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This report evaluates the work covered in the lead up to the International Rally and assesses the effectiveness of the event in bringing visitors to West Lindsey during the period of the Rally.

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1. INTRODUCTION

1. Members have received several reports relating to the International Caravan Rally held at the Lincolnshire Showground this Summer. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the work covered in the lead up to the International Rally and to establish how effective the event has been in acting as a catalyst in bringing visitors to West Lindsey over the 10 day period from 29 July to 8 August 1999.

2. FICC RALLY 1999 – ENGLAND

1. The Caravan Club of Great Britain (CCGB) organisers have reported that there were 8,584 participants registered, accommodated in 2,536 caravans, 552 motor caravans, 80 tents and 31 trailer tents. Of this figure, 1,026 were teenagers or children. In addition to this there were caravans on site occupied by the 'village' administrators, teams, traders and entertainers, bringing the number of units on site to over 3,400.
2. The above figures are current best estimates – the actuals will not be available until September when the late bookers and last minute cancellations are computer processed by the CCGB. This may explain why actual numbers achieved for the event are somewhat lower than the numbers originally estimated by the CCGB.
3. Countries represented on site included:

Belgium	Malta
Bulgaria	Netherlands
Canada	Norway
Croatia	Poland
Czech Republic	Portugal
Denmark	Republic of San Marino
Finland	South Korea
Germany	Spain
Great Britain	Sweden
Hungary	Switzerland
Ireland	Taiwan
Italy	Turkey
Japan	USA

 

4. The County Council commissioned an evaluation survey of the FICC, which was carried out over the period of the Rally, aimed to gauge visitor reactions to their experiences of their time spent in and around Lincolnshire. The results of this survey will be issued in late September, and a summary will be reported to Members in due course.

3. THE SOUVENIR GUIDE

1. One of the main areas of work concerning the Tourism and Arts Division was the compilation of the Rally Souvenir Guide. The Guide, which was produced by Lincolnshire Tourism, was distributed to every rally goer on arrival and used as the main tourist information print for the FICC. All districts had the opportunity to reserve double page spreads which took the form of various themes and routes out into the County.

 

2. West Lindsey reserved six double pages representing six separate routes drawing in as much of the district as possible. One of these spreads featured in the events guide. Copies of the Souvenir Guide and Rally Events Guide have been circulated to all Members. Much of your Officer's work has been involved with the design of the routes and the coordination of the attraction/business and community group entries into the Guide. The six spreads took the shape of two Church Trails, and Antiques and Historical trail, two Family Fun pages and an Events listing. Interestingly West Lindsey was the only district which incorporated churches into the Guide, and from an initial evaluation of visitor numbers the majority had an increase in visitors over the period of the Rally.
3. After some encouragement, the response from the local businesses and attractions in West Lindsey was very promising. The pages represented a good cross section of small voluntary organisations, large and small commercial businesses and attractions, churches and catering establishments. See Appendix for listing. The positive response from businesses in the District meant that West Lindsey had more pages than any other area in the County within the souvenir guide, with an average of 15 entries on a page.
4. Throughout the Rally period, participating venues displayed FICC Welcome signage and evaluated visitor numbers, for feedback to the Division. Many firm relationships with local attractions and businesses have been established as a result of this exercise, and the cooperation from those on the routes was felt by the Division to be indicative of the interest of small businesses and community groups in tourism development opportunities.

4. MARKET RASEN TRANSIT SITE

1. Arrangements were made for early arrivals at the Showground to stay at the Market Rasen Racecourse. The Caravan site became a transit site for three days before the event and held approximately 150 caravans. All early arrivals were given a West Lindsey Welcome Pack with various tourist information on the District and information on places to eat in Market Rasen. Observations made by Miss Adams (Course Manager) were that most of the people arriving at the transit site did so on 28 July. Other sites, eg Welton Manor, reported transit arrivals for up to three days prior to the Rally.

5. TOURIST INFORMATION

1. A 'Lincolnshire' Tourist Information Centre was set up at the Showground and coordinated by the County Council Tourism, Lincoln City Council and Lincolnshire Tourism. The Information Centre was ideally located central to the site and next to the Coop shop set up also for the Rally.
2. The Tourist Information Centre was established at the Showground to provide further assistance to visitors on site. All districts had the opportunity to dispense their tourist information leaflets. The Division provided over 36,000 leaflets of the Council's print to the Tourist Information Centre, which was supplemented by individual attractions and businesses in West Lindsey who provided their own publicity material.
3. The Tourist Information Centre gave a friendly but professional service and offered Internet and faxing services which proved popular. West Lindsey paid for the linguistic services of Mr and Mrs Martyr. Their linguistic skills were invaluable, particularly at the beginning of the Rally and they dealt with enquiries from Italians, Spanish, French, Swiss, Belgian, Hungarian and Portuguese. Mr and Mrs Martyr found that these visitors spoke little or no English at all and it was evident that they were very pleased to have their queries dealt with in their own language.
4. Applebys Coach Company was also based in the Tourist Information Centre, providing and organising the coach tours in and around the County. One observation made by Mrs Martyr, was that the coach company should have charged higher prices for trips outside of Lincolnshire. If the prices had been increased slightly this may have made the excursions offered within the County more attractive and might have kept more spending power within the immediate area in Lincolnshire.
5. Any free excursions offered were immediately signed up. There were four free excursions provided in total, Epworth and Sandtoft, Barton on Humber and Gainsborough. An interesting observation made regarding the coach tours was the willingness of the visitors to take advantage of the free excursions. The coach to Gainsborough Old Hall at the beginning of the Rally, which was not free only took 11 people, whilst the free coach tour to Gainsborough which tied in with Gig on the Floss managed to secure a 52 seater coach within half a day.
6. As a rule the Tourist Information Centre was steady, one immediate observation was that due to the range of activities organised on site many of the visitors tended to stay on the Showground, particularly when the weather was good. Most enquiries tended to be fairly general, and it appeared that most of the Rally goers were relying primarily on the souvenir guide for information and as a result the tourist information leaflets displayed in the TIC were not in excessive demand.

