news ISSUE 23 www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org SEPTEMBER 2011 The new Burford VIC

On August 16, Burford Visitor Information Centre (VIC) opened in its new home at 33a High Street; on time and within budget. The facilities are within the former toilet building, which has been divided into two separate units to provide space for both the new toilets and the VIC. Previously sited in Sheep Street, the relocation has allowed the VIC to move to a more prominent and accessible location directly opposite the coach parking. The new facilities were officially opened by the Chairman of West Oxfordshire District Council, Cllr Derek Cotterill, who lives in the town and is a local ward member. The opening can be viewed on Oxbox TV (www.oxbox.tv/showvideo.php?video=5508133). Cllr Cotterill said:“The Council has wanted to develop this site for some time and it gives me great pleasure to officially open the new VIC and toilets. The VIC is now ideally situated near to the coach park and public car park and will do a great job of serving tourists in this popular town.” Cllr Richard Langridge, Cabinet Member for Local Economy and Communities, said: “Thousands of tourists and visitors come to Burford each year and the VIC plays a very important role in helping people to find out about the local area. I am sure that the VIC’s new location at the heart of Burford will only add to it’s already impressive record of helping our visitors get the most from their experience of this wonderful town and District.” In the first four weeks of opening footfall has more than doubled from the corresponding period last year. The centre is now open 7 days a week: Monday to Saturday 9.30am - 5pm; Sundays 10am - 4pm

Oxfordshire Cotswolds Tourism Forum 2011 This year’s Tourism Forum will be held on Thursday 10 November at the new Crowne Plaza Heythrop Park. This evening event will see the local tourism industry come together for an evening of presentations and updates from the Council followed by a good opportunity to network. Details are still to be confirmed but invitations will be sent out in October. In the meantime, please put the date in your diary and we look forward to seeing you there.

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org Aston Pottery take first TSE news in brief place Beautiful South ’12 goes live Winners of this year’s Only one year to go! The Tourism South Oxfordshire Business East website has a new Olympics section. Awards were revealed Details on venues and the overnight stops at the annual gala awards for the torch (which includes Oxford on evening. The event, July 9) are included. attended by 500 guests, www.visitsoutheastengland.com/site/ took place at Four Pillars beautiful-south-12 Hotel, Sandford. Stephen and Jane Baughan Intelligence update Once again the top tourism prize went to an Oxfordshire Cotswolds business The recovery in international visitor numbers - with Aston Pottery scooping the Four continues with overseas visitors tending to Pillars Tourism, Hospitality & Leisure stay longer in the region than in 2010. Award. Oxford comes in at no.7 of the 20 most popular destinations for incoming tourists Congratulations to Stephen and Jane and and heads the four entries in the South East. their wonderful team at Aston Pottery. The full report is available at www.southeastservices.co.uk/DH/ ...and runners up again! Intelligence_Update_August_2011.pdf

For the second year running, the tourism team here at 50% funding towards West Oxfordshire District Council was also a finalist in the Tourism, Hospitality & Leisure category. management training Skills South East are funding a range of Return of Four In a Bed Tourism South East management courses for owners, proprietors or managers. You can Channel 4’s popular programme Four In a Bed claim back 50% of the full cost, upto £1,000, on courses including Welcome Management; is returning for a third series and is looking for Lead, Motivate and Succeed; Coaching and B&B and small hotel owners to step forward. Mentoring and many more. If you are passionate, outgoing and proud of www.tourismsoutheast.com/training/ your business - and willing to put it to the test funding-and-eligibility – then why not step forward? Subsidised Welcome All Contact Studio Lambert with your details and why you are training still available proud of your business: [email protected] The popular Welcome All training courses are still available at a subsidised cost, thanks A record June for inbound tourism to to Accentuate, the London 2012 Legacy Project which aims to create a fundamental Britain change in the perception of disabled people. Britain received 2.89 million visits in June – the highest ever and An insight into how to meet the expectations an increase of 4% on the previous record for June (2005). of customers with disabilities and special Holiday visits were also a record high for June, 1.2 million visits needs, Welcome All offers practical advice on representing a 7% increase on the previous June record (2009). how to improve your service and welcome Greatest growth was seen from countries outside the EU and to customers with disabilites and special North America; with visits up 22% on June 2010 at 0.5 million. needs, as well as explaining key aspects of the Equality Act 2010. The latest market news and intelligence is available on the VisitBritain website: www.tourismsoutheast.com/training/ www.visitbritain.org/insightsandstatistics welcome-all West Oxfordshire Business Awards In March 2012, the West Oxfordshire Business Awards (WOBAs) will come into their second year. After a great start in 2011, with over 80 entrants from across West Oxfordshire, next year’s WOBAs will be held in the ballroom at the prestigious Heythrop Park Resort and will be offering an exceptional platform for even more local businesses in the area to celebrate their success and raise their profile.

