Marketing: Tourist trail

Related tags Pubs Tourism Cask ale

The British pub attracts a lot of tourists. But are you marketing it in the right way?Let's be frank. If you were trying to sell the UK as a tourism...

The British pub attracts a lot of tourists. But are you marketing it in the right way?

Let's be frank. If you were trying to sell the UK as a tourism destination, we all know there are a few pubs it would be safer not to let visitors find out about. The prospect of joining a group of 19-year-old ladettes celebrating the end of their beauty therapy course with a few dozen shots of cherry-flavoured vodka and a Destiny's Child karaoke marathon, followed by a large kebab and a shouting contest in the taxi queue, is unlikely to appear in any but the most specialist tourist guides.

And yet the traditional pub, with a door surrounded by roses, a welcoming log fire, cask ale on the bar and sausage and mash on the menu, is used as a major selling point for UK tourism. While that image may only reflect the reality for a small part of the trade, pubs in locations that attract a high number of visitors tend to be pretty clued up when it comes to pitching their offer at tourists.

However, there are many other pubs that could be doing more to tap into the £12bn spending power of the 25 million people who visit the UK annually. That's something which has been recognised by the Regional Centre for Tourism Business Support, which offers tourism and leisure businesses in the West Midlands a point of access to specialist support and training.

In a region that takes in everything from Shakespeare's birthplace to the Bullring shopping centre - and not least Burton-on-Trent, the spiritual home of cask beer - there is no shortage of visitors to the West Midlands at any time of year. What puzzled the Regional Centre was why so few pubs were knocking on the door to take advantage of the free support and advice on offer.

Support for businesses

"Part of what we want to do is make pubs aware of our service," says Ros Hammant, one of the centre's tourism business advisers. "Tourist businesses need support, in the wake of 9/11, foot and mouth and other issues, there was a recognition that there was a need to support them. From our perspective, any business that is customer-facing qualifies for support."

The centre has been running for several years, but wasn't getting too many enquiries from pubs. To help address that, a concerted marketing and publicity campaign has been launched to let pubs know the service is available.

One fundamental issue is undoubtedly just how closely many pubs think about themselves as "tourist" businesses.

Tourists don't just visit idyllic rural locations, and the one thing you can bank on is that wherever they go, from town centres to the suburbs, they'll never be far from a pub. These operators "need to think about the way they market themselves in terms of attracting visitors".

So what exactly can the Tourism Centre do to help? One key issue the advisers have identified - and one which won't come as any surprise to publicans - is staff recruitment and retention. "Standards of customer service is one of the issues faced by all tourist businesses," says Ros. "We've been able to provide details of training support, which can have real benefits when it comes to staff retention."

Something else that has proved successful is making sure that pubs are listed in all the websites, guidebooks and other sources of information used by tourists. "That's all part of a structured marketing approach," says Ros.

Sometimes it's just a matter of paying attention to what's going on outside the pub door. If there's a craft fair, festival or other event in the town, pubs can pick up their share of the extra spending generated through special menus and promotions. Event organisers will normally be only too happy to include local pubs in the festivities.

Make the most of the internet

Mike Loftus, licensee of the Red Lion Coaching Inn, at Ellesmere, Shropshire, worked with tourist adviser Lesley Davies to look at new ways of promoting his business. "It was a very good service," says Mike. "Lesley certainly knew her stuff."

One of the most useful practical outcomes has been getting the pub listed on a number of websites, which has helped to increase forward bookings for the Red Lion's 11 letting rooms.

"We're primarily a local pub, although we've always had some trade from tourists. The canals around here are very popular." However, keeping rooms filled on a regular basis requires a more focused approach. "Working with Lesley, I've been able to broaden my horizons, and look beyond Ellesmere," Mike explains.

The pub now markets its offer to a much wider customer base, and is starting to see the benefits in terms of increased trade and, in particularly, higher rates of room occupancy. "There's still plenty more we can do, but we're well on the way," says Mike.

Another licensee to benefit is Sean McGahern. Having worked with a tourism adviser at his bar in Birmingham, Sean tapped into the advice available when he embarked on a second venture, converting and extending the Royal Forester Inn at Callow Hill, Worcestershire.

"Speaking with the Regional Centre before the building work went ahead at the Royal Forester meant we could incorporate our tourism business adviser's advice," says Sean. "This saved us valuable time and money."

The support included designing letting rooms to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, as well as taking sustainability issues into account when designing the kitchen and the waste disposal system.

Ros says: "There aren't many questions pubs can throw at me that I don't know the answer to, or if I don't, I know where to go to find it. As a signposting organisation we can point them in the right direction. And if they're unsure of what it is they want, we can go through a diagnostic process."

None of this is rocket science, but for many pubs, simply taking a step back and looking at the business with a fresh eye can be a luxury. Howard Loxley, another member of the team of business advisers, says: "Much of the time pubs have their heads down worrying about day-to-day issues. A lot of what we do comes down to marketing the business more effectively."

One issue, Howard acknowledges, is that the traditional approach to tourist guides has often excluded many pubs. "Pubs don't always fit into the pigeonhole. A lot of the focus in both regional and national tourist marketing is around accommodation, and that's an issue I think will have to be addressed. However, the picture is changing. Food has become much more important, and it's an area where pubs have a great deal to offer."