To READ OUR COPY, visit the SWCP website itineraries page. Here’s a case study.
The brand — South West Coast Path Association
SWCP is a registered charity and volunteer-led organisation governed by trustees; working to protect and conserve the coast path and “keep the way open to beautiful coastal places”. For this project SWCP received support from round one of the Discover England Fund to work in collaboration with destination management organisations in the South West to develop and market the product.
Challenge — to raise bookings from German and Dutch visitors
Until January 2017, the SWCP website only had walking routes, but no itineraries or suggested packages. The aim of this content-writing project is to create enthralling itineraries for people who don’t know the places well (so, a bit of hand-holding, like a tour operator may do). The task was to dazzle readers and make our copy stand out from the ‘ordinary’ tourism content out there. It needed to get readers to download the itineraries and, ultimately, book a holiday.
Delivery — repacked, rebranded iconic areas
We packaged up six iconic areas and guided visitors remotely around them using the coastal paths of the South West as a base. The informal, journalistic-style pieces which combined great walks with activities and attractions, accommodation and places to eat, along with travel information about how to join them up. The 3, 5 and 7-day pieces were translated into Dutch and German, printed in handy pocket-size guides and promoted at travel trade shows around Europe in 2016/17, then uploaded to the SWCP website to create interactive, customisable holidays.
Outcomes — more traffic, downloads, editorial
- More than 22,000 itinerary downloads in six months (SWCP website: 12,000 / Hidden Heritage App: 10,000, Jan-July 2017)
- Over 35,000 printed itineraries distributed via tourist information centres and P&O ferries
- SWCP website traffic almost doubled (92%) from German visitors and tripled from Dutch tourists (190%) in January and February, 2017, year-on-year
A word from the author
This is the second project I partly outsourced to Hayley and Elliot. I did some writing, but this was mostly a project manager job, and these two travel and adventure writers made it a dream. To have our work translated into two languages was a buzz, and see our words spread around the world and attract visitors to our corner of England was a satisfying outcome, to say the least.
Huge thanks to the destination marketing organisations and other partners which helped with all this, including: Visit Cornwall, Visit Devon, Visit Dorset, Visit Somerset, Jurassic Coast Trust and English Riviera.
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