ANNUAL REVIEW 2017 - Visit Lincoln
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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
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
visit in 2017 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
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
2.7m
Pageviews across
visitors and wider economic impact for the city.
VisitLincoln.com
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%
• Overall visits have decreased by 1% compared to 2015, due to
the significant traffic for Magna Carta 800 and the British Cycling
Increase in overall visits to Championships in the city during that year
VisitLincoln.com • 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%
• 22% of visitors were based in Lincoln
• Next popular cities were London (15%), Nottingham (3.4%)
Increase in website traffic Sheffield (2.6%), and Grimsby (2.6%)
during Lincoln FC match
Visit Lincoln total website stats:
Month 2017 Visits Unique Visits Pageviews
January 57,471 46,707 176,718
February 60,142 48,575 178,624
March 79,359 61,770 223,969
April 77,858 61,192 225,502
May 87,163 67,659 233,160
June 70,688 56,682 193,008
July 91,909 71,962 255,164
August 114,038 88,646 304,149
September 92,329 73,457 231,406
October 98,844 78,091 250,975
November 108,884 85,538 245,303
December 77,966 62,992 177,079
Total 1,016,269 803,270 2,695,057
75%
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
Traffic to the website is
and December for Christmas. Apart from the spike in June 2015
organic, proving the
(Cycling Championships, Magna Carta 800 anniversary) there is year
importance of SEO
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)
• Corporate information (who Visit Lincoln is, what Visit Lincoln
19%
Increase in places to stay
•
does, how businesses can work with Visit Lincoln)
Visitor Information shop (souvenirs, guides, tickets)
listings on VisitLincoln.com • 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
• Lincoln Ale Trail: 9,261 unique visitors
• Christmas in Lincoln: 29,535 unique visitors
Unique visits of the most
popular campaign page Digital Trails
Christmas in Lincoln, sponsored A number of digital trails are available on the website that allow
by St Marks Shopping Centre 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 - March 2017
A Discover Lincolnshire campaign page for the county was created.
Discover Lincolnshire Weekend Visit Lincoln led on coordinated activity to support Discover
website hits 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
• There are links out to listings for things to do, where to stay and
events
‘The Heart of Lincolnshire’
• 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
• Map and travel toolkits
16,746
Followers on Facebook
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 proud176,000
residents to share the video, reaching friends and family
People reached through
Lincolnshire Day 3. Happy Lincolnshire Day – video
Facebook marketing • 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
• Riding on the crest of Lincoln City FC’s football success
70,000
National Media boost to
• Linking the Lincoln Imp’s mythology to the unbelievable feats of
the football club
website • 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%
Consumer e-Newsletters
• 23 campaigns sent in 2017
Increase in consumer • 6,184 subscribers (increase of 22% since 2016, 5,071 in 2016)
e-Newsletter subscribers
• 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 and1m
Experience Cultural Lincoln. They won the Best Use of Multimedia at
the 2017 Lincolnshire Digital & Tech Awards and have been viewed
People reached by Visit Lincoln and shared by hundreds of thousands of people. The reach is currently
video marketing 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 Lincolntoday • 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
• Video marketing to launch the Domesday exhibition in
coordination with the National Archives and Lincolnshire County
Unique visits to Council
Battles & Dynasties webpage
on VisitLincoln.com • 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.
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
496
throughout the county in 2017.
Downloads of the 2017 Street Dressing
Business Toolkit from Lincoln’s streets were dressed with flags, bunting and banners thanks
VisitLincoln.com 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.
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
3 million
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
Reach from the Kings Cross
partnerships being formed with Virgin Trains East Coast and East
Ticket BarrierLINCOLN Midlands Trains. Discussions are taking place to see how we work
YO U R H I S T O R I C C I T Y A D V E N T U R E together in 2018 and beyond.
