Wales Coast Path Marketing Toolkit Spring 2020 | Version 1.0 Wales Coast Path Toolkit About the Toolkit ...................................... 5 Promoting the Wales Coast Path Marketing Materials ..............................35 Spring 2020 How to reach your customers ............... 9 General ............................................................36 Version 1.0 Why you should use Databases ......................................................10 Walkers Welcome message in key the Toolkit ...................................................... 5 Newsletters ...................................................10 foreign languages .....................................37 Social media .................................................10 Health benefits of walking the The Wales Coast Path Feedback .........................................................11 Wales Coast Path .......................................37 opportunity ................................................... 6 Keep up to date ...........................................11 Health and safety .......................................38 Year of the Outdoors 2020/21 ..............11 Maps & walks ...............................................39 Wales Coast Path Explore a virtual Welsh coast Wales Coast Path images, photos in facts & figures ....................................... 7 with NEW augmented reality ap ....... 12 and videos .....................................................39 New Itineraries ............................................ 13 Accessibility/disabled information ..39 Wales Coast Path Creating special offers ............................ 14 Tide timetables ..........................................39 diary of events ............................................ 7 Using the Welsh language ................... 14 Hidden gems ...............................................39 Refill Cymru ...................................................40 How to Develop a Keep Wales Tidy.........................................40 Marketing Campaign ............................ 15 Best practice examples .....................42 How to Write a Press Release ........18 Web sites .......................................................42 Newsletter ....................................................42 Getting the Best from Press release example ...........................43 your Website ..............................................20 Using Video .................................................23 Developing FAM Visits .........................26 Capitalising on the Seasons ...........29 This project has received funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Getting Staff Involved ......................... 31 Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government. Working Together ...................................33 3 Wales Coast Path About the Toolkit Wales About the Toolkit Coast Path Welcome to the Wales Coast Path marketing Toolkit – a free-on-line resource for all coastal businesses. About the It is designed to be easy to use, giving you the ability to access a wide range of material and information, much of which you can download. Using the Toolkit will help you successfully market your business by Toolkit using the pulling-power of the 870-mile long Wales Coast Path - the longest continuous coastal path around a country. The Path already successfully attracts You will find everything within the Toolkit thousands of visitors every year and by from walks and Coast Path photographs, making use of the ideas within this Toolkit to advice on writing media releases, Did you know? you can share in that success – attracting improving your website, being a whizz at • Wales Coast Path visitors put new customers to use your products and social media and much more. £84 million a year into the services. Information on walks and photographs Welsh economy. With help from this Toolkit you will be of the Coast Path are geographically • The Wales Coast Path helps able to put together a range of marketing indexed so you can quickly find items that support more than 1,000 jobs. and promotional plans and ideas. It is like are relevant to your needs. having your own marketing team on-line. • In 2014 there were over of By using the Toolkit you will be able to 43 million visits to the It also provides useful safety information identify new opportunities to market Welsh coast line. to help you promote the Wales Coast your business to walkers by creating new Path responsibly and encourage the safe offers and products attractive for them, • People visit the Wales Coast enjoyment of the Welsh coastline. such as: Path for its fantastic natural scenery, wildlife and great • joint marketing initiatives Why you should use the Toolkit walks – everything from a • media campaigns Marketing and promoting your business gentle stroll to a full-on hike. is not easy – it takes time, effort and • social media activity not inconsiderable funds. So, we have • special offers & promotions • The Welsh coastline and its inland rivers were of significant created this on-line resource just for you. All of which will help you: importance in the ancient • reach new customers Make use of it and you have instant history of Britain when the • build new business access to marketing, PR and media region was known as Prydein – experts, enabling you to create bespoke And best of all – it’s all FREE! a name thought to have been marketing plans with all the pulling power confused in the translation of the stunning Wales Coast Path. of original documents as GO BACK meaning the whole of Britain. TO CONTENTS 5 Wales The Wales Coast Path opportunity Coast Path The Wales Coast Path is 870 miles of business opportunity. This scenic route around the coast of Wales enables About the you to market your business to the thousands who walk the coast every year. Toolkit From young families, to retired couples, • Free drinks and snacks for dogs singles to adventure seekers – use the Take a look at this Visit Wales toolkit to discover ways in which you can • Free dog poo bags web site more ideas and free advice: ensure that they become your customers. Visit Wales The Coast Path is an iconic, international • Collection of luggage Cyclists & Walkers Welcome Scheme brand and as such connects you and your business to a wide and varied consumer LUGGAGE market. • Provide packed lunches So, what can you offer your customers that will appeal to Coast Path walkers? • Offer local knowledge – best coastal Check out these ideas and take a look walks, great places to go for a at the WALES COAST PATH web links drink/lunch for more information. WALKS SHORT | LONG Wales Coast Path in facts • Offer a clothes drying facility & figures • Lend walking sticks • Collection from bus or train stops Wales is the only country in the • Provide a secure bicycle park world to have a continuous coastal • Provide bus & train timetables path stretching its entire length. • Provide safety information TIME TABLES including tide timetables From cliff top walks and secluded beaches through to exploring the • Offer contact details for useful SAFETY exciting Cardiff Bay redevelopment - local businesses, such as taxis, the 870-miles long Wales Coast bike hire, car hire etc Path offers visitors a wide range TIDE TABLES of scenic walks. To enjoy the Coast • Offer maps and walks downloadable Path you don’t even need to be an from your website + information ardent walker as there are short easy on walks stretches for a quick and easy walk as well as longer, more challenging GO BACK PLAN YOUR VISIT hikes. TO CONTENTS 6 Take a look at the websites of the Official Here are just a few facts that you may not have known about the Welsh coast: Wales Wales Coast Path partners. • Over 43 million visits are made to the Wales Coast Path every year Coast Path Here you will find a feast of information • Walkers along the Coast Path are estimated to spend nearly £550 million a year about activities in your area: • Wales has more Blue Flag beaches per mile than anywhere else in the UK About the • 47 beaches in Wales were awarded Blue Flag status in 2018 • Visit Wales • There are more than 100 beaches dotted along the Coast Path Toolkit • European Regional Development Fund • The Cardiff Bay Barrage is part of the Wales Coast Path • The Coast Path offers glimpses of blue whales, dolphins, puffins, and Atlantic seals • Natural Resources Wales • There are over 30 shipwrecks in Llandudno Bay • Flintshire County Council • You can walk dogs on a lead on the Coast Path & some sections are open • Denbighshire County Council to horse riders • It would take about two & a half weeks to walk the 186 miles of Pembrokeshire • Conwy County Borough Council coastline • Isle of Anglesey County Council • Rhossili Bay in the Gower has been voted among the top 10 beaches in the world • Gwynedd Council • Merthyr Mawr, near Porthcawl, has some of the largest sand dunes in Europe • Playing Nefyn’s headland golf course has been likened to teeing off the deck • Snowdonia National Park Authority of an aircraft carrier • Powys County Council • Alice Liddell, born in 1852, who often visited Llandudno with her family, was the • Ceredigion County Council inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland • There are 30 RNLI lifeboat stations in Wales/40 RNLI lifeguarded beaches in Wales • Pembrokeshire County Council • South East Wales has the second highest tidal range in the world • Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority