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Hard cheese and the Henchicks

News that this year's eccentric Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling has been pulled for fear of a mass influx of visitors is devastating for 83-year-old Diana Smart who makes the 7lb cheeses.

And it should give pause for thought to anyone involved in destination marketing too. Events-led tourism is high on the agenda for many of our clients, and of course is a great way to turn an "I'll go there some time" place into a "must go - and go now" destination. The 'holy grail' is the homegrown event with a distinctive sense of place that will attract a niche segment of staying visitors.

But niche used to mean small: these days social media can take idiosyncratic local events to a global niche, attracting unprecedented crowds. Take the unexpected numbers queuing for 90 minutes to see 40 zebra finches playing electric guitars at London's Barbican Curve Gallery - the 'Jimi Henchicks' as yesterday's Sunday Times calls them. This quirky art installation, limited to 25 visitors at a time, has become a 'must see' for many, thanks in part to the internet: the YouTube video clip had over 600,000 hits in the first 4 weeks.

Visualising the internet

Imagine...the 1,721,575,605 internet users in the world sent 176,092,827,838 emails today... and blogged 374,739 times ...and made 1,879,692,970 google searches.

For more fascinating stats about the internet beautifully presented via a 'tree map' (a way of analysing large amounts of data in a small space) you can find out the market share of social media networks, portals, blogging sites, reference sites and internet growth rates by country - check out BBC news.

Marketing Scholarships

Any young marketing people out there looking to your future? Or if that is not you are you working with anyone who fits that description? A new Marketing Academy, run by a UK charity called Marketing Hall of Legends, aims to take some of the brightest and best young marketers and equip them to become senior industry leaders of tomorrow through 25 free scholarships.

’Scholars’, as they will be known, will receive 12 months of world-class mentoring, development and coaching from more than 50 CEOs, CMOs and marketing directors of brands and agencies as well as luminaries within academia and trade bodies.

Nominations close on 15 March. It would be great to have tourism marketing talent taking advantage of this.

Facebook for tourist boards

I really like Ian McKee's 8 Rules for Tourist Boards using Facebook. I'd add a ninth - which is "... and don't forget to go where the conversation is". Lots of destinations have their own Facebook page with a few hundred - maybe even a few thousand - fans, while the main conversation about their place is happening elsewhere, on an 'unofficial' page, with tens of thousands of fans. So - make sure you join in there as well!

New Attractions

We like to keep on top of new trends so when we heard about Daylesford Organics, the (so much more than) a farm shop on the edge of the Cotswolds we just had to pay a visit. And it so much more than a farm shop - it also has a cafe, a store, a cookery school, and a spa (teaching yoga, meditation and selling their own product range of body care). The whole place is beautifully built, branded, packaged and presented in the most tasteful way. We can well believe people make the trip from London (passing by outlets in Notting Hill and Harvey Nicholls not to mention Munich) for a day out in the 'country'.

While this is one of the most up-market manifestations we've seen, rural based retail/food/farming/craft places are definitely part of a growing trend. Have a look at Brodie Country Fair in Morayshire in Scotland - or our good friends at Whitmuir Organics near Edinburgh.

And returning to Daylesford - their place is so seductive that despite this being just a research trip we came away with considerably lighter pockets and (paper) carrier bags of goodies. Small price to pay!

The power of an international brand

Want to get your destination on CNN? Well, all you need is some snow ... and an international literary brand!

We're doing some work for the beautiful rural Hampshire area around Chawton where Jane Austen lived, and I was delighted to find that CNN International had broadcast an extended item about England under snow, focusing on the village - no doubt because they knew the Austen connection would ring bells with their viewers.

The result: picturesque images guaranteed to appeal to international target markets.

Shortlisted cities make their pitch

The shortlist for UK City of Culture 2013 was announced today. The advisory panel, chaired by Liverpool's Phil Redmond, has whittled 29 down to 4: Birmingham, Sheffield, Norwich and Londonderry/Derry. For destination professionals, it's worth listening to what representatives from these four made of the opportunity to lay out their stall on tonight's Front Row - the live arts magazine programme on Radio 4. So, if you were in their fortunate shoes, who would you field for your destination, and what would you have them say?

Google stories

Did you catch the fantastic google advert 'Parisian Love' during the coverage of the Superbowl? If not check it out now on YouTube.

It's utterly engaging and shows how creative you can be in under a minute without using words and images. And it absolutely illustrates what google does best.

Our ad of the year so far!

No beginners, please

Have you spared a thought for people running English Language schools lately?

This is an important part of the UK's tourism industry - for the billions it brings into our economy (from students and their visiting friends and families), and also because young people coming here to learn English often revisit later in life.

Yet tough new immigration controls mean that anyone from outside the EU applying to come here to study in future must already be able to speak English to near GCSE standard. So does that spell the end of beginners' courses for people from the world's fastest-growing economies?

And those on short courses can't bring their dependents any more - so no more family holidays while an adult brushes up his or her English.

What will this do to the UK's EFL sector, already facing tough competition from the other anglophone countries?