During January to March 2009 there was an increase of 2 per cent in the seasonally adjusted number of visits to the UK, when compared with the three months October to December 2008, according to the
latest figures released today by the Office for National Statistics. However, visits over the 12 month period to March 2009 were down by 7 per cent compared with a year earlier.

During January to March 2009, the seasonally adjusted number of visits to the UK by overseas residents increased 2 per cent to 7.5 million when compared with the previous three months. Associated spending by overseas residents on visits to the UK decreased by 3 per cent to £4.1 billion.

Over the same period, the seasonally adjusted number of visits abroad by UK residents decreased by 4 per cent to 15.4 million, while the associated spending decreased by 1 per cent to £8.5 billion.

During the 12 months to March 2009, the number of visits by overseas residents to the UK, not seasonally adjusted, decreased by 7 per cent when compared with the 12 months to March 2008, from
33.2 million to 31.0 million.

Visits from residents of Europe decreased by 5 per cent to 23.1 million, while visits from North America decreased by 17 per cent to 3.7 million. Visits from other parts of the world decreased by 7 per cent to 4.3 million.

In the 12-month period to March 2009, the number of visits abroad by UK residents, not seasonally adjusted, decreased by 6 per cent when compared with the 12 months to March 2008, from 70.2 to
66.0 million.

Visits by UK residents to Europe decreased by 6 per cent at 52.5 million while visits to North America decreased by 9 per cent to 4.2 million. Visits to other parts of the world decreased by 6 per cent to
9.3 million.

Provisional statistics are published on 14 May 2009 in the Overseas Travel and Tourism First Release www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/ott0509.pdf

The travel industry is already seeing hints of the more intelligent web in the guise of meta search engines, review aggregation sites, price-scraping engines, social trip-planning tools, global wish lists, according to Kayak.com.

Web 2.0 travel companies are working to gather information from multiple sources that already exist on the web, in ways that are valuable to travel consumers. As a travel supplier or intermediary, the challenge is to make your website and/or social media campaign flexible enough to be intelligently absorbed by these new web tools.

The emergence of the “semantic web” is ushering in a new wave of openness and accessibility. XML feeds and APIs are becoming increasingly popular, making it easier for sites to partner with each other and offer valuable services to their users. Single sign-on services such as Facebook Connect and OpenID further enable the sharing of information between sites.

For example TravelPost displays hotel ratings and reviews that were posted directly on the TravelPost website as well as reviews from 200+ other sites, such as Yahoo Travel and IgoUgo. These new services also provide the added benefit of publishing your users’ site actions to other destinations on the web; for example, Kayak.com allows users to publish their searches to their Facebook profiles, and TravelPost allows users to post hotel reviews to both TravelPost and Facebook simultaneously.

Another example is TripIt (www.tripit.com), the first online service that automatically organises all of travel information into a master travel itinerary – no matter where you booked, was introduced.

In February, this year, the company launched a new business travel service at http://business.tripit.com that helps business travelers, road warriors and travel arrangers simplify and organise their business trips. The company is also helping travelers to stay connected with the release of its location-based social “Closeness” alerts.

Source: New Media Trend Watch, HotelMartking.com

People will be inspired by an even wider variety of British destinations as VisitBritain helps Google take its Street View technology beyond the nation’s towns and cities.

Feedback from people around the UK indicates that Britons want to showcase famous landmarks beyond the 25 towns and cities currently captured. As a result, Google is giving people a sneak preview of its latest groundbreaking invention - the Google Trike. This mechanical masterpiece comprises 3 bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image collecting gadgetry. It comes replete with a very athletic cyclist in customised Google apparel. The Trikes have the same capability as Street View cars for collecting street-level imagery and are designed to help Google make special imagery collections in places less accessible by car.

Google and VisitBritain are asking the British public to suggest tourist spots, such as historic castles or famous landmarks, that the trike might visit to ultimately showcase the destination to the world. People can submit suggestions in five categories: Castles, Coastal Paths, Natural Wonders, Historic Buildings & Monuments, and (Sports) Stadiums. These will be narrowed down to a shortlist for the public to vote for the three locations the Google Trike will visit first. People can submit suggestions at maps.google.co.uk/streetviewinfo.

The partnership is part of VisitBritain’s strategy to ensure visitors are enticed to explore Britain. As well as helping plan a trip, Street View adds an extra element to the memories that visitors will share with friends and family when they return home - potentially inspiring them to visit in turn. (VisitBritian eNews 27 May 2009, May 2009)

According to Greg Dowling, Head of Analysis at Nokia, more than half of internet users will access the web from a mobile device by 2012. Mr Dowling was citing data from IDC “Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast (June 2008)” report that indicated that users will access the internet through more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide in 2008, including PCs, mobile phones, and online videogame consoles.

