Cardiff and Co. (16.01M).pdf

AGENDA ITEM: 4 CITY AND COUNTY OF CARDIFF DINAS A SIR CAERDYDD

ECONOMY & CULTURE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE: 24 NOVEMBER 2011

CARDIFF & CO

Purpose of Report

1. To update the committee on the current position of Cardiff & Co (the

marketing and investment vehicle for Cardiff).

Background

2. Cardiff & Co is the limited company established by Cardiff Council to draw

together a strong public and private sector partnership with the aim of

promoting Wales’ capital city to the world. It promotes the strengths of

Cardiff as a destination of choice for:

• Businesses seeking to expand or relocate

• Companies and associations looking for a destination for their

meetings or conferences

• Individuals looking for somewhere to visit or shop, attend major

sporting and cultural events

• People looking for somewhere to study and do research

• People looking to relocate to work or live in the Cardiff city-region

• Cardiff & Co promotes the city using a mixture of marketing and

communications activities including events, advertising, sponsorship,

direct mail, PR, e-marketing, viral marketing and via the Cardiff

Ambassadors’ Programme.

3. The former Economic Scrutiny Committee has had an interest in the

marketing of Cardiff for some time. In May 2003, following an inquiry it

sent a report to the Executive entitled ‘The Marketing of Cardiff’. This

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inquiry was wide ranging and encompassed the image, marketing, and

perception of Cardiff as a centre of business, culture and tourism, and as a

national capital and place to live. The Committee received a report on the

Executive’s proposals concerning a new marketing and investment

framework for Cardiff in August 2005.

4. The Committee received regular updates on progress until in October

2006 it received a presentation on the work being carried out on the

proposed branding and logo of Cardiff, including positioning statements,

visual identities and logos. Through the later half of 2006 and the

beginning of 2007 Members received more progress reports, and held

detailed discussions on the development of a new brand and logo for

Cardiff. This culminated in December 2007 when Mr Roy Thomas, Board

Director and Company Secretary of Cardiff & Co attended the committee.

5. Following these meetings, the Chairperson has written to the participants

on behalf of the Committee to communicate Members’ comments and

observations. At the December meeting Members particularly welcomed

the opportunity offered by Mr Roy Thomas to participate in one of the

stakeholder sessions on the branding and image, before its launch.

6. On 3 July 2008 and 13 November 2008 the Committee received progress

reports from Mr Richard Thomas (Managing Director) and Mr Bill Savage

(Chairman) of Cardiff & Co, updating Members on key activities and

achievements including:

• Private Sector Partnership Investment

• Media visits and coverage

• Website developments

• Promotional channels

• Business and leisure tourism

7. On the 15 April 2010 the Committee received a progress report on Cardiff

& Co. Members made the following comment:

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• pleased with the progress being made and noted the significant

improvement in the performance of Cardiff and Co in the last 12

months despite the difficult economic conditions;

• noted that the level of funding of Cardiff and Co remained at £1million

per annum, and that the Council and the Cardiff Harbour Authority

contributed £500,000 of the total. Members had concerns with this level

of resourcing in comparison to other UK city-regions;

• noted that the resources available did not allow for TV marketing

campaigns. Cardiff and Co relied on other media channels to get

coverage and profiling;

• the importance of developing opportunities with Welsh Assembly

Government through Visit Wales and International Business Wales and

support for projects and initiatives going forward, and to develop further

private sector links.

8. In September 2010, the Economy and Culture Scrutiny Committee

published a report on Cardiff Harbour Authority that examined, among

other issues, the funding arrangements for the marketing of Cardiff Bay.

The table below highlights Cardiff and Co’s income streams for 2009-

2010, Members noted the level of Cardiff Harbour Authority funding and

identified that the joint marketing initiative (Cardiff and Co) faced

significant financial risks arising from the Welsh Assembly Government’s

review of affordability.

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9. The Committee recommended that the Executive risk assess the

implications of lower Welsh Assembly Government funding for the

marketing of the Bay upon the existing joint marketing arrangements for

the city as a whole. 10. At the Executive Business Meeting on the 7 April 2011 the Executive

received a report on revised arrangements and budgetary arrangements

that were available from the Welsh Assembly Government to enable the

Council to continue to undertake the Harbour Authority function. The report

highlighted £285k of savings relating to the marketing of Cardiff Bay mainly delivered through Cardiff and Co. Welsh Government transition

funding of £250,000 from savings was provided in 2011/12 for this function

(the Council providing £350k for 2010-11).

