ePub: website aims to boost tourist trade
Pubs are under-represented in tourism, and need to do more to market themselves in the sector, while too few trade bodies recognise the role that publicans play within the tourist trade.
That's the verdict of the former tourist board chief who is behind a new website that she says will help pubs draw more business from both domestic and international tourists.
Caroline Webster, managing director of Oursource.co.uk, believes tourist boards are failing to address pubs. "There's an element of help yourself, otherwise you would not be in business," she says. "But the support networks are not necessarily doing it right. Pubs are left very much on their own, classed as retail. They get missed out.
"All tourism destinations have holiday drinkers who go to pubs. Tourism is immensely important to pubs. Look around - how many of your customers are tourists? A lot of tourism businesses, including pubs, are good at hospitality, but they are not all good marketers."
The new website collates information from tourist boards, the Government's Business Link advice centre, and bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive and the Department of Trade and Industry, among others. Visitors to the site will find databases for recruitment and suppliers, as well as a marketing resource featuring a search facility to pinpoint the right section of the media in which to market their pub.
Caroline is most proud of the property database, however. The only part of the site for which there is a charge for use, it is a listings service designed to give buyers more support than they might get from an agent. It includes information such as a profile of the local area, advice on setting up a business in the location, and links to other organisations, such as the BII.
The site also features a section on recycling - an issue Caroline sees as particularly important for the industry - and 'Ask Caroline', a series of questions and answers and advice sheets on subjects such as risk assessment for fire regulations.
She believes the website is the first resource of its kind, a one-stop-shop that ties together disparate resources in one place.
"While all sorts of organisations offer bits of information and advice to some sections of the industry, and many of the services can be accessed individually elsewhere, they can be immensely frustrating, time-consuming or expensive to access," she said.
When it comes to the tourists pubs should be capitalising on, Caroline, an ex-hotelier and former head of business development at the South West Regional Tourist Board, looks beyond the stereotypical foreigner gripping a camera and travel guide.
"I prefer to use the term 'visitor'," she says. "It could be me coming up the road to do some shopping. England really is a domestic destination in this sense."
The practical advice on the website applies very much to this definition of a tourist. For example, Caroline suggests a city centre pub could target media on the periphery of the city to promote incoming Christmas shopping trips - with lunch in your pub thrown in, of course.
With Oursource.co.uk only a matter of weeks old, Caroline is pleased with the thousands of hits it has already had, especially given her admission that it is "not fully stocked up yet".
"It will grow organically and continue to change every day," she says.
With legislation hitting the trade like never before, the site will cover upcoming concerns such as the smoking ban and bed tax.
"We will be full of ideas, hints and tips on how to address issues," Caroline says. "We don't intend to be a political organisation; we are a practical one."
