Visitor Elves – Details, episodes & analysis

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Welcome to the Visitor Elves podcast.  A place where, I chat with amazing people in and around  West of England, working behind the scenes in tourism, hospitality, culture and events, and everything in between.  

With our new ways of virtual working, I want to connect everyone back up on a deeper level, to help us learn from each other, and to know that we’re not alone in our challenges.  

My name is Kelly Ballard and I’m a specialist in marketing in the visitor economy.  Over the years I've managed marketing strategies and plans for many destinations, attractions and hospitality businesses.  I’ve worked with hundreds of people and organisations across Bristol, Gloucestershire and Somerset and I am always intrigued about what people do and their stories.   The people who work in our industry are inspiring and I know that their stories will inspire you - so this podcast brings them out from behind the scenes. 

If you enjoy the podcast please subscribe and head on over to Instagram or LinkedIn to join the conversation. 

Thanks so much for listening

Kelly x

To share your views on this subject and ask questions about the episode, head over to:
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LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.

Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations.
They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.

FREE GUIDE - 6 Steps to finding your Ideal Customer
Do you want to know who your ideal customer's are and how you can focus your time and money reaching them? Download my FREE guide now.

If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to give me a few stars on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps to encourage more people to listen and learn from our stories. 🙏

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In today's episode I was delighted to chat with Sarah Orchard, owner of award winning luxury treehouse The Hudnalls Hideout.

Sarah is not only owner of her own accommodation business, but she also runs her own marketing consultancy and online training and marketing club called Get Fully Booked.

After many years working in tourism marketing, Sarah and her husband Adrian moved to the Forest of Dean and built Hudnalls Hideout in their garden. Despite launching five weeks before the first pandemic lockdown, the treehouse is now fully booked until 2023.

The trend for glamping has been growing steadily over recent years. Camping has changed from being a cheap form of travel, to being a real outdoor experience. Camping and glamping experiences really lend themselves to the trends for wellbeing and sustainable living. But the simplicity of camping isn’t for everyone – so the demand for luxury, more upmarket ‘glamping’ experiences has boomed. And over the past two years, with overseas travel being off the agenda, people have turned to glamping in their droves.

In this episode Sarah tells us about her experience in the travel industry and what led her to building the treehouse. She shares some of the positive processes that have come as a result of the pandemic, along with her top marketing tips for ensuring the success of her business. 

Enjoy the episode! 

• Check out the Hudnalls Hideout website 
• Follow Hudnalls Hideout on Instagram 
• Take a look at Sarah's Get Full Booked online training and marketing club    
• Watch Sarah on BBC1 series ‘I Escaped to the Country’  (episode 6, series 6, 10 January 2022)

For more information about Elves of the Visitor Economy, visit: http://elvesofthevisitoreconomy.co.uk.

To share your views on this subject and ask questions about the episode, head over to:
Instagram
LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.

Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations.
They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.

FREE GUIDE - 6 Steps to finding your Ideal Customer
Do you want to know who your ideal customer's are and how you can focus your time and money reaching them? Download my FREE guide now.

If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to give me a few stars on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps to encourage more people to listen and learn from our stories. 🙏

Send us a text

Have you ever thought about launching your own podcast? 

Podcasting can be a great way to connect with your customers or visitors and it's getting easier to access all the time. 

Perhaps you work in marketing within a visitor attraction that has a wealth of valuable information via your experts. Or maybe you run a chain of restaurants and you've got lots of brilliant people working with you who are constantly coming up with new ideas and have interesting stories to share. You might even manage a BID or a destination marketing organisation and want to help connect your businesses with each other – and create that sense of community. 

Today, Kelly is joined by Alison Hadley (Ali), (now former) podcast manager at Elves of the Visitor Economy and freelance marketing consultant. We chat through why a podcast could be a great additional marketing channel if you're a business operating in the visitor economy and how to set one up. We also share our process for producing each podcast episode (see the free checklist resource below!)

Some of the questions we answer: 

• What content should you share? 
• How long should an episode be?
• How frequently should you publish an episode? 
• How much does podcasting cost? 
• What software do you use?
• What equipment do you need? 