11. Attached at Appendix A is Cardiff & Co’s Strategy and Business Plan

2011- 2016 which highlights the following sections:

• Information on Cardiff & Co

• The context and the product (information regarding Cardiff’s position in

the UK)

1http://whycardiff.com/assets/PDFs/Cardiff%20&%20Co%20Business%20Plan%202009-2010.pdf

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• Positioning the product (a description of perceptions of Cardiff,

information channels and structure of efforts)

• Running the Business 2011-2016 (a description of the challenges, the

approach and financial position)

• Operational plan

12. The Strategy and Business Plan 2011- 2016 highlights key performance

information and future targets which are summarised in the table below. A

more detailed description of the 2010-2011 achievements of Cardiff & Co

are highlighted in Cardiff and Co’s End of Year Review 2010-2011.

Item 2009-10

Actual 2010-11 Actual

2011-12 Target

1 Total web visits (sessions) to Cardiff & Co websites

1.374m 1.23m 1.5m

2 Business tourism: value of business generated through Cardiff & Co from completed events

£1.2m £858,299 £1.2m

3 Business Tourism: New business in pipeline for Cardiff for the next financial year onwards

£2.36m £1,398,155

£1.3m

4 Media Coverage: Editorial Equivalent Value

£1.565m £1.86m £1.7m

5 Numbers of Cardiff Tourism Network members

164 173 190

6 Delivery of annual non- Cardiff Council income (excluding VAT) and including value of in-kind support

£554 £411,900 £480k

7 Number of business investment enquiries generated

44 36 150

8 Value of leisure tourism bookings made directly via Cardiff & Co’s online booking system

£136, 738

£62,565 £70,000

13. In terms of Board membership since the company’s inception in 2007

there have been several changes (for example Roy Thomas no longer a

Board Director in addition, Bill Savage stepped down as Chairman on 2

September 2011 and will be replaced by Adrian Clark on 1 January 2012.

Current board membership is as follows:

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• Noreen Bray - Deputy Chair

• Suzi Clay Land Securities’

• Patrick Duffy, Managing Director Cardiff Airport

• Dr David Grant CBE, FREng, FIEE

• Mark Hallett Igloo Regeneration

• Jon Horne Managing Director Cardiff Airport

• Rob Jones Knight Frank LLP

• Cllr Neil McEvoy

• Richard Moremon UWIC.

• Roger Pride Welsh Government

• Cllr Mark Stephens

Issues

14. Mr Richard Thomas (Managing Director) has been invited to attend this

meeting to highlight the progress made in developing its business and the

challenges that lie ahead. He will also be available to answer any

questions Members may have.

Way Forward

15. Members may wish to consider the information provided, decide whether

they wish to make any comments, or observations, and consider whether

there needs to be any further scrutiny of this issue.

Legal Implications

16. The Scrutiny Committee is empowered to enquire, consider, review and

recommend but not to make policy decisions. As the recommendations in

this report are to consider and review matters there are no direct legal

implications. However, legal implications may arise if and when the

matters under review are implemented with or without any modifications.

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Any report with recommendations for decision that goes to

Executive/Council will set out any legal implications arising from those

recommendations. All decisions taken by or on behalf the Council must (a)

be within the legal powers of the Council; (b) comply with any procedural

requirement imposed by law; (c) be within the powers of the body or

person exercising powers of behalf of the Council; (d) be undertaken in

accordance with the procedural requirements imposed by the Council e.g.

Scrutiny Procedure Rules; (e) be fully and properly informed; (f) be

properly motivated; (g) be taken having regard to the Council's fiduciary

duty to its taxpayers; and (h) be reasonable and proper in all the

circumstances.

Financial Implications

17. The Scrutiny Committee is empowered to enquire, consider, review and

recommend but not to make policy decisions. As the recommendations in

this report are to consider and review matters there are no direct financial

implications at this stage in relation to any of the work programme.

However, financial implications may arise if and when the matters under

review are implemented with or without any modifications. Any report with

recommendations for decision that goes to Executive/Council will set out

any financial implications arising from those recommendations.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The Committee is recommended to consider:

a. Whether it wishes to make any comments or recommendations,

b. Any further scrutiny of this issue.

