Sustainability

I have never met a business owner who is proud of all they're doing to make their business more sustainable. Not even the gold-starred, award-winning ones. Everyone feels like they're not quite doing enough. Some feel guilty. Others fear that someone will come along at any moment with a big waggy-finger and tell them off. 

It's true: we could all do more. But doing something, anything is better than not doing anything. None of us will ever do enough - that's the reality but...

In the meantime,…

I’ve been going on about this for a while. If you've been listening, you may be feeling a little smug as you'll have seen rsome good results already...

If not, its worth psying attention to this trend as its noty going away!

One of the biggest post-pandemic trends in tourism is an increased desire among visitors to gain insights into places that give them an ‘insider’s view’.

I’ve noticed it in two different generations:

• younger people who don’t want to follow the crowd, are independently-…

Earlier this year I helped to judge the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence accommodation categories. Going through the entries is always interesting. It’s a good way to see the latest trends.

This year two web pages were seen as particularly important.

Some businesses performed well, with excellent entries, but if they lacked these two pages we scored them much lower.

Why? Because the world has changed and we all need to keep up with customer expectations.

You’ll be asking which pages

Sust…

This week I've been judging the VisitEngland Awards for Excellence (accommodation) and noticed some positive trends: 

1. Good businesses really are memorable, with stand-out appeal: independents manage to do this well, and some chains are trying to find better ways to differentiate individual properties. Some businesses have made significant investments in their properties, but it's not just about cash - creativity and guest-focus really count.

2. Since last year's judging panel, it seems that…

Who are you? What do you actually do?

What do you care about?

Do you do anything to ‘do good’?

How are you connected to your local community?

What are your values and ethics?

How are you making your business more sustainable?

As money becomes tighter, visitors think more about how they spend their precious income.

Some visitors will turn to chain businesses because they think they’re trustworthy, and offer a standardised product.

Many others are turning their back on faceless chains, a…