6. FORMAL AND INFORMAL FEEDBACK

1. From the 65 entrants that made up the pages within the Guide, approximately 30 were issued with visitor evaluation forms where it was deemed appropriate. The forms were designed to assess visitor numbers and preferences, and to encourage people to identify how they had heard about the business/attraction. From the responses the Division have received to date, visitor numbers varied considerably, from none at all on some days to over 250 at some attractions. One aspect of the evaluation forms which has to be taken into consideration is that many of the attractions and businesses did note that in some circumstances there were substantially more FICC visitors than identified on the forms, simply because not all the visitors signed them.
2. As anticipate evaluation confirmed that the FICC visitors did not start to travel out into the district until around 2 August. Some of the attractions particularly further afield did not get busy until as late as 5 August. This will be due to the fact that most of the caravanners will have spent the first few days settling into the site and visiting the more obvious and immediate sights such as Lincoln.
3. Mrs Martyr noted that one of the main motivating factors for caravanners to take part in the Rally was to rekindle friendships from other rallies. One immediate observation made was that sight seeing came second to the socialising, certainly among the foreigners. They also took full advantage of the entertainment laid on for them on site. A number indicated that they intended to stay in the area after the Rally finished.
4. There appeared to be no particular busier area or attraction than any other apart from one notable exception. Brownlow Antiques in Faldingworth had the highest visitor numbers on record so far and welcomed over 1,100 FICC visitors over the period. The reason for exclusively high visitor numbers may well have been influenced by the annual Scarecrow Exhibition which was held in the village over the period of the Rally.
5. The efforts in producing a high quality guide for the FICC were well rewarded, at least 80% of the visitors who signed the handbooks around the district noted that they had come to the attraction/business as a result of the entry into the Souvenir Guide. Others who signed the book had come about the attraction on a 'just passing basis', and had seen the signs which the Division had designed for the businesses to put in their windows inviting and welcoming FICC visitors into the attraction.
6. Naturally there were also businesses and attractions that benefited from the FICC, which were not in the Guide, the effects were not so insular as to only benefit the advertised businesses. Local businesses, notably along Trinity Street in Gainsborough, commented on busy flurries.
7. Attractions with relatively low visitor numbers tended to be those considered 'special interest'. Hewitts windmill had relatively low numbers as did a few of the churches. However, it is important to note that this may have been related to the area as opposed to the attraction itself. Churches with relatively high visitor numbers tended to be in areas with other points of interest. Both Tealby and Stow churches had good visitor numbers, Tealby probably due to the Wolds Walks and Tealby eateries, and Stow because of its national recognition.
8. At the time of writing, the Division had not received sufficient monitoring returns to present a comprehensive breakdown. This will be presented through the 'Information Booklet for Members' in due course.

7. SPECIAL EVENTS

1. As can be seen from the events listings within the copy of the FICC Events Diary. FICC visitors were spoilt for choice in terms of things to do. Expectations from event organisers were high, particularly in and around the area of the Showground. Feedback from some event organisers was such that whilst the events had been popular, the numbers of FICC visitors were not as high as organisers had anticipated. Whilst these comments must be taken on board, consideration has to be made to the difficulty of managing organisers' expectations and the impossibility of predicting visitor movements.
2. Many of the events taking place around the District may well have coincided with other events in the District or events being held actually on the Showground. It should be noted that the events which were put on to coincide with the FICC, were also for the enjoyment of the general public.

8. GIG ON THE FLOSS

1. The Tourism and Arts Division organised a two day event which took place in various parts of Gainsborough town centre. A free coach from the Showground to the Festival resulted in 52 FICC visitors to the Gig. The event went well and the Division have had favourable feedback from those people who supported the event. The presence of the FICC visitors was widely felt, and many of the local businesses that took part in the programme were encouraged by the extra visitor numbers. Tullivers Tea Rooms were particularly busy on the Saturday as a result of the Festival. The Saturday proved to be busier, with more of the general public coming into town to support the event.

9. SUMMARY

1. Whilst much hard work had gone into the set up of the TIC, initial observations highlighted an obvious focus on Lincoln City and that more could have been done to represent the districts of Lincolnshire. Whilst it was appreciated that in practice not every district could provide their own display and staff to man their unit, it was generally felt by those who worked at the TIC from West Lindsey that an invitation at least to do so would have been welcomed.
2. It was also noted that little consideration had been given to the way the leaflets had been displayed, this could have been due to the change over of so many staff and the fact that continuity was difficult to maintain when restocking. However, there was certainly a larger emphasis than necessary on material on areas outside of our District, the Division was disappointed to see in the last week of the Rally a large display exhibition on Essex being accommodated.
3. The FICC has not been held in Britain for over 20 years until this Summer. The tourism units over the County of Lincolnshire have worked extremely hard to ensure that visitors to the event will realise that the County has a great deal to offer and to ensure that the visitors will return in the future. The nature of the event meant that those involved in creating an impression upon the visitors only had one opportunity to get it right, and with the support of local businesses, attractions and event organisers, West Lindsey have worked cohesively to promote the District to the full. Generally, the visitor numbers achieved is encouraging and immediate feedback has been promising both from businesses involved and the visitors themselves.
4. Further information from the formal on site survey will be brought to Members in due course.