Tourism & Corporate Communications

Mark Smith is the Service Director for Tourism and Corporate Communications.

To provide Bournemouth with the best possible leisure, libraries, cultural and tourism services, generating economic, environmental and social benefits for residents, visitors and local business.  This is achieved through a range of measures including partnerships with the private and voluntary sectors.

 

Business Tourism

• BICB - Conference Venue Marketing and Delegate Reservations

Tourism Strategic Development

• Planning Policy and Planning Appeals
• Strategic Co-ordination
• Accommodation, Language School, Retail, Restaurant, attractions, Council related, night time economy, National Regional and Local Tourism Authorities
• BTAG, IEF, DNFP, BRA,TMI
• Industry Training and Development
• DNFP (Dorset, New Forest Partnership)
• Accommodation Quality Assurance 
• Bournemouth Quality Standards

Bournemouth Decorative Illuminations

• Lower Gardens, Seafront Prom and Pier
• Christmas - Town Centre
• Candle Illuminations
• Funding Maintenance and Development

 

Seafront Operations

Responsible for the management and maintenance of facilities across five miles of seafront stretching from Alum Chine in the west to Hengistbury Head in the east.  Facilities currently include beach chalet hire, promenade land train, Bournemouth pier attractions, deck chair hire, cliff lifts, beach wheelchairs and 6 seafront information offices.  The Seafront also promotes the Kidzone scheme to reduce numbers of lost children on the beach throughout the summer. 

The department works closely with other agencies to ensure public safety.  These include RNLI Beach Safety, St John’s Ambulance, local volunteer lifeguards, Marine Coastguard and Police Community Support Officers.

Bournemouth Seafront currently holds three Blue Flag Awards, Six Seaside Awards and was voted Britain’s Best Beach in 2004, out of a survey of 171 other UK resorts by ENCAMS.

 

Corporate Communications

It's all about reputation management - advising on the potential impact of everything we do and say and how that will affect people's opinions about the Council.

The team offers an effective in-house communications & consultation service which includes:-

• Employ effective communication methods, meeting statutory best value publication requirements, to inform Bournemouth residents and other stakeholders about the best value process and its positive implications for improved service delivery 
• Demonstrate a commitment to accessible communications for all our customers and staff 
• Use strong branding to ensure Bournemouth Borough Council gets the recognition it deserves for enabling community action, delivering services, empowering staff and taking positive decisions 
• Development and delivery of Internal Communications – including Change Communications support for key strategic projects 
• Development and content management of the council website and other e-channels - in terms of content, structure, branding and accessibility 
• Production and development of BH Life magazine and other key corporate publications 
• Develop and maintain a media strategy for the council 
• Manage the reputation of the council via effective media relations 
• Ownership of Press and PR requirements for each council ‘cluster’ group

All this is delivered in the context of our agreed Corporate Communications Vision, which applies specifically to our residents, businesses, staff and partners:

Our vision for excellent communications is to be a Council that actively ensures all our customers and staff have easy access to relevant, clear and honest information, in ways which suit them, so that they can make informed life choices and influence decisions that affect them.

 

E-Communications

The E-Communications officer is responsible for the main council website, the staff intranet, visual signage and developing further E-Comms channels. Key jobs include:

Website

• Day to Day Publishing of Pages
• Training and Development of Authors and Editors
• Development of the site with the Web Team

Intranet

• Branding  
• Internal promotion of Intranet to all staff
• Input in development and content

Visual signage

• Development and publishing content

Further E-Comms Channels

• Research other forms of cost effective communications
• Test and develop for these other channels

Media Team

The media team works with colleagues across the council and aims to provide a responsive, timely and accurate media relations service, with a good news sense, to ensure correct information is published in the press and broadcast media and to manage the reputation of the Council. 

They always try to be aware of upcoming issues, initiatives and events to ensure a pro-active approach is made, with increased emphasis on ‘feeding’ stories to the press.

Their objective is to improve the amount and the quality of the information provided to residents through the media - mostly local, and some national, both press and broadcast.

They are also planning to produce more pro-active media work based on their forward plan.  By doing they we can try to ensure a balanced news item with relevant quotes included. 

They also look at initiating more events and interviews with the media, to promote different story angles and provide a more interesting perspective i.e. in the run-up to Bonfire Night; they might try to arrange a press visit following an environmental health officer or anti-social behaviour officer. 

 

Publications

• Production of the Council’s magazine BH Life
• Production of corporate print material and key literature such as the annual Council Tax leaflet
• Advice and guidance given on the use of the Council’s corporate identity.

BH Life

• Contract management
• Planning, writing and editing articles and features
• Monitoring non-delivery of the magazine
• Mailing BH Life to partners, doctors, dentists and others
• Recording and distribution of the audio version of BH Life
• Reader research and evaluation.