MIKE DAVIES

Head of Scrutiny, Performance & Improvement 8 November 2011

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Strategic Board Meeting, Friday 3 June 2011 1

Strategy and Business Plan 2011-2016


Contents

Item Page

Introduction

3

Section One – About Cardiff & Co

4

Section Two – The Context and the Product

8

Section Three – Positioning the Product

13

Section Four – Running the Business 2011-16

22

Section Five – Operational Plan 2011-12

29


Introduction Cardiff & Co is the limited company established by Cardiff Council to draw together a strong public and private sector partnership with the aim of promoting Wales’ capital city to the world. It promotes the strengths of Cardiff as a destination of choice for people to live, work, invest, meet, study, visit, shop and play. This Strategy and Business Plan presents the company’s strategic vision for 2011-2016 as well as the practical activities it will undertake between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012. This 5-year document has been assembled at the request of Cardiff Council who have committed to a new round of core investment in the company. In turn, renewed confidence in the company’s longevity has resulted in fresh momentum being generated in the attraction of private sector investment. As such, 2011-2016 represents the second phase of Cardiff & Co’s development – a phase where the company will be in a position to focus entirely on delivery.


Section One – About Cardiff & Co What’s the “Co” in Cardiff & Co? Cardiff & Co was founded in 2007 on the back of a £500k annual investment by Cardiff Council and Harbour Authority over an initial three year period. As the company made important strides forward in 2009-10, it managed to build on its reputation, develop its networks and supplement its core funding with private sector investment and income earned via commercial activities. Despite much uncertainty, the company managed to sustain its activities during 2010-11, something that has been rewarded with a new commitment from Cardiff Council and a request for this 5-year Strategy and Business Plan. Cardiff & Co’s key investors at the start of the 2011-12 financial year were the St. David’s Partnership, Cardiff University, Cardiff Airport and UWIC. In addition, the Cardiff Hoteliers’ Association invested in the employment of the Cardiff Convention Bureau Manager. The company is grateful for this support. Without the support of these organisations and companies, the work that Cardiff & Co delivers would not be possible. Their investment and that of Gold and Silver Corporate Champions, ensures that Cardiff has a promotional vehicle capable of competing with similarly structured companies elsewhere in the UK and further afield, thereby enhancing our capital’s chances of economic success. What geographic area does Cardiff & Co cover? Cardiff & Co covers the whole of the Cardiff city-region although it has never sought to define what that means. It has taken the view that others will make their own decisions and will see themselves as being part of the Cardiff city-region if the Cardiff / Caerdydd brand helps their business be more successful. In that respect, it is informative that Cardiff & Co currently receives membership fees from companies as far West as Seven Sisters, as far East as Magor and as far North as Brecon. Unlike Cardiff Council’s restricted boundaries which results in a population of only 320,000, the Cardiff city-region features a population of around 1.4m within 45 minutes travelling time of the city centre. Factors such as the size of the labour market and overall population are important considerations in the assessment of the attractiveness of an area.


But what does Cardiff & Co do? Cardiff & Co promotes Cardiff to the world as the ideal destination in which to live, work, invest, study, meet, visit, shop and play. A concise narrative addresses this issue in a little more detail and sets the context for the rest of this document. The narrative includes a vision as well as a definition of our role, mission, aim, approach and values. The vision is not meant to be a strapline or any sort of marketing device. It is strictly a concise encapsulation of the outcome that Cardiff & Co is seeking to achieve. The vision statement highlights the fact that Cardiff & Co is about people – tourists, business people, students, shoppers etc – so that they are persuaded or enticed to experience the Cardiff city-region. The vision statement is an articulation of what we want to achieve rather than how we want to get there and therefore the focus is on the end game rather than any inputs that might be required. See figure 2 for Cardiff & Co’s vision through to values.


Figure 2: Cardiff & Co vision to values

OUR VALUES

OUR ROLE

OUR VISION

OUR MISSION

OUR AIM

OUR APPROACH

People experiencing Cardiff

To build a powerful coalition with critical mass, delivering promotional activities that enhance the Cardiff city-region’s standing as a destination of choice for people to live, work, invest, meet, study and visit.

To be recognised and respected as the ring-leader for the promotion of the Cardiff city-region

To be considered the best £ for £ destination marketing company in the UK.