Special Effect, a Charlbury-based charity which helps disabled young people play computer games has said that winning the 2011 Charity Blenheim Palace 2011 WOBA winners and Community Award has had a “huge impact” on their business over the last year. Founder and Director Dr Mick Donegan says, “we’ve had some very tangible benefits, including increased numbers of volunteers and ‘in-kind’ donations since winning the award.” Andrew Hammond from Oxford Products in Witney, who won the Large Business Award, believes that their achievement “has given the staff more pride in their work, knowing that their efforts are contributing to an award-winning company.”

The 2012 awards will be slightly different, consisting of a bigger venue to accommodate sponsors, finalists and their guests, and applications from a larger breadth of businesses, big and small across West Oxfordshire. As applications increase, so too does the potential for the winners and applicants to progress to the Oxfordshire Business Awards and thus create a higher profile within the county.

The WOBAs themselves span a diverse range of categories, including those from last year: Small and Large Business; Innovation; Business Person of the Year, New Business; Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure; Green Business; and Charity and Community. However there are also two new categories: ‘Rural and Land-based’ and ‘Recruitment and Training.’

Given that West Oxfordshire is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and so frequently visited by world travellers, the opportunities for tourism-businesses at the awards are vast. WOBA are looking for applications from a wide variety of enterprises for all the categories, but especially the Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure title. Entrants can be anything from tea rooms and farm shops to restaurants, campsites and hotels. There is no size restriction on businesses who wish to enter and they can be anything from the local Post Office to the Visitor Information Centre.

In preparation for the 2012 WOBAs, the committee and sponsors will be launching the awards in October and opening for entries from November through to 31st December. In February the finalists will be announced and the winners celebrated at the Gala Dinner at Heythrop Park Resort in March.

For more information, or to enter the awards, please visit: www.woba.co.uk

Oxfordshire Cotswolds Visitor Guide 2012 The 2012 Oxfordshire Cotswolds Visitor Guide is now complete and being printed ready for distribution.

The 2012 guide is full of new advertisers and its size has been increased from 48 pages to 52 pages to accommodate all the new businesses wishing to be part of this successful publication.

This is the main piece of promotional print that is used in all our campaigns and distributed across the TIC network and London Visitor Centre. It will also be downloadable from our website and available as an app for the iPhone.

An initial 45,000 will be printed to fulfil the requests and campaigns that will be taking place throughout the coming year.

The Visitor Guide will be launched at the Tourism Forum on 2 November.

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org Group Leisure & Travel American Embassy

Trade Show The tourism team will again be attending the American Embassy in early October to promote The Oxfordshire Cotswolds will the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. be attending the Group Leisure & Travel Trade Show on 21 and The Newcomers’ Evening is an annual event where 22 September at the NEC, all the newly appointed staff have an evening of Birmingham – Britain’s biggest introduction to what is available to see and do annual event in group travel: www.leisureshow.com during their stay in Britain.

The show is the perfect place to meet and do business The Oxfordshire with potential buyers and decision makers in the Cotswolds is the industry. It is an annual event, now in its fifteenth year, only destination that with nearly 3000 visitors attending last year. receives an invitation to this very special This is a well established and highly regarded show and evening which is the ideal way to meet group travel organisers, leading also attended by the coach operators and trade buyers and promote our American Ambassador. destination and tourism businesses.

Restaurant of the Year

Congratulations to the whole team at the Feathered Nest - winners of both ‘Restaurant of the Year’ and ‘Best British Restaurant’ at the recent 2011 In Oxford and Oxfordshire Magazine Restaurant Awards. www.thefeatherednestinn.co.uk

Destination Britain North America

At the end of September the Oxfordshire Cotswolds will be This is a fantastic profile raising opportunity for represented at the Destination Britain North America event the Oxfordshire Cotswolds to sell both the brand in New York. and destination overseas and is being funded from the LAA Reward Grant money, which is targeted This is the largest such event in North America and at increasing overseas visitors to Oxfordshire. focuses solely on building relationships between Working alongside Visit Oxfordshire North American and at this event we intend to raise Canadian buyers and British the profile of Oxfordshire and the tourism suppliers. Oxfordshire Cotswolds.