WIN
For the London King’s Cross event Visit Lincoln coordinated with
TWO NIGHT STAY IN LINCOLN
FIRST CLASS RAIL TRAVEL WITH VIRGIN TRAINS
Lincolnshire County Council’s Community Rail Partnership, East
OPEN TOP BUS TOUR
LINCOLN CATHEDRAL & CASTLE TICKETS 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
visitlincoln.com
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 Guidessustainable, 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
United Lincolnshire Health Trust Careers Day
Visit Lincoln supported United Lincolnshire Health Trust at the British
Visit Lincoln attended the Medical Association Careers Day in London, promoting Lincoln and
British Medical Association Lincolnshire as a place for Consultants to relocate. It’s the first time
Careers Day to promote Lincoln this partnership has ever happened, and a meeting to discuss a more
as a place to live and work 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
Investors Day
Lydia Rusling was asked to speak at an independent Investors Day
Private investors attended held at The Collection. In total 15 investors from London attended the
workshop 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
Groups Marketing
Winner
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).
Innovation in Tourism Award The team travelled to London to attend the award ceremony and
2017 Group Travel Organiser accepted the award. Visit Lincoln exhibited at the British Tourism
Magazine & 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
RAF Lincolnshire with Q-Hotels
Visit Lincoln created a bespoke five day groups itinerary for Q
Holidays
Hotels (through Forest Pines) which includes many sites across
Lincolnshire (NKDC – IBCC, Cranwell Aviation Museum, RAF Digby,
Washingborough Hall, Lincoln Castle and Lincoln Cathedral).
now including Lincolnshire
itinerary in 2018 brochure 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.
1,500
Women Institute visitors plan
WI Group Trip – July 2018
Visit Lincoln has secured a group visit from Johnston Coaches which
to visit in 2018 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
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
£1m
Discover England funding
valuable insights into the operational framework of other heritage
DMOs and their activities.
for Lincoln Cathedral AR App 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.
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
£1m
to Yorkshire and will deliver cycle tourism breaks across the two
counties for the Dutch and German Market. The work will tap into
Cycle England funding, working the high profile of cycling in the North of England generated by
with Welcome to Yorkshire 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 andRepresentation rides across Lincolnshire. Lincoln BIG won another element of the
Access Lincoln project in September. The winning proposal included
At English Historic Cities marketing activity delivered by Visit Lincoln.
Consortium
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
supporting enquiries through the free venue finding service
• Investigating producing a Meet Lincoln & Lincolnshire partners
Contributions to economy brochure, promoting the county as a place to do business and
through Meet Lincoln &
supporting partner promotion
Lincolnshire event bookings
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
£50,000
Webstats Average 1,500 unique visitors per month
Consumer Database 1450 database email addresses in our
Income generated through two communications. Average subscriber count
MeetLincoln bookings in June per month 32
2017
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, asLEP Visitor every destination collects different data and has different needs and
priorities.
Economy Board Sharing information is easy, as it’s online, which also allows data to be
Lydia Rusling invited to attend
collected from the accommodation and attraction sectors. By bringing
LEP Visitor Economy Board.
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:
“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
New
array of events planned”.
Lydia Rusling appointed new
Head of Visit Lincoln January
2017Type of Partner Number of Partners
160
140
6%
11% 120
100
80
83% 60
40
20
0
Partners Corporate Partners Destination Partners Partners in 2016 Partners in 2017
% of income Retention Rate of Visit Lincoln Partners
6%
23%
54%
23%
94%
Partner Corporates Destinations Retention Rate 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%
• The retention rate for partners is 94%
41%
Partnership increase in 2017
• 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.
October 2017 – RAF Lincolnshire
94%
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
Partnership retention 2018 marketing campaign. Highlights included a preview of the 2018campaign video and a special presentation from Maggie Appleton
Service Sector MBE, Chief Executive Officer at The Royal Air Force Museum which
set the scene for what is being planned across the country for
Visit Lincoln receiving
partnership enquiries from RAF100. She was followed by a presentation from John Lilley and
businesses in the service sector 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
Visit Lincoln has invested time in developing these pages because it
believes visitor economy businesses need access to the right business
B2B Support support and information so they can plan for the future and grow.
Enhanced website pages give
businesses access to research, Insights Corporate Newsletter
insights, toolkits & business The corporate e-newsletters continues to grow in popularity. The aim
support 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.
Silver at Association of Community Rail Partnerships’ Community
Visit Lincoln Rail Awards
Visit Lincoln and Lincolnshire County Council’s Community Rail
Ranked FIRST in the English
Tourism Social Media Index Partnership won silver for best marketing campaign after invading
2017 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 en-
sure 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 ExecutiveVisit Lincoln | Annual Review 2017
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