Lean, Commercial, Target-driven, Engaging

Positivity, Creativity, Openness, Flexibility

OUR VISION

OUR MISSION

OUR AIM

OUR ROLE

OUR APPROACH

OUR VALUES

Cardiff & Co Vision to Values


As well as defining what a company stands for, it is also helpful sometimes to articulate what a company does and doesn’t do – see Table 1 below. Table 1: What Cardiff & Co does and doesn’t do Achievements in 2010-11 A full breakdown of Cardiff & Co’s achievements is outlined in the company’s Annual Review 2010-11. However, the highlights during 2010-11 included:

• The development of the Cardiff iPhone App

Cardiff & Co : • Doesn’t have market leading budgets • Doesn’t chase funding for the sake of it • Doesn’t focus on marketing activities inside the

Cardiff city-region • Doesn’t fund other organisations • Doesn’t manage the Cardiff product • Doesn’t spend much on advertising • Doesn’t market itself • Doesn’t spend what it hasn’t got • Doesn’t lobby • Doesn’t have a large staff complement • Doesn’t contract work out that it can deliver itself • Doesn’t just promote the city of Cardiff

Cardiff & Co: • Does adopt a commercial approach so that money can

be generated for re-investment • Does invest the bulk of its money in activities with an

impact outside the Cardiff city-region • Does invest in other organisations if there’s a clear ROI • Does work closely with its investors to ensure

shareholder value • Does tell people what it’s doing and what it’s achieved • Does work with others to deepen its impact • Does take some risks in order to achieve cut-through • Does innovate, thinks laterally and does creative things • Does spend wisely • Does have an opinion from time to time • Does promote the Cardiff city-region


• The critical role of the Cardiff Commitment in the retention of the Speedway Grand Prix for Cardiff and the recapture of Rugby League’s Millennium Magic weekend

• Continued growth in the Cardiff Tourism Network’s membership • The launch of the Cardiff Commercial Property Finder • Further improvements to Cardiff’s online presence, generating over 1.2m visitors • Significant growth in the number of social media related followers, friends and connections • The successful staging of a number of events, including the Cardiff Ambassadors Gala Dinner in Cardiff and Cardiff

Ambassador events in London • Successfully campaigning in partnership with the Council and others for the electrification of the main line between London

Paddington and Cardiff • Attraction of £1.1m of confirmed conference business for the future and £858k of completed conference business during

2010-11 • Delivery of £1.85m of media coverage on an editorial equivalent value basis • Retention of existing investors and securing of new investors

Section Two – The Context and the Product What is the UK Economic Context? The UK, in common with most other parts of the world, has experienced a significant amount of economic turbulence since 2008. And despite the fact that the economy is no longer in recession, economic growth is lower than the historical trend of c2.5% and is likely to be tested further when the full impact of the tightening of the public purse is felt during 2011-12 and 2012-13. Two factors are contributing to the challenging economic outlook. Firstly, inflation remains stubbornly high. At the time of publication of this document, inflation stood at 4.5%, despite the fact that the economy as a whole has appeared to show restraint in terms of wages. Inflationary pressure has mostly come from increased commodity and energy costs, with the result that disposable income levels have been adversely affected.


Secondly, the budget deficit has been tackled via a combination of budget cuts and tax rises. This means that most people will see a reduction in either their level of take home pay or the benefits they receive. Clearly, the factors above have already resulted in lower levels of consumer confidence and a lack of appetite or ability amongst some businesses to access capital for investment when the market for their products and services has contracted. This climate presents continued challenges for the UK economy, especially in areas highly dependent on public sector jobs. What about the Cardiff city-region economy? Many parts of the Cardiff city-region economy have the kind of public sector dependency outlined above. In particular, efficiency savings at local authorities, in the Welsh Government’s Civil Service and in other agencies will have an unavoidable impact on consumer confidence as a result of job losses and reduced levels of expenditure with private sector suppliers. However, much of the impact here will be drip fed into the economy over a period of years with local authorities in particular choosing different solutions to the same types of problem. The inward investment market has been fairly limited over the last five years with the double impact of increasing competition across Europe and globally and fewer investment enquiries. At the same time, however, areas such as tourism have seen dramatic increases in visitor numbers and visitor spend over the last few years. The latest Steam figures, the industry recognised survey for tourism destinations, show that Cardiff welcomed over 18.3m visitors in 2010 an increase of over 25% on 2009. In addition, visitors generated almost £852m for the Cardiff economy, an increase of 16.7% over the previous year. When the "St David's effect" is stripped out, the figures still show an increase in visitor numbers and spend despite the difficult economic climate. In the field of business tourism i.e. conferences, the city-region has seen a challenging year or so. RevPar, the hotel industry’s favoured performance measurement, has declined slightly in Cardiff in some year on year comparisons recently. This can partly be attributed to the supply of hotel rooms having increased by around 30% since 2004. It can also be attributed to the belt tightening outlined in earlier sections as a result of reduced levels of consumer confidence and public sector cuts. The latter, in particular, has