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The free resource is not longer available. If you would like receive this please email kelly@visitorelves.co.uk

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Connect with us on LinkedIn: 

• Visitor Elves
• Connect with Kelly
• Connect with Ali

To share your views on this subject and ask questions about the episode, head over to:

Instagram

This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.

Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations.

They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.

FREE GUIDE - 6 Steps to finding your Ideal Customer

Do you want to know who your ideal customer's are and how you can focus your time and money reaching them? Download my FREE guide now.

If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to give me a few stars on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps to encourage more people to listen and learn from our stories. 🙏

Send us a text

In today’s podcast Kelly is joined by Florence Wallace, Head of Travel Trade at VisitWiltshire and Great West Way (R). 

If you work in the visitor economy, you'll know that the travel trade is another route to market – a business to business channel, so to speak, covering group travel organisers, coach companies, destination management companies, tour operators, agents and online travel agencies. This market can be really helpful to tourism suppliers and destinations for reaching overseas and corporate travellers and for generating regular business throughout the year – often during shoulder months.  

Florence's work is all about building trade relationships and connecting the businesses and product offer in Wiltshire and the West, to customers in many markets around the world.  Ultimately her job is about bringing more tourism business into the region.

In this episode, Florence shares her insights into what is happening in the world of the travel trade – both internationally and domestically – and how it all works.  She also gives some great tips on priorities for gaining a slice of this potentially lucrative market.

Find out more: 

• www.visitwiltshire.co.uk 
• www.greatwestway.co.uk
• Connect with Flo on LinkedIn 
• Email: flowallace@visitwiltshire.co.uk

To share your views on this subject and ask questions about the episode, head over to:
Instagram
LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.

Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations.
They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.

FREE GUIDE - 6 Steps to finding your Ideal Customer
Do you want to know who your ideal customer's are and how you can focus your time and money reaching them? Download my FREE guide now.

If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to give me a few stars on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps to encourage more people to listen and learn from our stories. 🙏

Send us a text

In this episode, Kelly chats to responsible tourism advocate and director of Gloucestershire Community Rail Partnership, Hannah McDonnell. Hannah is also Visit Gloucestershire’s lead on sustainability and social value.

Responsible tourism, in which Hannah holds a master's degree, is an approach focusing on sustainability and making places better for both local residents and visitors.

In our conversation, Hannah tells us how her passion for sustainable tourism began in rural Portugal. Hannah took over a smallholding to run holidays targeted at honeymooners wanting to kick off their married life in a low impact and environmentally friendly way.

Hannah talks about her work with the Rail Partnership, as well as Visit Gloucestershire, and some of the organisations she is working with to bring about and influence change. She shares: 

• the importance of making the transport links right for local people first;
• several ways places can address the sustainable transport issue;
• details of some of the fantastic initiatives in places like Devon and Cornwall that have led the way in boosting local communities through better transport links.

Find out more about Gloucestershire Community Rail Partnership:
 
The partnership have created some lovely trail maps and also have plans to create more joined-up tourism routes which can be booked online.  

If you live near a train station in the UK and want to access Gloucestershire without a car, check out these walks and cycle routes in and around Stroud, Stonehouse, Lydney and Cheltenham: www.gloucestershirecommunityrail.org/leisure-trails.

Find out more about Visit Gloucestershire: 

• www.visitgloucestershire.co.uk
• www.instagram.com/visitgloucestershire

Contact Hannah:

• Connect on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/responsibletourismhannah
• Email Hannah: hannah@visit-gloucestershire.uk 

To share your views on this subject and ask questions about the episode, head over to:
Instagram
LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.

Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations.
They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.

FREE GUIDE - 6 Steps to finding your Ideal Customer
Do you want to know who your ideal customer's are and how you can focus your time and money reaching them? Download my FREE guide now.

If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to give me a few stars on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps to encourage more people to listen and learn from our stories. 🙏

Send us a text

The face of retail and the high street is changing and those seeing success are passionate creative businesses that have a truly distinctive personality, like Prior Shop in Bristol.    

Our final episode of season one features the inspirational Beck Prior, founder of Prior Shop – 'High Street Shop of the Year' winner in the 2021 Holly & Co Independent Awards.   

