Why there has rarely been a better time to market to guests from outside the UK

Anyone running a holiday business in the UK (outside London, and possibly Bath and Edinburgh) will quite likely see the vast majority of their guests coming from the UK. Nothing wrong with that, but it is a market under pressure. As despite all the noise about the so-called Staycation, reality is that for a raft of reasons, it is getting harder and harder to market holiday accommodation to the UK population outside the 10 or so main school holidays weeks. Furthermore, due to today’s climate of political uncertainty and negative wage growth for many, people are much less likely to take one or more ‘cheeky’ UK short trip(s) in addition to their main summer holiday.

So, all the more reason to try and reach markets outside the UK. Markets which bring other advantages too:

• Different countries have different weeks in which their schools have holidays. This alone can lengthen your peak season considerably
• Currency fluctuations: by marketing outside the £ market you can benefit when currencies such as the €, $ or Aus $ weaken against Sterling
• Hedging against local challenges: the more different markets you attract guests from, the more you ‘proof’ yourself against specific challenges in one or more of these. For example, economically, most countries in the EU are currently outperforming the UK (oh, the irony), and therefore people have money in their pockets
• Less affected by the ‘late booking disease’: if Mazzard Farm’s bookings are anything to go by, then there is ample evidence that people in countries such as Belgium, Netherlands and Germany still book their summer holidays much more in advance than Brits do these days. Not only does this help cash flow in December – March, it also nudges others into getting into action, as ‘visible scarcity’ is being created

And last but not least:

• It’s fun! Having guests around from different corners of the world makes running your business so much more interesting; for you and for your guests

“But how?” I hear many of you ask. It really isn’t that difficult. A good start would be to add a few foreign language mini-sites to your main website, optimised with the right (translated) keywords and URL’s, as this helps people from outside the UK find you. Cost of this could be as little as the proceed from one additional non-UK booking!

Want to learn more? Drop us a note and we’d happily explain a bit more.

Good luck!

Ruud Jansen Venneboer

Mazzard Farm

info@mazzardfarm.com

www.mazzardfarm.com