led to hotels and venues across the Cardiff city-region seeing a sudden decline in their public sector sourced meetings and accommodation revenues. And the decline in consumer confidence has led to many confirmed conferences and events taking place with fewer delegates and attendees than had originally been anticipated. So far, however, there have been only a limited number of outright cancellations. And the future prospects for the city-region econom y? The situation for the Cardiff city-region is far from doom and gloom. Indeed, the Cardiff city-region is relatively well placed to emerge from the current climate with its competitive position enhanced despite feeling the effects of the problems outlined above. The transformation of the city which was started in the 1990s and sustained into the 2000s thanks to a can-do attitude and genuine ambition, continues apace. On the infrastructure front, Cardiff Council and the Welsh Government will invest £60m between them in the development of the new Central Business District which will, in turn, unlock around £100m in private sector investment. Furthermore, the Council has reiterated its commitment to the development of a Convention Centre as part of this project and its wider effort to transform Wales’ capital city into a destination recognised as being business friendly. At the same time, the UK Government’s commitment to electrify the main railway line between London and Cardiff will see the travelling time reduced by around 20 minutes, making London – a key gateway to the world – more accessible to Cardiff city-region businesses. And a compelling case is being built for the electrification of the Valley Lines into Cardiff which will result in a more resilient network with newer trains, shorter journey times and more frequent services. In the creative and media sector, the BBC will begin filming from its new Drama Village in Porth Teigr from the Summer of 2011 onwards, a development that will strengthen the city-region’s profile in this sector and help attract fresh investment by media companies from other parts of the UK.


In the professional and financial services, Admiral, the city’s flagship FTSE 100 company continues to grow, drawing on a talented pool of well educated and rewarded staff. Indeed, such is the company’s confidence in its prospects and that of Cardiff, it is investing in the construction of a flagship 220,000 sq feet headquarters in the heart of the city centre. In the tourism sector, investment in the city’s hotels continues to grow with new hotels scheduled to be built in the city centre and bay during the lifetime of this document. At the same time, Cardiff continues to be a world class venue for major events with the Millennium Stadium’s presence in the centre of the city being a world leading USP, something recognised by the decision to quite literally “kick-off” the London 2012 Olympics in Cardiff via the hosting of a large number of the football matches. And the city’s retail performance continues to impress, not least because of the positive impact the St. David’s Centre is having on footfall across the city but also because of dynamic new developments such as the city’s Castle Quarter where individually owned shops and units provide a welcome contrast to the large chains elsewhere in the city. There are also positive stories to tell in the city’s remaining priority sectors, including ICT, BioSciences and Environmental technologies. And across all sectors, the city-region labour market continues to benefit from an extremely strong University presence, including two of our Investor Members in the shape of Cardiff University and UWIC. With over 60,000 undergraduates in the city-region, the Cardiff labour market is young and well qualified, comparing favourably with most if not all of England’s core cities and providing potential investors with the most important ingredient they are looking for - a high quality workforce So, there are many economic challenges still to be faced. But at the same time, the Cardiff city-region product continues to be enhanced. It is against this backcloth that Cardiff & Co will champion the city-region’s cause from 2011-12 onwards. And how about the quality of life on offer in Cardi ff? Helpfully, the quality of life on offer in Cardiff helps reinforce Cardiff’s attractiveness across the range of Cardiff & Co’s marketing agendas – live, work, invest, study, meet, visit, shop and play. For example, Cardiff has been made EU Capital of Sport in 2014. This recognises the city’s rich sporting heritage but also the state-of-the-art facilities on offer across the city-region, including the Cardiff International White Water and Cardiff International Pool


