Action for Market Towns
George McGillivray of Webecom Marketing, who run the Stonehaven Guide website represented the Stonehaven Business Association at a seminar organised by Action for Market Towns, the Beacon Councils and the Looe Town Council and has returned with a step-by-step guide to help market towns realise their marketing potential which may well have significant benefits for Stonehaven and the other market towns in Aberdeenshire if acted upon.

(The Guide can be read online) Click Here

The seminar was entitled 'A Postcard from Looe' and was held at the Hannafore Point Hotel, Marine Drive, West Looe, Cornwall on Friday 18th June 2004.

Here is George's report

After a 12 hour journey by 'plane, train and taxi, I hoped my trip would be worthwhile.
I was a little disappointed there were no taxis at the station when I arrived in Looe. I did discover later the taxi rank was a relatively short walk away but there was no sign to indicate that.

However Looe was very picturesque and I was very happy with the accommodation at the Fieldhead Hotel where I was served with an excellent dinner.
Then it was early to bed and up early to attend the seminar at 9 o'clock the next morning.

About 26 delegates attended and were welcomed by Ron Overd the Looe Town Mayor.

Sally Williams, Regional Coordinator for Action for Market Towns gave an excellent talk on Niche Marketing which outlined the importance of having a definite policy for your town and how to go about finding a niche and targeting the right type of visitor that would fit that niche.

Kaja Curry, Tourism Development Manager for Caradon District Council explained the bigger picture regarding regional, county, district and local tourism structures.

This was followed by a talk by Councillor Edwina Arkell who was also president of the Looe&Polperro Chamber of Trade & Commerce. Her passion for the town was clear and she was keen to reawaken the local identity.

We had a walkabout tour of Looe and was very surprised at the number of shops for the size of the town. Most shops were privately owned and their only supermarket was a small Somerfield's.
A very interesting town to walk round.

This was followed by a working lunch where all delegates were asked to point out strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to Looe and this provided some very interesting feedback to the councillors of Looe.I could see the advantages of carrying out similar research in Stonehaven and other market towns of course.

The afternoon sessions concentrated on Finding your Niche, Forming Your Vision and Shaping Tomorrow's Tourism.

The day was concluded with a boat trip and although the weather turned dull, we were able to see more of the interesting and fascinating sites of Looe.

What did I gain from this trip?

It is easy to forget the value of tourism but there is no doubt it is a massive industry.
It was interesting to note that 96% of visitors to this region are from the UK and a large
majority are day visitors.

I can see definite advantages of a town having a clear vision for tourism. Understanding the
niche market concept will undoubtedly have major advantages for a market town.

It was interesting to note that in a recent surveys carried out on the main reasons for visiting market towns, the top 4 results were as follows

• Sightseeing 28%
  
• Shopping 14%
  
• Market 14%
  
• Visting a specific attraction 12%