The Olympics are almost over (they will be by the time most read this) and I am very sad to see them finish. It has been fantastic in all aspects – from the sporting competitions and amazing athletes, to the friendliness of the people all over London to the fairly faultless organisation (well except for the ticketing fiasco).

I’ve been privileged to have attended one of the Diving competitions in the Olympic Park and it was wonderful to be part of it. The Park, the volunteers and the Diving were all magical. The G4S security mess actually was a godsend in my opinion as the Military were superb and most retailers should take customer service and friendliness lessons from them.

I’ve been watching the second half of the Olympics from New York and while I miss being in the thick of it, it has been so interesting to watch London and Britain from an International perspective. I won’t say NBC’s coverage has been great – to be honest the majority of their commentators have been rubbish (so stiff and making a lot of errors – makes me appreciate the BBC so much more). But what NBC have done really well is showcase the UK in a fantastic light – London and GREAT Britain has never looked better nor more appealing.

Admittedly, I was skeptical about how well the Games would go and how the World would view us. I am very happy to say I was wrong and trying hard not to sound bias in saying that London2012 may just have been the best Summer Olympic Games ever. I am also very happy to make a prediction that Tourism into the UK will rocket over the next few years as people flock to see us. We look great, the Paralympics will make us look even greater and I so very much hope that our inbound numbers show that all the work, money and effort was well worth it. From everything I’ve heard while here in New York, certainly the Yanks will be coming.

So well done to all those involved in making London2012 the best games ever – I am so proud to be a Londoner!

I saw a story yesterday about Tourism Australia doing more marketing activity aimed at the Youth Market. I loved the quote that the Youth Market was “one of the best and quickest to turn on”. Hallelujah! It’s about time this so often unrecognised sector is being seen for what it is – an important and valuable supplier of inbound visitors and spend.

And Tourism Australia does market to Youth so well – whether it be prominence on their website or via Social Media where their Work & Travel Facebook page has over 64k followers.

It isn’t surprising that the Aussies are out there showing the love to Youth. To be fair, they’ve long recognised the importance of backpackers and young travellers. Their Tourism Export Council has been a big supporter the industry – for goodness sake, they even run a Backpacker & Youth Tourism Conference . I remember 10-15 years ago in my days of business development for an International Student & Youth Travel retailer how amazed I was that the various jaunts up to the UK by Aussie suppliers was highly subsidised by ATEC (and therefore the Government). UK suppliers were envious and well they should be. UKTI has never taken this sector seriously.

The South Africans have made half-hearted attempts at wooing Youth but I firmly believe that it’s the industry and not the Tourist Board that drives that. The same can be said for the Kiwis. If the Tourist Board does any promotion , it’s because of the sheer tenacity of the industry pushing and prodding.

I can think of few other Tourist Boards that do anything of any significance in the Youth sector. There are little pockets of activity with the French and the Germans and perhaps the Thais. My home country, the US, doesn’t regard the sector in any way, shape or form (pity). The closest VisitBritain gets to promoting this great island I live in and love to the Youth Market on their website is a bit of a nod for ‘Study & Learn’ and ‘Budget Accommodation’. It is really disappointing but not surprising. Between the eternally dwindling marketing spend (thanks DCMS) and frankly a lack of interest in the sector, I wouldn’t expect it. Of course I would love to see more recognition of the value of the sector and I’ve spent a good many years keeping up the profile but I have no expectation this will change any time soon.

So let’s see if they a really meant it when Official Tourism Organisations from around the who world met at the last WYSTC said ‘Don’t underestimate youth and student travel,’
as they started planning for a unified strategy addressing the need of the global youth & student travel industry valued at US $136 billion per year! Tourist Boards please take note – Australia seem to be the only serious player around.

I’ve been in the US for 10 days now and I’m astounded at how interested they are here about the Royal Wedding. There is at least one story a day on each of the early morning and evening news shows. What the royal couple will eat, what Kate will wear and who will sing at the wedding are just some of the information Americans are eating up.

Just yesterday morning, NBC’s today announced they will have a ‘royal wedding week‘. They even have built a mobile app dedicated to the wedding . And Harry’s Ice Trek is a focus all over the news with some further link to the wedding. Apparently Harry is ‘the World’s most eligible bachelor‘ and American girls are flocking to the UK to snare him.

So what’s this all mean to the UK Travel & Tourism Industry? It means there is a golden opportunity to reach an already captivated audience and those UK product providers who haven’t considered targeting the US market now are missing out – you need to jump on the bandwagon. By all accounts, Americans have the UK on their mind and looks like they will be coming over to sample our fine attractions, hotels, restaurants, theatre and so much more. And budget should be no excuse – try doing it via social media. Whether its a PR royal-related story or an offer, twitter is perfect to get the message out. Get a Facebook page and keep in touch with what VisitBritain are doing there – they have been very successful using Facebook & Twitter .