in the Bay and other impressive facilities such as the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff City Stadium, SWALEC Stadium and Cardiff International Athletics Stadium. Cardiff is also seen as a city of parks, with the remarkable Bute Park and surrounding areas invariably impressing visitors to the city, not least when fans walk that way to get to the SWALEC Stadium for an England international cricket match. And on the theme of events, Cardiff has a truly world class reputation in delivering major events, including FA Cup Finals, the Rugby World Cup, pop concerts featuring artists like Madonna and U2, key parts of the Ryder Cup programme and motor sport events such as Speedway Grand Prix. In the field of arts and culture, Cardiff benefits from the world renown Welsh National Opera and is the biannual host of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. It is also the home of the Wales Millennium Centre – one of Wales’ most iconic buildings but one which is also alive with the sounds of performances and creative people going about their daily work. Cardiff is also home to the National Museum in Cathays and in St. Fagans – two contrasting yet enthralling facilities that for different reasons have the capacity to inspire their visitors with world class exhibits, exhibitions and interpretive facilities. And finally, Cardiff is a waterfront city, home to the Senedd – the seat of Government in Wales – and part of a nation with a proud heritage and culture, including its own language. So, what could the Cardiff city-region do better? Although product development is not a core part of Cardiff & Co’s remit, its role as the city’s marketing company does result in it being passed feedback on what the city needs in order to continuously improve its positioning. The most frequently raised issue is the need for a Convention Centre in the city centre – a convention centre that would enable the city to more effectively market itself as a business tourism destination and start targeting those conferences that are currently outside its reach.


Another frequent issue raised is the lack of a Michelin Star Restaurant in Cardiff. Fine dining is seen as key by many to the attractiveness of a city, particularly for those with high disposable incomes. The need for an increase in the choice of destinations connected by air to Cardiff is also raised frequently as is the need for a relief road around the M4 Brynglas Tunnels near Newport. And finally, Cardiff’s night-time economy is also a source of negative comment, although it is mostly focused on anti-social behaviour as opposed to violent disorder. It’s interesting to note that progress is being made on most of the issues above apart from the M4 Relief Road which the Welsh Government has ruled out. Cardiff & Co will continue to raise these issues with those relevant in order to ensure that the city region’s product development is informed by deep engagement with the private sector.

Section 3 – Positioning the Product How do people currently perceive Cardiff? The simple answer to that question depends on whether they’ve been here or not. Those that haven’t been to Cardiff and the wider city-region tend to be under the misperception that it is further away from London than it actually is. The Severn Bridge toll is also seen as a deterrent to visit because of the additional cost and inconvenience. They also don’t have great expectations of the city and often associate it with negative stereotypical perceptions of Wales. In the business context, those who don’t know Cardiff and the city-region mostly wouldn’t describe it as a business friendly city with their perceptions being coloured by outdated impressions of an economy dominated by heavy industry.


On the other hand, those that come to Cardiff for the first time find their expectations exceeded. The Cardiff Visitor Survey 2010 found that almost 99% of the 1282 people interviewed would recommend a visit to Cardiff to somebody else with 77% saying that they definitely would. What is the Cardiff Caerdydd brand? This Strategy and Business Plan focuses on the promotion of the Cardiff city-region in accordance with the Cardiff Caerdydd brand values that were developed in 2008. The brand values remain relevant and the Cardiff Caerdydd brand mark remains the symbol around which the Cardiff & Co marketing effort gravitates. Figure 1: Developing the Cardiff Caerdydd brand values and brand mark

Positive Negative

Creative & fresh

Friendly

Proactive

Energetic & dynamic

Cultural

World class events

Growing

Parochial

Lack of company HQs

Apologetic for success Proud &

defensive

Lack of wealth creators

Lacks elegance

Lack of infrastructure

Perceptions of the City – our starting point

Building the Cardiff brand values

DISTINCTIVE

Capital

Waterfront

Cultured

Architecture

OPEN

People

Friendly

Sincere

Multi-cultural

Communication

Land / Planning

Confident

EXCITING

Entertaining

Shopping

Events

Sports

+ +BRAND

CHARACTER

The perfect partner

INNOVATIVE

Can-do

Delivering

Investment

Creative

Energetic

ideas

+


The Cardiff Brand Values – the Keywords

The Cardiff Caerdydd Brand Mark

The brand values have the scope to be complemented by one or more strapline and be presented via creative and engaging executions. How do people currently obtain information on Cardi ff? Apart from analysing our web statistics which show a steady year-on-year increase in the number of visitors to our websites, the Cardiff Visitor Survey provides some helpful insights into the way people find out about Cardiff before they visit. Use of the internet to help plan a visit jumped from 21% in 2009 to 40% in 2010. Other information channels such as leaflets / brochures (7%), guidebooks (7%) and the use of the Tourist Information Centres (10%) fell compared with 2009. Other sources included information obtained during a previous visit (39%) and word of mouth / recommendation (21%).