The event is a one-stop- This event has been run and organised shop opportunity for North American, Canadian and British by VisitBritain and is supported by a whole tourism providers to meet face-to-face with key decision range of national tourism suppliers including makers that will cement future international business destinations, tourist boards and airlines. partnerships. If you are interested in providing us with special It offers a forum for British suppliers to showcase their offers or rates to take along to this event then products and negotiate business deals, and provides North please contact Hayley Beer. American and Canadian buyers with a cost effective and efficient way to meet Britain’s current product portfolio. www.destinationbritain-northamerica.com www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org Red Tape - latest news

Energy Performance ‘Specially Featured Certificates Entertainment Licenses’ The government has announced that, as from 30 June this year, Energy Performance Certificates will be PPL, the organisation that licenses the public needed for all self-catering properties that are let for performance and broadcasting of recorded music has more than 20 weeks per annum. issued a consultation paper.

The Department for Communities and Local This details proposed changes in tariffs for ‘Specially Government has produced a guidance sheet, which Featured Entertainment Licences’, which applies can be downloaded from our website wherever a DJ plays recorded music and there is an www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org/industry expectation of dancing i.e. not background music. While this will apply mainly to pubs and nightclubs, it will also have implications for a wide range of other activities such as dinner/dance events, festivals, parties and functions, impacting on hotels and other venues.

The proposed increases are considerable; for example, for an audience of 500 people, PPL are proposing that the tariff for 1 hour of DJed music increases from £12.41 to £302.25. If evidence of attendance numbers The Tourism Alliance has taken up this issue with the can’t be provided by ticket sales, the fee will be based Department for Culture, Media and Sport - after all on room capacity. energy ratings are of little significance to holiday- makers, who stay in a property for a short period and Consultation is open now till 14 October 2011, so we where energy costs are usually included in the rental urge businesses to respond directly – a large number price. of objections could have a major bearing on the PPL’s attitude to the proposal. This is one of the pieces of legislation that the tourism industry will be looking to remove as part of For details, and to let your views be known, visit: the government’s programme to reduce regulatory www.ppluk.com/en/Music-Users/SFE-Consultation/ burden on the tourism industry.

Temporary agency workers

Temporary agency workers are to be given new rights from October, when the Agency Workers Directive comes into force.

This will entitle temporary agency workers to the same right to basic employment and working conditions as if they had been recruited directly by the hirer - if and when they complete a 12-week qualifying period in a job.

If you hire agency workers, you must ensure that they have access to your facilities (such as canteen, childcare facilities, transport, car parking, common room) and information on your job vacancies from the first day of their assignment.

After an agency worker completes a 12-week qualifying period with the same hirer, in the same role, they will be entitled to have the same basic terms and conditions of employment as if they had been employed directly by the hirer.

These basic terms are key elements of pay, duration of working time, annual leave and paid time off.

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org Cotswolds Green Scheme Update The Cotswolds Green Scheme is a local sustainable tourism initiative that is free and easy to enter - involving just a simple online questionnaire. Initially open to only accommodation businesses, the scheme will shortly be extended to include other tourism businesses as well.

As part of the scheme we have been organising a number of familiarisation visits to local businesses - The Chestnuts in Shilton and Cotswold Woollen Weavers in Filkins have already been visited and a trip to see the green initiatives undertaken at Blenheim Palace is due on the afternoon of Wednesday 19 October.

The scheme has also seen the printing of ‘Be the perfect visitor’ cards for display in accommodation businesses across the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Stocks of the cards, which are free to local accommodation providers, are still available. Cllr Richard Langridge, Cabinet Member for Economy and Local Anyone interested in joining the scheme, in coming on the familiarisation visit Communities at West Oxfordshire District Council, with ‘Be a perfect to Blenheim, or in stocking the perfect visitor cards, should contact visitor’ cards Chris Jackson.

West Oxfordshire IT Tip Format Painter is available in Word, Week Excel and PowerPoint. The Oxfordshire Cotswolds’ very own ‘Croc Simply select some text with formatting Man’, Shaun Foggett, is opening the doors of that you want to copy, click on the Format Britain’s only crocodile zoo for 2-for-1 entry as Painter icon and then select the part of this year’s WOW. text that needs formatting - as soon as you let go of the left Our thanks to all the businesses that have agreed mouse button it’s done! to take part in WOW, which will this year run from 19 to 25 September. To apply the same formatting to more than one item, select the formatting you want and Wychwood Brewery is also holding special double click on the Format Painter, then just select each evening tours from Monday 19 to Friday 23 with word, phrase or paragraph to be formatted. Simply click the 2-for-1 entry and discounted entry is available button again to stop. at other attractions, including Blenheim Palace, Cotswold Wildlife Park, Rousham House, Cogges, Combe Mill, Heythrop Park, Oxford Bus Museum, Chipping Norton Museum of Local History and Witney & District Museum.