By 2012, the number of devices accessing the Internet will double to more than 3 billion, half of which will be mobile devices.

Already users have devices that are geographically aware and download applications that they can carry with them.  Soon people will expect to use their mobile devices to locate a nearby restaurant that meets their tastes and that has a table now.

Mobile is not “replacing” the fixed web - it is augmenting it with a time sensitive, location sensitive layer - one that is arguably also more flexible for interactivity with both objects and other people.

Travel and tourism is where fixed internet users first experimented and became more confident in researching and communicating online - there is no reason to believe that their mobile internet experience will be any different.  Travel, tourism and “familiarisation” applications will lead the way as internet users add another layer of enrichment to their experiences.  (Source - Tracking Tourism: The Tourism Research Blog)

The European Commission has launched the eYouGuide, a new online tool giving practical advice on the “digital rights” consumers have under EU law.

The European Parliament called for such action back in 2007 and its designed to address consumer issuessuch as the rights towards your broadband provider, shopping on the web, downloading music and protecting your personal data online and on social networking sites.

Even though 48.5% of EU households have a broadband internet connection, a new Eurobarometer survey shows that a lack of confidence still holds many consumers back from online transactions.

- Only 12% of EU web users feel safe making transactions on the internet, while 39% of EU internet users have major doubts about safety, and 42% do not dare carry out financial transactions online.

- 65% of internet users in the EU do not know where to get information and advice about cross-border shopping in the EU.

- A third of consumers would consider buying online from another country because it is cheaper or better, but only 7% actually do so.

Giving consumers clear information about their rights will increase trust and help unlock the full economic potential of Europe’s single online market, worth €106 billion in revenues. (European Commission - Enterprise and Industry TOURISM - Source, May 2009

For more information

The website of the eYouGuide:

http://ec.europa.eu/eyouguide   (online: 5 May, 16:00)

European Parliament Resolution of 21 June 2007 on consumer confidence in the digital environment:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2007-0287+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

The new Eurobarometer “Consumer Confidence in the Information Society” is available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/nis/strategy/activities/index_en.htm

The already successful Somerset Design Enterprise Network, established to promote and encourage Somerset’s design industry, has been relaunched to broaden its membership and to further boost design in the county.

The original launch of SDEN five years ago coincided with central government urging British design to be a core economic leader for the nation.

The increasing importance of the design sector has been highlighted more recently by UK Design Council research that shows a 30% increase in the number of firms who regard design as integral to their operation.
The Somerset Design Enterprise Network is determined to ensure the county’s design industry is in a strong position and fully ready to take advantage of an upturn in the economy when it comes along.

Now SDEN has strengthened its Steering Committee and set out an agenda to promote the design capabilities in the county, to attract new members county-wide and to keep design at the forefront of business thinking.

Taking the helm will be Taunton-based designer Andrew Knutt who was nominated as the new Chairman at a meeting of SDEN at Somerset College.  Andrew is a director of his own design and media company ADK Ltd, Somerset-born, he has been in business for 12 years. Staunchly committed to design excellence, he is also a committee member of SDEN’s regional parent organisation, the South West Design Forum and an Associate of the Institute of Business Consulting as well as other business forums.

Richard Holt, founding committee member and former Chairman of SDEN, becomes vice-chairman. Since 2005 Richard has been based at Somerset College as Fellow in Creative Industries and Enterprise from the University of Plymouth. He is a practising Industrial designer.

Other representatives of the design sector on the SDEN committee are Andrew Palmer of Taunton, founder and managing director of Strategic Marketing Solutions Ltd; Alistair Whiteley, a freelance web developer based in Weston-super-Mare and the Director of his own web design and development company; Neil Lumby, who established his own design practice in Langport, became a graphics lecturer and is currently establishing a new multi-practice, DesignEquity; and Paul Bryant, formerly a journalist, local government and private sector PR consultant and now Chairman and Director of Taunton-based consultancy, Impact Design & Marketing.

“Through the Somerset Design Enterprise Network we aim is to bring the county’s designers together and to provide a meeting point for design, industry, education and other design related activities,” says Andrew Knutt.  “Much has been achieved over the group’s first five years providing a foundation that promotes Somerset’s design industry and represent our members at regional, national, and global level. Now we need to build our membership to reflect the diversity of forward-thinking design activity in the county and we will be looking to create a range of activities and events.”

“The design industry is diverse in Somerset covering architecture, photography, graphics, engineering, fashion, packaging, manufacturing, interiors, film and television …in fact many sectors of commerce, industry, government call upon the creative design industry in some way.”

“Everyone knows how challenging today’s economic conditions are. To survive in these conditions and stay ahead of the competition, UK business must add value – and good design from Somerset’s designers has a valuable part to play in achieving this.”

Anyone wishing to find out more about the Somerset Design Enterprise Network and how to join, can find details at www.designenterprisenetwork.net.