Visit East Anglia - one digital back office? Richard Ellis, chair

Context Decimation of public funding for Tourism East of England Tourism went into Liquidation in July 2011 leaving a vacuum and its assets being auctioned by the Liquidator

Enter Visit East Anglia…. Acquired the exclusive rights to operate the ‘EET Assets’ – Website – Database of 140,000+ interested consumers – Destination Management System Aims to fill part of the the vacuum left by EET and demonstrate clear private sector leadership for the sector

What is VEA? A Company Limited by Guarantee Non profit making Objective is to promote tourism in East Anglia Funded by 10 leading players in Norfolk & Suffolk with £100,000 Supported and recognised by the New Anglia LEP, Visit England and both County Councils

VEA’s purposes Primarily a marketing organisation, managing the ‘East Anglia’ and ‘Suffolk’ brands Working in a complementary, supportive and cooperative manner with Local Destinations – not trying to compete with them Operating a membership scheme that adds value for the sector but is complementary to local membership schemes Supporting and working with the regional rail operator, Greater Anglia, and the regional media business, Archant, to deliver tourism campaigns A ‘voice’ of tourism sector to the LEP and the delivery vehicle for LEP initiatives

Purposes continued… Work with Visit England & Visit Britain to raise the profile of East Anglia and its Destinations and maximise the benefits of their campaigns Encourage the continuous improvement of our tourism offer Benchmark our performance against other areas Advocate for tourism

Digital strategy Single shared e-tourism platform Destinations use elements of the system to support their local activities – eg websites, kiosks, mobile, TICs. VEA operate overarching regional website & membership

Digital strategy Long term aim to develop a digital back office offering a number of advantages: – Expertise shared between VEA and destinations – More effective use of staff – Help with joined up delivery Fits in with reduced public sector funding

Digital strategy Working with NVG in a different way: – Highly entrepreneurial approach : shared effort and results Outsourcing activities where we don’t have skills – Data stewardship – Website management – Guestlink / membership campaigns Strong private sector support including in-kind facilities Local brand direction – i.e Suffolk sets the direction for the Suffolk brand

Digital strategy : future Evolve a joined up approach – eg a combined CRM solution Develop and share expertise in the back office Develop a “destination map” for the region (based on consumer recognition of locations) allowing for full, partial or no local DMO Develop the concept of a regional website “interconnect” that: – Deeply links all tourism sites together – Maximises browse opportunities – Encompasses different styles and sizes of sites across region – Reduces duplication – Caters for different search terms eg: “Norwich”, “Norfolk”, “Holkham” – Provide a common navigation widget – More effective SEO – Ensure there are no gaps – Hooks in with local and regional membership scheme