These findings show that the internet is an increasingly important channel for potential visitors. It also reinforces the earlier point about the positive impression Cardiff leaves on people who visit with the high levels of repeat visits and visits following a recommendation. What are Cardiff’s Priority Sectors? The priority sectors for this Strategy are entirely consistent with the “A Competitive Capital” Economic Strategy 2007-12 and are considered relevant for the 2011-16 span of this document. The key sectors are:

• Professional and Financial Services • Media and Creative • Bio Science (Life Sciences) • ICT • Leisure and Business Tourism

In addition, increased importance is placed on the environmental technologies sector, not least because of its strong link with the third mission of the city’s Universities but also because of the importance placed on it by the Welsh Government as part of its efforts to position Wales as a sustainable nation. What are the key factors informing the strategy? The key factors are:

• Those who visit Cardiff for the first time are invariably impressed by the city • Those visiting are almost certainly likely to recommend Cardiff to other people

In other words, the key driver for the strategy is our confidence in the quality of the Cardiff city-region product. So, what is our Strategy?


It’s simple. Let’s entice people to Cardiff for the first time and then let’s keep in touch with them to get them back for more! And in the meantime, let’s encourage them to tell their friends about their visit, whether it be on business, to attend a conference or simply to enjoy some leisure time. And let’s work on the basis that today’s leisure visitor might be tomorrow’s conference delegate and the day afters inward investor. How are we going to do it? The operational element of this document outlines in detail the measures the company will take to deliver its agenda. However, in short, the emphasis will be on:

• Cost effective methods of getting the message out, particularly PR • Enhanced e-marketing activities, including further web developments and social media marketing • A focus on greater exploitation of the Cardiff Ambassadors programme as a means of deploying a powerful network of

advocates for the Cardiff city-region • A focus on the London market and to a lesser extent, the South East of England, South West and West Midlands, in order to

generate critical mass for our activities and target the largest and most accessible markets • A concerted sales driven effort to increase business tourism and event based tourism stays as a means of generating direct

economic benefit for the city-region but also in order to generate opportunities for the promotion of the city as an investment location, place of study and short break destination

• The development of two or three campaigns each year aimed at “turning up the volume” on our activities during times of opportunity or, in the field of business and leisure tourism, times when the city is quieter.

• Greater investment of time and money in customer relationship management • Carefully selecting a limited number of bespoke activities overseas where partnership approaches to funding the activity and

/ or the potential outcomes offer very high levels of ROI


What are we trying to achieve? The following key performance Indicators are identified:

• An improvement in the city hotel sector’s Revpar performance • An increase in the city’s £ per sq foot rental for Grade A office space • A year on year increase in the visitor spend for the city

Clearly, these are KPIs where Cardiff & Co can only take part of the credit and part of the blame should they be achieved or missed. More detailed performance Indicators directly associated with Cardiff & Co’s activities are outlined later in this document. However, as a proxy for the company’s overall impact, it would seem reasonable to use the following as a KPI given that the private sector in particular will only invest in a successful company:

• An annual increase in the company’s turnover How will we structure our efforts? See the table below. Agenda area Key proposition(s) Target audience(s)

Key intermediaries / channels

Inward investment

Availability of well qualified and skilled labour market Availability of competitively priced office space Connectivity with London

Large companies, predominantly in London, the M4 corridor and South east possibly looking to relocate back office functions Smaller fledgling businesses in

Welsh Government UKTI Cardiff Ambassadors Property agents PR


Proximity to Universities Speedy decision-making thanks to Team Cardiff approach Quality of life

the same geographic patch whose owners are looking to relocate, possibly to improve their quality of life Foreign direct investors seeking to establish a presence in the UK

Investincardif.com Linked-in Corporate e-newsletter Publications Media visits

Business Tourism and Major Events

Compact city centre Competitively priced Connectivity with London and other parts of the UK The Cardiff Commitment The jewels in the crown - Millennium Stadium, Wales Millennium Centre and Cardiff Castle Range and quality of hotel stock The top retail destination in the UK’s South West Arts, culture, sport, entertainment befitting a Capital city

UK based associations, unions and public sector UK and internationally based academic conference organisers Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition travel organisers Major event owners worldwide

