Time for Wiltshire

It was a fine spring day for Visit Wiltshire’s annual tourism conference and exhibition at the Salisbury Playhouse last week. It was the biggest conference to date for the official tourist board, with over 200 delegates in attendance and 50 partners exhibiting, including eviivo. The mood was positive and upbeat, starting with a presentation on the work Visit Wiltshire have been doing on their destination’s brand and the thought behind their new ‘Time for Wiltshire’ slogan. With 1,000s of years of history across the county, from Stonehenge and Avebury, Salisbury Cathedral with its 800 year old copy of Magna Carta, plus stately homes and timber-framed houses from across the centuries, it does seem entirely appropriate. Travel journalist Simon Calder’s presentation was particularly well received and very entertaining. He’d clearly done his homework, having spent the previous weekend exploring Wiltshire and shared with the audience some of his Wiltshire highlights. These predictably included Stonehenge and Salisbury, but also the Kennet & Avon Canal and the military mysteries of Salisbury Plain – in his words “putting the War in Warminster”. Other speakers included TripAdvisor’s Justin Reid, who when asked whether providers should respond to poor reviews answered “Absolutely. Apologise, sympathise and offer to correct”. Valuable advice entirely in line with what you’ll find on eviivo’s My B&B pages. A couple of new terms caught my ear which I’m sure we’ll be hearing more of. The first – ‘yourism’ – was used to describe the way in which visitors can now build their own unique experience tailored precisely to their needs, which of course includes being able to find and book accommodation with authenticity and character. The second – ‘pluggage’ – is the new term for the plethora of electronic devices we increasingly carry around, rely on and expect to be able to charge everywhere. And as well as ready access to an electricity supply, Simon Calder made the point that free wifi is now as much a traveller expectation as plentiful hot water. My colleague Dale and I had the opportunity to speak to lots of eviivo customers too and to explain how new features such as payment card pre-authorisation can help them run their business more effectively and save them the one thing Wiltshire has loads of – time.