In 2019, Beck turned her passion for high quality, sustainable design, into a thriving business. She is a craftsperson, maker and visionary leader doing great things for her local communities. And in her pursuit of driving sales of beautiful hand-made products, Beck is bringing to life the stories behind the 150 makers she now works with. Prior has two shops and a visitor experience that combines retail with the local creative culture that customers and visitors can get involved in. This is some of the magic that will bring positive change to the retailers and high streets of the future. 

You will love hearing from Beck if you are involved in retail, destination marketing or simply have a love of shopping and hearing people’s stories of turning their passion into a career.

Beck shares how her battle with Leukaemia prompted her to consider and follow her passions. She explains how she got where she is today and some of the tips she has picked up along the way. Beck talks through ideas to drive footfall into Bristol’s large shopping destination Cabot Circus, as well as the smaller out of town high street in Old Market. We also discuss the challenges of digital marketing and increasing online sales alongside a bricks and mortar presence, as well as managing social media accounts as a business evolves.

We hope you are as inspired by Beck as much as we are! 

Find out more

• Prior Shop website: https://www.priorshop.uk/
• Prior Made (Beck’s homewares): https://www.priormade.store/

Take our survey
As season one draws to a close, we’d love to hear your thoughts about the show so far. What do you like? What can we do better?

Take our short survey: https://forms.gle/mRMMbQUCzvob1QBFA

Your answers are anonymous and will help us to shape the podcast going forward.

Thank you!

To share your views on this subject and ask questions about the episode, head over to:
Instagram
LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.

Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations.
They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.

FREE GUIDE - 6 Steps to finding your Ideal Customer
Do you want to know who your ideal customer's are and how you can focus your time and money reaching them? Download my FREE guide now.

If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to give me a few stars on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps to encourage more people to listen and learn from our stories. 🙏

Send us a text

What happens when you are passionate about people’s health and wellbeing, you love surfing, and want to create something epic that combines the two? 

You create a humongous 200 meter in-land surf lake!

In today’s episode I talk to Nick Hounsfield,  founder and chief visionary officer of The Wave https://www.thewave.com, the first inland surfing destination near Cribbs Causeway, Bristol only five minutes from the M4/M5 interchange.  

Costing over £25 million to create,  Nick talks about how he managed to convince investors to support the project, how it finally opened as the world went into lockdown, and how four years on,  along with his partner Craig Stoddard and a great team, they have navigated three very difficult years (that included Nick losing his ability to speak through a stroke) to become a thriving business, receiving up to 175,000 visitors per year.  

Nick’s first career as an osteopath gave him his passion for caring for people’s health and wellbeing - he continues that passion today, driving the ‘blue health’ agenda for being in and around water.  He has a burning desire to bring the benefits of his sport ‘surfing’ to as many people from different walks of life as he can and states that he will have failed if The Wave is something only enjoyed by the white, middle classes.   

Listen to his exciting plans for the future of The Wave, Bristol including the taking the whole thing off-grid through the investment in solar panels, plus, how he is working on another amazing site in North London.  

What a humble yet determined guy - Nick proves just what you can achieve if you really believe in something. 

Enjoy the episode.  

Find out more 

The Wave 

Nick on Instagram 

Nick on Twitter

To share your views on this subject and ask questions about the episode, head over to:
Instagram
LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.

Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations.
They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.

FREE GUIDE - 6 Steps to finding your Ideal Customer
Do you want to know who your ideal customer's are and how you can focus your time and money reaching them? Download my FREE guide now.

If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to give me a few stars on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps to encourage more people to listen and learn from our stories. 🙏

Send us a text

If you work in promoting or bringing life to town and city centres, visitor attractions or have a dream of working for a creative organisation, you’re going to love today’s podcast.  

In this episode I’m joined by the wonderful Kate Statham and Hannah McGavin, Directors of Bristol-based and award-winning theatrical events company Bakehouse Factory. 

Their work takes them all over the country, working in shopping centres, town and city centres and different types of venues. The Bakehouse team brings these places alive with their magical theatrical performances and ‘wow’ factor installations.  

One of their most recent projects was to create an experience to mark and celebrate the closure of Bristol Zoo in Clifton (that’s sure to be an award-winner!). 

On the show, we talk about the type of work Bakehouse does and how they work with so many stakeholders in delivering town or city-wide messages. We also chat about how art and culture can bring places to life, telling stories through theatre and music. 

