Discover all of the new content on the Visit Lincolnshire and Business Visit Lincolnshire websites, developed to support Greater Lincolnshire’s visitor economy.
The tourism team at Lincolnshire County Council have been working in collaboration with local partners, tourism, hospitality and leisure businesses and expert consultants over the past two years to develop a wide range of content dedicated to supporting the sector.
From support programmes and bite-size content to help boost business practices, to visitor-facing campaigns to inspire new audiences of visitors to the county, here is a snippet of the content we’ve designed and what we’ve got coming up next, too.
4 new videos to promote a different side to Lincolnshire
Video is important for lively content on a consumer-facing visitor website like visitlincolnshire.com and this year we have already published four new videos on the site.
Heckington Mill celebrates both its amazing restoration and the vital work of their volunteers. There are two videos on the Lincolnshire Archives, Ancestral Tourism is a growing area, but visiting the Archives for the first time is probably a bit daunting hence the really helpful top tips film. Finally, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) Visitor Centre film gets across that this isn’t a museum, but somewhere quite different.
Behind the Scenes at the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Visitor Centre (BBMF).
New nature trails to inspire green tourism
Prior to lockdown, the Tourism Minister told us that he thought we should major more on our outdoor green offer. We didn’t disagree and walking and cycling are particular strengths that we’ve been working on. Totally undersold however is the bird-watching opportunities in Lincolnshire and we got in touch with the Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership, RSPB, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and Lincolnshire Bird Club – we provided the website, and they provided the knowledge.
Dividing the county into four ‘birding’ areas, we decided to begin with a coastal bird trail as it really shows the Rolls-Royce of our birding offer, as good as anywhere. Our team of experts identified the best places to go, what you could see and when. There are four videos, two including top tips on how to enjoy and capture your own memories of birdwatching in Lincolnshire – watch the playlist here.
The Coastal Bird Trail was launched to much interest at the Rutland Bird Fair on a stand manned by our new friends at the Lincolnshire Bird Club – a lot of wins in working together with nature bodies in the county. Three more trails to cover the rest of Lincolnshire are currently being developed and the very next to be launched at the start of summer this year.
Boosting businesses with the tools to succeed
During lockdown, some of our tourism businesses struggled to obtain grants. So, in response in response to this, we developed www.business.visitlincolnshire.com which features around 70 masterclass videos. The principle being that they probably went into tourism because they’re hospitable people, but have also had to become “handymen”, head of finance and HR, chief cook and bottlewasher too. It’s not easy.
We’ve since added a training programme called Hospitable Boost. During 2022 nearly 50 businesses went through the programme with excellent feedback.
“The whole programme was fantastic. It made you think about your own business and its challenges. The masterclasses have been great and gave great tips to improve, what you do to ensure good customer service and having good processes in place.”
“It was brilliant and invaluable and really made me focus on what the business needed. It gave me a kick up the backside to make the changes we had been thinking about. I learnt so much it gave us a strategy and a plan, and we are excited about the future.”
Our Green Tourism Toolkit was launched in March 2022 and can be downloaded from our skills area on business.visitlincolnshire.com. This has proved popular and we have just begun some accompanying training with 21 businesses signed up for Hospitable Green. The course began in early January and lasts for six weeks, with a mixture of one-to-one and group sessions with expert advisors and consultants to help sustainability become a reality for our businesses.
Toolkits work well for us, we can put them in our skills area for businesses to use at their own pace or add in workshops and training to give it more oomph. The Pub Diversification Programme offers a ‘how to’ guide to developing the surrounding land or pub buildings. We are just finalising an Experiences toolkit which advises businesses on how to package unique local and bookable experiences. And, coming soon in 2023 is a guide to applying for planning permission and a toolkit to look at the business opportunities around the forthcoming completion of England’s Coast Path.
Keep up to date with new content
To keep up to date with any new content that is developed and published through the Visit Lincolnshire and Business Visit Lincolnshire websites, subscribe to our business email newsletter.
We send out helpful information on the latest news, tourism insights, and resources relevant to tourism, hospitality and leisure businesses across Greater Lincolnshire and Rutland as well as details on our upcoming programmes and opportunities to get involved in local and national tourism campaigns.
