There has been much media speculation over the last few weeks about the future of the star-grading scheme in the UK with an announcement from the British Hospitality and Restaurants Association and an item in the Wales Tourism Alliance’s February Newsletter entitled UK Tourism Minister says he will Scrap Grading Schemes.

Why is this happening?

There are a number of converging forces at work here, summarised as follows:

1. The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) is due this month (February) to publish the UK Tourism Strategy for the next 4 years.

2. The PM in his speech on tourism last August called for the strongest possible tourism strategy with measures to stimulate the private sector in tourism.

3. He said the old model was too top-down, failing to incentivise innovation and local enterprise.

4. In its Business Plan DCMS seeks to strip away red tape and stimulate private sector investment to create conditions for tourism growth.

5. The sector should be free to drive its own success – with the Government only intervening where there is a real need.

6. This will enable the tourism sector to deliver faster, more balanced economic growth and streamline and refocus tourism organisations in the process.

7. Visit Britain and Visit England will have to find administrative cost savings of 50% over the next four years 2011-2014.

8. The ban preventing owners advertising their properties in Government i.e. State-aided publications if they have chosen (a) not to enter the National Quality Assurance Scheme or (b) to have their properties graded under alternative schemes, has been subject of a long-standing State aid complaint to the European Commission

9. The ruling from the Commission is expected to be in favour of the complainants, judging the practice to be anti-competitive under Competition Law Rules.

10. Removal of State support from the National Quality Assurance Scheme would be a rational response to this ruling.

11. It would leave property owners free to choose which scheme they wish to join (if any) and compare the different marketing opportunities available from each according to need and budget available.

12. Marketing opportunities under the National Quality Assurance Scheme no longer favour property owners. They have grown increasingly restricted and bear little resemblance to new opportunities available in the open market.

13. Amongst these opportunities is reputation management through social media and user reviews. The free Owners’ Centre introduced by TripAdvisor is a prime example.

14. DCMS has recognised the power of user reviews to deliver quality messages and while these are not yet perfect in an imperfect world, the National Quality Assurance Scheme also has its drawbacks and is a net cost to taxpayers.

The media speculation would appear, therefore, to be well founded.

What happens now?

Tourism authorities have been preparing for this since the State aid case gathered momentum. Here is a summary of what to expect:

1. Visit Wales will offer listings based on adherence to basic statutory requirements through self-assessement with a nominal fee payable and spot inspections over a two year period.

2. A version of the old grading scheme is likely to be trialled over the next 12 months and abandoned if there is insufficient support from property owners.

3. The Regional Tourism Companies will lose any remaining credibility as delivery agents for Visit Wales marketing as property owners seek more viable alternatives.

4. Wales.info (Tourism Wales UK) will continue to recognise Visit Wales Star Gradings as long as the scheme exists with provision made for displaying AA Star Ratings in future.

5. Greater emphasis will be placed by Wales.info (Tourism Wales UK) on user reviews working directly with Google Places and TripAdvisor.

6. The AA Star Ratings scheme shares quality standards in common with the National Quality Assurance Scheme and will remain unaffected.

7. Owners whose properties are assessed and recognised by Visit Wales can join the AA as Associate Members and have their current Visit Wales star gradings recognised.

8. Tourism businesses’ use of social media and user reviews in their own websites will form criteria for ‘Platinum’ in the new UK WelcomeWeb awards scheme.

Further information will be given here as soon as the UK Tourism Strategy 2011-2014 is published.

– End –

2011 Membership

Don’t spend a penny more on marketing until you read this.

Love them or hate them, Google and TripAdvisor have changed the face of tourism marketing forever through the all-out launch of Google Places and the TripAdvisor Owners’ Centre.

The implications for independent tourism business adopting these new, direct-marketing channels are huge with operating cost savings up to 25% for serviced accommodation and 35% for self-caterers depending how quickly the new opportunities are siezed.

There’s no looking back. Organisations in the middle – booking agencies, tourist information centres, regional tourism companies, regional tourism partnerships, tourist boards – all in denial, will be squeezed out of the market with operating costs wiped out and passing to front line businesses as increased profit.

It’s not in the interest of these anachronisms to precipitate their own demise by telling you this. They will seek instead to buy time and reinvent themselves but it will be too little, too late; the cost savings are available now.

Deals already negotiated for Wales this year with TripAdvisor, eviivo frontdesk®, Holiday Lettings and Just Booking are just the start of a wide range of digital products and services flowing into the market to supplement Google Places in favour of small hotels, B&Bs, and self-catering property owners.

Change is never comfortable but the results will be rewarding to businesses owners in Wales able to grasp these new opportunities.

Sign up today and have powerful players like Google Places and TripAdvisor make the difference for your business.

Small independent accommodation businesses in Wales are continually looking for ways to advertise on the internet to drive visitors to their Wales hotel or guest house. This is not been an easy task because not only are they up against the big marketing spend of large hotel and motel chains but as independent businesses they are unable to achieve economies of scale and simply become needles in a haystack on the worldwide web.

Forty tourism business owners and technology company representatives attended the Tomorrow’s Tourist Today workshop at the Conwy Business Centre, North Wales on 16th November 2010.

Their aim was to come up with new ideas to help boost tourism to Wales as we enter a new decade on 1st January next year.

Presentations were received from Google’s spatial technologist Ed Parsons and Terry Jackson of Wales.info on new products and services already replacing search engine marketing as we know it, and will deliver increases in bookings and occupation rates for Wales at the same time as reducing business operating costs by up to 35%.

Four exceptionally well-informed speakers gave their analysis of the industry at the 2010 WTA Annual Conference on 22nd October, and lifted the veil on some powerful new marketing opportunities:

Many people look to visit a country for its history, culture and scenery. One country that has all of this and much more is Wales; this might just be the destination you’re looking for.

For years, tourists have flocked to holidays in Wales for the chance to escape life’s pressures, to explore a country famed for its natural beauty and genuine hospitality. Yet, within the limited time of a short break holiday in Wales, it’s all too easy to miss out on some of the country’s hidden gems, or getting lost along its many winding roads and backwaters.

Chris Osbourne, chairman of the Wales Tourism Alliance, has predicted that the Welsh travel industry might be blighted by a post-recession lull for several years.

Cauwill Technologies in Limerick and Tourism Wales UK have signed a deal that will see Cauwill provide tourists to Wales with location-based service technologies through http://www.wales.info. The deal will also create jobs in the developer and marketing sectors.

A decade on from publication by This Week of its report entitled A Snapshot from the Middle of a Revolution, Tourism Wales UK has emerged as the largest and most progressive online marketing membership organisation in Wales with its focus entirely on bringing visitors to Wales from the rest of the UK and overseas.