This Activity is designed to be used in the classroom or as a homework task to support the teaching and learning of Practical Marketing Skills in Travel and Tourism 2.
Practical Marketing Skills in Travel and Tourism 2 - Activity
Image: A ship in Liverpool's Albert Dock. Copyright: Ruth Harris, stock.xchng
Previous Biz/ed Travel and Tourism lessons have included tasks that might be helpful to re-visit as you work on this lesson:
- Marketing South West Tourism - analyse South West Tourism's publications and compare them to other regions' materials (http://www.bized.co.uk/educators/16-19/tourism/marketing/activity/market...)
- Anantara Resort and Spa - read about Anantara's use of travel agents' brochures, and design a leaflet or poster promoting the resort (http://www.bized.co.uk/educators/16-19/tourism/marketing/activity/mix2.h...)
Promoting SeaBritain 2005
SeaBritain is a national tourism campaign led by VisitBritain, the chief body promoting UK tourism. SeaBritain lasts throughout 2005 and celebrates Britain's relationship with the sea. It takes as its inspiration the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. One of the major events that will take place during this campaign will be the Mersey River Festival.
Mersey River Festival
As the diagram below shows, the Mersey River Festival is part of a drive to boost the image of and generate tourism in Liverpool. Have a look at the At your Leisure feature on Success in the City, which examines the place marketing of Liverpool.(http://www.bized.co.uk/current/leisure/2004_5/300505.htm#liverpool)
This year will be the 25th anniversary of the festival; visitor numbers are expected to exceed 250,000. The River Festival fits within a series of inter-related events organised throughout the UK this year. The following diagram illustrates where the festival fits in:
The following list of Web resources indicates the extent to which the city of Liverpool is promoted as a result of the festival programme. Carry out research into this festival and then attempt the tasks that follow:
- Mersey River Festival - from VisitBritain.com (http://www.visitbritain.com/VB3-en/experiences/cities/focus_on/mersey_ri...)
- 2005: Sea Liverpool - from the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2005/01/05/year_of_sea_e...)
- Mersey River Festival Programme - from SeaBritain 2005 (http://www.seabritain2005.com/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.541&viewPage=1)
Image: Tall ships sailing in for the Mersey River Festival. Copyright: Reproduced by kind permission of Liverpool City Council
Tasks:
- Look through the various sites linked to above. Find an example of each of the following:
- Informative advertising
- Persuasive advertising
- Press releases
- Brochures
- Leaflets
- Use of technology
- Pick an event that forms part of the Mersey River Festival and design a press release to publicise it. Use the guidance sheet on how to create an effective press release, produced as part of SeaBritain [PDF, 97 KB](http://www.seabritain2005.com/upload/pdf/samplerelease.pdf)
- Choose a type of promotional material to produce as part of the Mersey River Festival. This promotional tool should be able to be used by one of the travel and tourism organisations involved in the event.
- State how the promotional material will be used, bearing in mind the following:
- Target audience
- Type of message
- Where the material is designed to be used
- What factors do you think could affect the success of the Mersey River Festival?
- How do you think the organisers of the Mersey River Festival should measure the success of the event?