For those wanting to work in the creative events industry, Kate and Hannah share tips about how to approach a company like Bakehouse and how it takes a multitude of talent, from carpenters to professional actors, project managers and musicians, to create great events. 

There’s lots to take away from this episode – I hope you enjoy it.  

Find out more about Bakehouse:

• Website: www.bakehousefactory.co.uk 
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bakehouse-factory
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/bakehousefactory

To share your views on this subject and ask questions about the episode, head over to:
Instagram
LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.

Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations.
They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.

FREE GUIDE - 6 Steps to finding your Ideal Customer
Do you want to know who your ideal customer's are and how you can focus your time and money reaching them? Download my FREE guide now.

If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to give me a few stars on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps to encourage more people to listen and learn from our stories. 🙏

Send us a text

In today's episode, I chat with the man in charge of culture for the city of Gloucester, Philip Walker, Head of Cultural Services, Gloucester City Council. 

Where would we be without culture? 

Culture is vitally important, it provides the vitality, sense of belonging and opportunity for us to come together and connect with things that light up our hearts. 

For tourists, culture is the distinction which sets a place apart from another and forms ‘the experience’. Imagine a Britain without our pubs, theatres, football, rugby, music, and beautiful historic buildings.  

Imagine being responsible for culture within a whole city!? 

My guest in today’s podcast, Phil Walker, has the responsibility of overseeing the culture of the city of Gloucester. His role is to ensure it thrives and is distinctive enough to drive inbound tourism – a big remit.    

Phil began his career in the visitor economy in Bristol, during that time he worked in several venues across the city including Arnolfini, Watershed and Bristol Museums.   It’s not often I get to speak to someone who was involved in a massive Banksy exhibition.  Do you remember the Banksy take over at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery? It was epic! Phil shares how he received that call from Banksy’s ‘people’ one day and how he almost lost his job!  

He's taken his amazing experience with him to Gloucester, a smaller and diverse city with similar heritage to Bristol, as a trading post based on a river.     

Phil and I talk about the plans for Gloucester and the importance of big events in driving footfall and bringing a city or destination together.  

We talk about how Gloucester is investing in its cultural sector to retain its creative talent, and the idea of giving people freedom to curate the city with their own ideas and events.   We chat about why it’s important for a Council and those with power, to hand over control to young people and others involved in the creative industries, to not only give the place life and distinction but to create a sense of belonging and pride.

There are some interesting insights into what it takes to drive a city’s culture.  

I hope you enjoy the episode. 

You can find Phil here:

LinkedIn

To share your views on this subject and ask questions about the episode, head over to:
Instagram
LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.

Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations.
They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.

FREE GUIDE - 6 Steps to finding your Ideal Customer
Do you want to know who your ideal customer's are and how you can focus your time and money reaching them? Download my FREE guide now.

If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to give me a few stars on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps to encourage more people to listen and learn from our stories. 🙏

Send us a text

In today’s episode I am joined by the superb national travel PR specialist Fiona Reece, owner of Travel Tonic PR.   

If you’re wondering how, you might generate more national PR for your organisation but there is nothing new happening, you’ll love this episode.   

Join us as we reflect on the changing face of PR over the years,  and hear some of Fiona's top tips including: 

·      Coming up with interesting new ways (or hooks) to present stories 

·      How to understand what might be of interest to a journalist or an influencer

·      What might make a compelling headline and how that can influence the customer experience 

Fiona began her career working for large international hotel chains before setting up her own agency. She has worked with huge profile clients such as Tourism Australia, New Zealand and Namibia. She has also worked with many regional clients including boutique hotel Tudor Farm House, and destination marketing organisations VisitDeanWye and VisitHerefordshire.  

 If you are involved in marketing, and PR is something you do, or want to do, for your organisation, then you’ll love this episode.  

Enjoy!  

Find out more and contact Fiona at 

Travel Tonic  

 Instagram 

LinkedIn 

To share your views on this subject and ask questions about the episode, head over to:
Instagram
LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.

Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations.
They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.

FREE GUIDE - 6 Steps to finding your Ideal Customer
Do you want to know who your ideal customer's are and how you can focus your time and money reaching them? Download my FREE guide now.

If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to give me a few stars on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps to encourage more people to listen and learn from our stories. 🙏