group Captain Sean O’Connor Deputy Commandant of RAF College Cranwell. Launching Coastal tBid Lydia Rusling was invited to speak at the launch of the Coastal t-bid, positioning Visit Lincoln as an expert in the field. Lincolnshire Media Business Awards Visit Lincoln attended the Lincolnshire Media Business awards for the first time, co-sponsoring the ‘Business of the Year’ award with NatWest. The event gave brand profile for Visit Lincoln to prominent people in the business community, and allowed Lydia Rusling the opportunity to stand on stage and introduce the award. Updated Corporate Website pages The new corporate (B2B) webpages on VisitLincoln.com have been re-written and designed so they are more user friendly to partners and potential partners. New sections include information on resources (branding toolkits), news blog, meet the team and for the first time access to research and industry data like STEAM
B2B Support
Enhanced website pages give businesses access to research, insights, toolkits & business support
Visit Lincoln has invested time in developing these pages because it believes visitor economy businesses need access to the right business support and information so they can plan for the future and grow. Insights Corporate Newsletter The corporate e-newsletters continues to grow in popularity. The aim to keep Partners and potential Partners up to date with activities and progress made by Visit Lincoln team, plus business opportunities.
Looking to 2018
RAF Lincolnshire 2018 & RAF100 Work is progressing well to create a coordinated brand for next year’s consumer marketing campaign which will focus on the centenary of the RAF, known as RAF100, and Lincolnshire’s connections to 100 years of UK aviation. Initial concepts include a ‘past, present and future’ theme to unite key attractions and events across Central Lincolnshire. The RAF Lincolnshire branding is being designed to compliment the official RAF100 national brand. The branding toolkit for 2018 was ready in December 2017 and is being marketed to businesses and partners. RAF Lincolnshire Website Campaign Page Dedicated RAF Lincolnshire Campaign pages were created in September, supporting the official branding. It is the hub for all marketing and event information. RAF Lincolnshire Video Marketing A new aviation video is now in production and it will be launched in 2018 to promote the RAF Lincolnshire campaign. Video Marketing will be one of the key elements of our digital marketing next year. Virgin Trains East Coast and International Bomber Command Centre Connectivity and Transport Visit Lincoln is enabling a conversation between Virgin Trains East Coast, PC Coaches and Stagecoach Lincoln to offer transportation between Newark North Gate and IBCC for the ‘RAF Lincolnshire’ campaign next year. Virgin Trains East Coast We are in regular contact with Virgin Trains East Coast and have a meeting set up for February 2018 to discuss a partnership agreement.
Industry awards
Won ‘Best Use of Multimedia’ at Lincolnshire Digital and Tech Awards Visit Lincoln’s new promotional videos commissioned with local agency Wallbreaker become award-winning at the third Lincolnshire Digital and Tech Awards, which celebrated the county’s most innovative and creative digital technology companies. Number one in the English Tourism Social Media Index for 2017 The annual league table grades 133 regional tourism bodies in England according to social media performance by their official channels. Visit Lincoln climbed an impressive 56 places from 2016, attaining the highest score by showing great consistency in its data score. This included top marks for Facebook follower growth and Twitter engagements in relation to its audience size.
Visit Lincoln
Ranked FIRST in the English Tourism Social Media Index 2017
Silver at Association of Community Rail Partnerships’ Community Rail Awards Visit Lincoln and Lincolnshire County Council’s Community Rail Partnership won silver for best marketing campaign after invading King’s Cross train station in May with the Lincoln Knights, and where joined on stage by East Midland Trains at the awards ceremony in Derby. British Travel and Tourism Show Lincolnshire has won a national ‘Innovation in Tourism Award’, presented by Group Travel Organiser Magazine, after museums, charities, councils and Visit Lincoln joined forces to use aviation heritage to promote the county in the British Travel and Tourism Show in 2017. The award was just one of five presented by the editorial team of the magazine and saw Lincolnshire nominated alongside Eurostar, P&O Cruises, Virgin Atlantic and other giants in the travel industry.
City Awards
Visit Lincoln has helped support their partners in public votes to ensure the city won four awards this year: • Most Popular Castle (Holiday Lettings, owned by Trip Advisor) • Best Cathedral (#CathedralWorldCup twitter poll,) • Best Christmas Market (Holiday Lettings, owned by Trip Advisor) • Best Small Festival, Lost Village (UK Festival Awards)
The Visit Lincoln Team • Lydia Rusling, Head of Visit Lincoln • Clare Williams, Marketing & Business Development Manager • Charlotte Goy, Marketing & PR Manager • Joel Murray, Digital Marketing Coordinator • Bryony Keep, Business Development Executive
Visit Lincoln | Annual Review 2017