You should also find out what VisitBritain has planned for campaigns in North America ; work in partnerships with other products and put together interesting ‘royal packages’.

I know that leisure visitor numbers out of the US have been in decline over the last couple of years but its still a vitally important inbound market to target. Its not too late take part – I think the Royal Wedding will have lasting returns out of here.

So George Osbourne has frozen APD in his budget – that means no rises for this year as had been planed. It is good news but hardly worth rejoicing.

Plain and simple, APD is too much and a reduction is in order. If we are to get the economy moving, then the UK needs visitors to spend money here. The cost of flying in/out of the UK is currently ‘visitor prohibitive’!

Frankly I’m less concerned about Brits going abroad which is what many are screaming about – it is about time we brought the differential down between outbound travel and taking staycations at home. And this little rant is coming from an American living in the UK who needs to make frequent trips back home. No, I am really concerned with increasing inbound visits and spend – and with an APD for a family of four that can equal many a monthly mortgage payment, something needs to be done to bring that cost down.

Take a look at Ireland – they seem to understand the value of tourists and the income they bring into the country. The Irish government has just lowered their APD so that all passengers flying out of the Republic pay only 3 Euros (£2.50) to any destination. Compare that to £170 out of the UK. Quite a difference – quite unacceptable!

While I think we all have to consider the carbon footprints that comes with air travel, I don’t think that’s reason enough to keep the APD high. There are many other ways to counteract that but taking away the livelihood of SMEs in the tourism sector is far more of a concern.

So George Osbourne, it was a good thing that you did but you could go further. If the economy needs stimulating, cutting the APD would go quite a way to doing that!

I had a very good day at the Best of Britain & Ireland Show at the NEC in Birmingham on Wednesday – all part of British Tourism Week. I met old friends and colleagues, made new acquaintances and business contacts and heard some very interesting comments and details during the Ministers Question Time.

Well that was my experience anyway – having spoken though to a number of ‘suppliers’ exhibiting there the good feeling was not necessarily shared. Remarks about buyer numbers being light and not enough traffic in general seem to be sentiments shared by quite a few. You have to remember that I am not a buyer of product or press so while my networking provided some interesting opportunities for me, it didn’t necessarily benefit the products and destinations who exhibited there directly.

Putting on a B2B event such as BoBI is not a cheap exercise neither for the organisers nor the attendees. I do have to wonder whether the time has come to call it a day on this particular event and look for new ways to market our great Britain.

There are very successful B2B tourism shows out there – I used to attend ATE, the Australian Tourism Exchange when I was buying product for a former employer (a Global Student Travel Company) and I understand it is still the place to be if you are involved in selling or marketing Australia. It was a packed week full of non-stop meetings all pre-arranged so you had your schedule sorted and homework on both sides could be done.

You had an average of 20 meetings a day over a 3-4 day period plus educationals and it was go go go. It was always a busy but fruitful week and the highlight on your calendar. Okay, Tourism Australia puts a lot of money into it as it is a mammoth exercise getting literally much of the world downunder (a few thousand perhaps). But they had a lot of help from industry partners – the flights and hotels are all covered by suppliers (who see it as a way to show off their product) and so many other industries who see the value of the professionals attending contribute too such as drinks (vineyards), entertainment and shopping companies.

VisitBritain doesn’t have the cash or resource to do it in that grand way. And that being the case, if you can’t do it really well then let’s find a new way to do it within the resources that are available. And to a lesser extent, perhaps BoBI is just tired.

We can’t ignore tour operators, travel agents and press of course but we can be smarter with our spend and time with them. For tour operators and travel agents, a series of regular regional educationals with short, concentrated B2Bs seems to me a great way to show off what great product we have here (and rally the industry to work more closely together particularly in light of what’s happening with many of the tourist boards).

And for Press and PR, I would be using the Social Media card and inviting best bloggers and tweeters over for their own event. VisitBritain has proven how good they are at Social Media having been named the Most Influential Tourist Board in the World so why not use the best tools and expertise available to do the job.

I know the message in this blog will not be popular with a lot of the industry and there will be a lot of flak for saying let’s do away with BoBI. But we need to be honest and despite what the Minister of Tourism says about the huge sum of money the Government is putting behind Tourism (let’s be real Mr Penrose, this £100m amount means tourism budgets have been severely cut further over the next 4 years), we have to be smarter with the little bit of money we do have. Change is good and with some creativity and online tools we can make a much better job of showing Tour Operators, Travel Agents and Press & PR how great we are so visitors come flocking back from overseas and domestically staycations and daycations grow and grow.