While not wishing to bore you, here's a small selection of projects we've had on the on the go over the last wee while!

2 Oct '07        Cycling contract with Purple Mountain  

Purple Mountain are a 2 year old business located in the stunning Dalby Forest in the North York Moors National Park. They have a cafe, large cycle hire facility and cycle sales office and, in conjunction with BLYNY have contracted STL to carry out a variety of market segmentation and marketing planning programmes. These will focus not just on the leisure market, but also on developing corporate packages.

7 Sept '07        Heads in Beds!   

To celebrate five years of STL, we've launched a new website celebrating all of the tourism and hospitality businesses we've enjoyed working with. Gary Lowthian has chosen those that he feels offer great value to their customers. From camp sites to luxury five star guest accommodation they're all listed at www.headsinbeds.co.uk  - why not have a look and click through to their own websites for further details?

17th July '07        East of England gets the STL treatment   

Yet another regional development agency is using the skills at STL, with EEDA [East of England Development Agency] utilising us. They're encouraging their local tourism businesses to get more productive, and with a cafe, ice cream producer and vineyard on the books [among others], it should be an interesting contract to deliver!

25th May '07        One North East contract STL  

North East England's regional development agency, One North East is using Strategic Tourism Ltd to deliver elements of it new 'Profit Through Productivity' programme. The contract covers business coaching and workshop development/delivery with an array of hospitality businesses from self-catering agencies to hotels and restaurants. Initially kicking off in Northumberland, the programme will move to other parts of the region in 2008.

23th March '07        Grants for Yorkshire Dales businesses  

Three businesses in the Yorkshire Dales have benefitted from Strategic Tourism's assistance in sourcing grant funding. Askrigg Cottage Holidays, Arkle Moor Riding Centre and The Wheatsheaf Inn at Carperby have all received notification of funding awards from North Yorkshire Country Council.

This aim of the financial assistance varied from business to business, but was targeted mainly at improving branding, eMarketing, reservations and online booking options.

15th January '07        New work in Lancashire and Blackpool

The North West Regional Development Agency are funding a programme of business support in the North West, assisting tourism businesses in the region. Strategic Tourism have been appointed as one of the Business Coaches, assisting in improving the productivity and profitability of 12 businesses across the region.

The businesses include restaurants, guest houses, hotels and self-catering operators. Funding is via the Objective 2 european funding pot and is being administered by HALM.

4th December '06        More Cumbrian businesses benefit  

Four tourism businesses in Cumbria are being financially supported by Cumbria Tourism to receive assistance from Strategic Tourism. McMenamins restaurant in Maryport, Seatoller Visitor Information Point, Shepherd's Hotel in Cockermouth and Parkfoot Holiday Park on Ullswater have all signed up to a subsidised programme of assistance which will see new systems developed, improved staff performance and better bottom line profitability.

9th April '06        Support for Lake District Farm Tourism Businesses   

The North West Farm Tourism Initiative have contacted Strategic Tourism to manage business support services for an array of farm tourism businesses in Cumbria and the Lake District. These range from farm attractions and self-catering operators to B&Bs and new diversification projects.

A big part of this work was to come up with new ideas to make the businesses more profitable and attract new market segments. For some businesses, sourcing grant funding was also important to support their future development.

10th January '06        Support for Ramada, Bury St.Edmunds  

Clive Nicholls and his business parter run a small chain of hotels in the Suffolk area. They'd recently taken over the 'Butterfly' hotel on the outskirts of Bury St.Edmunds and rebranded it as a Ramada. Although they have bucket loads of experience in the hospitality sector, they asked STL to have a look at the current performance and carry out some benchmarking. Performance gaps were identified in terms of marketing and HR which are now being addressed. Ever conscious of the need for monitoring customer service levels and negotiation skills of their staff, they are also using STL for a programme of mystery shopping.

09 December '05       New corporate package for Spa hotel

Clarice House is a chain of 3 spa hotels in the East of England.

Very successful businesses by all accounts, so it's maybe strange why they'd request some consultancy . . . . but maybe having an open mind and being open to new ideas is why they're doing so well!?! To boost occupancy at key times, STL helped the business develop a new 'corporate spa' package to complement their very successful leisure 'bliss breaks' packages. This includes accommodation, free Wi-Fi access, free use of the outstanding leisure facilities and a 15 minute 'de-stress' shoulder massage.

Just the thing for highly strung executives!

13 November '05         eMarketing contract for Derbyshire-The Peak District

Derbyshire County Council realise the benefits that the Internet can bring their destination. Derbyshire-The Peak District is a very well known brand and their website is a key tool in their marketing portfolio. STL was commissioned to initially develop an eMarketing plan to boost visitors to the site, and then to implement the recommendations. This included website optimisation [to make the site easily found in search engines], link building, email marketing and pay per click advertising. Since starting the project we've managed to more than double the number of people accessing the website - that's a lot of potential visitors to the region!!

25 October '05              New touring caravan park in the offing

When Lucy Winter was looking for new ways to diversify the family farm business, she turned to STL for help. After some serious soul searching and serious number crunching, a fantastic business opportunity [small adult only touring park] was identified and set out in a formal business plan; this will help to support a planning application in the early part of 2006.

04 October '05           Self-catering/B&B business on the up

Rawcliffe House Farm was doing fine before starting with STL, but there was scope to do even better. To meet the changing needs of their customers, this North Yorkshire based business has invested sensibly to ensure customer loyalty. Their marketing activity has been completely revised; branding, stationery, photography, website development, eMarketing activities, new leaflet, database development and direct mail: nothing has been left untouched - and they're already seeing the benefit from much better advanced bookings. 2006 should be a good year for Duncan and Jan.

24 September '05          Farm business on big marketing push

Ash Hining is a small farm in a beautiful location in the Howgills, between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. Jim Mattinson was sensible enough to realise that diversification was the best way forward and developed the farmhouse into a B&B and converted a barn into self-catering units. STL helped Jim to get a marketing grant through the North West Farm Tourism Initiative; helping to pay for branding, photography, stationery, a new website, leaflet and direct mailer.