BLUE SAIL PROGRESS REPORT 1
EAST
NORFOLK
MARKETING PROJECT
JULY 2010
TOURISM
PROGRESS REPORT 1 - JULY
This is the first monthly update for the East Norfolk Tourism Marketing Project.
Each month we will summarise the key tasks and activities we have undertaken
during the previous four weeks. We will also use these reports as an opportunity
to highlight particular issues or opportunities as they come up.
The purpose is to keep you up to date with our work and thinking on the project.
It also provides a formal record of our activity.
This first progress report is divided into two parts. The first part is a record of
activities and the second part sets out our shared team view on market
opportunities and how the clusters will work.
1 WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR
We met with you on 17 June at the project inception meeting and undertook an
initial familiarisation visit of the Pathfinder area during our trip.
Audit site visits x 2 – to explore the area more thoroughly, understand the
place from the visitor perspective, including the spatial relationships between
different places, tourism infrastructure, product offer and promotional materials.
To undertake some consultations with businesses
Consultations – our purpose is to get a clear understanding of perspectives on
tourism priorities, understand visitor markets, local delivery structures and what
is happening. We have either met with the following people or had a structured
telephone call with them:
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Mike Jones, Partnership Manager, Griffon Area Partnership
Mike Castle, Partnership Co-ordinator, Stalham and Happing Partnership
Cat Plewman, Partnership Co-ordinator, Poppyland Partnership
Lydia Smith, Director, Norfolk Tourism
Richard Hoggett, Project Officer, Norfolk Coastal Heritage Project
 Liz Gren, Manager, Woodlands Leisure Park
 Ruth Epson, Manager, Cable Gap Park
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Marketing Manager, Sea Marge Hotel
Owner, Virginia Court Hotel
Cllr Clive Stockton, owner and manager of the Hill House in Happisburgh
Roger Hough, owner, Stow Mill, Paston
 David Hunter, Chairman, North Norfolk Tourism Round Table (initial contact to be followed up).
 Julie West, Chief Executive, Tastes of Anglia Ltd and Marilyn Snell,
Membership Officer of Tastes of Anglia Ltd
 Volunteers at the Mundesley Tourist Information Centre
There are a small number of outstanding consultations and we will complete
these in the immediate future.
Visitor Markets - we have undertaken an initial review of current and potential
visitor markets to inform our thinking about future opportunities and the
development of the marketing plan.
Business mapping - We have added to the database of businesses you
provided to us and plotted the location of each business onto google maps.
These maps will form part of the audit paper. We can view businesses as a total
industry and by sector.
Market Opportunities and Product Fit - we have held a consultant team
meeting to share and analyse audit findings and discuss market growth
opportunities. A recommended approach emerged from this analysis (see
section 2 below).
We have responded to a specific request from Ian Groves, North Norfolk
Business Forum concerning a caravan park owner. We have identified a way
we can support the business request and let Ian Groves know our intended
action.
Next steps
We are currently working on refining and completing the audit and developing
the audit paper.
The next key task is to plan and organise the workshops and in particular to get
out invitations to give businesses plenty of time to respond and schedule the
date. We are suggesting a conference call with Jose Socao and Robert
Goodliffe to plan this activity in the week commencing 26 July or week
commencing 2 August. (Details for planning these arrangements form part of a
separate email).
2. MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND DEVELOPING CLUSTERS
We have identified two market opportunities:
 To develop and market the Pathfinder area as a family holiday base – a
new market that capitalises on the area’s safe sandy beaches, the strong
self catering and caravan offer and the potential for easy safe cycling and
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walking as well as providing new audiences for leisure facilities and visitor
attractions within and beyond the Pathfinder area. There is good market fit
with the Norfolk perceptions study that identified the importance of nostalgia
for Norfolk ‘holidays the way they used to be’. The Pathfinder can make
more of this, define it for the family market and use it to lead marketing
messages
 To further strengthen existing markets by targeting Experienced
Explorers and Relaxing Greys including making more of the opportunities
for painting holidays, fishing, bird watching and walking/cycling as well as
packaging the wide range of days out that the area offers.
Families and mature couples visit now but the experience is not packaged and
targeted clearly to these segments.
Developing clusters
Clusters can be divided by geography, by theme/product, by sector or by
market.
We have explored each option and recommend businesses group together by
market. That means there are two main clusters for East Norfolk – a family
cluster and a cluster for the experienced explorer/relaxing grey.
We have chosen this approach because:
 It provides a strong consistent focus for marketing activity
 It creates a rationale for prioritising business development and marketing
activity for the future
 It gives a clear strong marketing voice to the Pathfinder area
 It works well with the emerging brands for Norfolk and the Broads
 It is inclusive – all businesses can become part of one or both clusters
 It covers the Pathfinder area in a way that is meaningful to visitors
 It does not preclude businesses collaborating in other marketing activity
where it makes good business sense for them to do so
 It creates a framework under which to gather a range of niche themes and
products whose potential is currently under developed but which are not
sufficiently strong to go to market in their own right
 As such this approach offers strong product and capacity building
opportunities
 It will also drive the approach and content for the web presence.
The clusters provide a focus for bringing businesses together to package
experiences in a way that appeals to these target markets. In particular, we
want to explore the potential to develop trails and events & festivals.
We will use the LAPs as the route to businesses, commencing with the 3
business workshops. Each workshop will explore both market opportunities and
how businesses might engage with them.
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The market opportunities provide the thread that runs consistently through all
tasks and outputs for the project. We would value feedback on our preferred
approach.
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