Shaun Foggett said: “I think the West Oxfordshire Week is great for the local community and we’re really pleased to be involved. We have only recently been able to open to the public and hopefully this will offer people the chance to come and experience what we do and to see and learn about these beautiful creatures.”

Full details about WOW, including a full list of the offers, are available on the Council’s website: www.westoxon.gov.uk/WOW

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org Access Audit DIARYdates With funding from Tourism South East and Accentuate, we’ve embarked on a destination 19-25 Sept West Oxfordshire Week access audit of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. 21 Sept TSE Networking Event The audit is being carried out by Tourism for All, Beale Park, as part of our preparations for the London 2012 Reading Olympic Games. 21/22 Sept Group Leisure & Travel Trade They have been asked to look at the visitor Show experience from the point-of-view of older and disabled visitors. Birmingham NEC

This will provide a snapshot of service provision at 26-28 Sept Destination Britain North the moment and hopefully help us to identify areas America of good practice as well as any areas that could be New York improved. 4 Oct Welcome Host Gold Many thanks to all the businesses that have very Eynsham Hall, generously given up their time to help with the audit. North Leigh The results of the audit will be available later in the TSE full day training course to year. bring world class customer service standards to your staff Spotlight on... 6/7 Oct TMI Annual Convention Wychwood Brewery Manchester Every weekend afternoon there are guided tours of 11 Oct Win More Conference Wychwood Brewery. Business The experience lasts for about two Regency Park Hotel, hours with a fascinating guided tour Newbury that takes you through the brewing TSE full day training course on process of Wychwood & Brakspear ways to win more conference Beers, right from seeing the raw business ingredients to the finished product, 12 Oct American Embassy taking in the Copper, Mash Tun and Newcomers’ Evening Brakspear’s famous Double Drop US Embassy, London system. 19 Oct Cotswolds Green Scheme After the tour you are invited to Visit to Blenheim Palace sample their flagship Legendary Hobgoblin and range Blenheim Palace, of Wychwood and Brakspear bottled beers. Woodstock Tours cost 3 Nov Welcome All just £7.50 Royal Windsor Racecourse, but please note that, Windsor due to Tourism South East full day training demand, course giving staff the confidence they must and skills to provide great service be booked to customers with disabilities in advance. 10 Nov Oxfordshire Cotswolds Bookings can be made by phone on 01993 890800 Annual Tourism Forum or via their website: Crowne Plaza Heythrop Park www.wychwood.co.uk

www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org What makesImages a ‘Great - painting Country the right Pub’? picture Thanks to RDPE funding, Tourism South East are launching a major PR and marketing campaign, including a dedicated website www.greatcountrypubs.com, to recruit and promote rural pubs, concentrating on those offering accommodation.

So what makes a Great Country Pub? Well it must be worth an outing in its own right. It will be in a memorable location and be a building of charm and character, individuality and comfort with a host team that really welcome you. Add in great beer, wine and food (with an emphasis on local produce) and it’s everyone’s dream pub.

If you know of a Great Country Pub which should be considered for inclusion please contact Rachel Simpson at Tourism South East ([email protected]) or one of her colleagues ([email protected]).

Finding the right image

We’ve all been enticed by the power of an image, sometimes without even knowing quite why! For the majority of us, images have far more impact than words. It’s little surprise then that images are hugely relevant in successfully marketing to potential customers but sometimes we all need ‘more general’ images. If you want general images then there are a number of sources that you could try: • www.visitbritainimages.com which allows usage if you are promoting tourism in the UK in general. • www.sxc.hu is a free stock images site where users contribute the images. All are royalty free although in some cases you may need to credit the author, check each image carefully. • other stock sites such as www.fotolia.co.uk can be really useful but you will need to pay for the images. • www.flickr.com is vast but again you’ll need permission in most cases to use the images, just be careful of the licensing issues. • social media networks - there might be some great images that you could use (but remember to ask for permission) • ourselves - we have an image library here at the council and may be able to provide you with some images, if credited properly.

Join the Oxfordshire Cotswolds on and

West Oxfordshire District Council Tourism Team

Hayley Beer Diane Blackwell Tourism Services Manager Tourism Development Officer [email protected] [email protected] 01993 861080 01993 861553

Chris Jackson Vivienne Stobo Tourism Development Officer Visitor Information Centres [email protected] [email protected] 01993 861563 01993 861780