Welsh Government Conference Agencies PR Cardiff Ambassadors Linked-In Meetincardiff.com Conference e-newsletter Venue Directory FAM and Media visits Individual venues and hotels in Cardiff Applicable Associations

Leisure Tourism Cardiff Bay The jewels in the crown - Millennium Stadium, Millennium Centre and Cardiff Castle The top retail destination in the UK’s South West

Families from Southern England looking for multi-destination short breaks Event goers / supporters Young people from throughout the UK, plus Netherlands,

Visitcardiff.com Essential Guide PR Twitter Facebook Consumer e-newsletter


A varied arts and culture offer Capital of Sport Fun packed On the doorstep of the Brecon Beacons, Vale of Glamorgan, the Valleys and Swansea Bay and the Gower

Germany, Spain, France and Italy Tour operators assembling packages Destinations connected to Cardiff or Bristol via air routes

Southern Wales Tourism Travel trade e-newsletter Media visits


Destination Marketing,

incl live, work and study

Business tourism

Leisure tourism

Investment promotion

Telephone Sales

Exhibitions

Direct mail

FAM Visits

Newsletters

E-Marketing

Publications

Advertorials

Ambassadors

Networking Events

E-Marketing Media

Publications

Media

E-Marketing

Newsletters

Newsletters

AgendaDelivery

CommercialDrivers & Enablers

Special offers

How it all fits together

Strategy & Business Plan

DMS bookings

Project buy-in

Conference commission

Cardiff Tourism Network

Project buy-in

Delegate booking system

Advertising

Investors & Champions

Pay per click

Merchandise and sales

Project buy-in

Packaging

Ticket sales

Sponsorship

Ticket sales

KPIs

SLA & shareholder value

HR processes

ICT

Financial management

Governance

Office management

Contracts

TrainingSuccession planning

Networking and securing investment

Performance management

Adminis-tration

Special OffersSector events


Section 4 – Running the Business 2011-16 Cardiff & Co’s greatest challenges 2011-2016 In order to deliver its agenda, Cardiff & Co must overcome a number of challenges. These are outlined as:

• To get people to think of the city-region, not just Cardiff, and recognise their interdependencies • To get public sector institutions in Wales to match the private sector’s enthusiasm for the capital city as a powerful brand

to be exploited for wider economic benefit and as a reference point for the wider area • To overcome the existing fragmentation of voice and develop a more unified and powerful approach • To generate the income to make everything else possible

Our approach for 2011-2016 Consequently, Cardiff & Co’s approach will be to:

• Deliver the Service Level Agreement (SLA) negotiated with Cardiff Council and enhance shareholder value – ensure that the Council’s core requirements are satisfied and that added value is demonstrated to all investors and sponsors

• Focus on quality rather than quantity – do a small number of things well and be known for delivering high quality activities rather than letting standards slip

• Invest well in areas that generate the maximum possible return on investment – e.g. recognise the contemporary effectiveness of e-marketing and PR

• Grow the company – increase the turnover and secure increased levels of commercial income, particularly via business tourism, Corporate Champion invessments and project buy-in.

• Strengthen our constituency – refresh and optimise the use of the Strategic Board in terms of its representation and expertise.


• Develop our networks – build on the success of the Cardiff Tourism Network and the Cardiff Ambassadors’ Programme, recognising the value of networks in disseminating a positive message about the Cardiff city-region and Cardiff & Co

• From Cardiff city centre to Cardiff city-region – consistently articulate in terms of city-region so that the term gains currency and acceptance

• Get the Welsh Government to recognise the importance of the Cardiff city-region and facilitate collaboration on inward investment.

Our agenda in a nutshell…..

. Financial Position This section has been removed as it includes commercially sensitive information. Budget management and treatment of income The activity budgets outlined above will be controlled by a nominated budget holder. At present, the budget holders are as follows: • Investment promotion – Head of Trade and Investment • e-marketing and e-communications – MarComms Manager • Network development – Head of Networks • Commercial operations – Head of Commercial Operations • Business tourism – Convention Bureau Manager • Leisure tourism – Head of Networks • PR and branding – MarComms Manager

Our key words: Delivery, quality, ROI, growth, Board, networks, ci ty-region, collaboration


The role of the budget holder will be to ensure that judgements are made in-year regarding priorities. In other words, although the value of the activities identified in the operational plan exceeds the budget available, the budget itself will not be exceeded. It should also be noted, however, that the budgets quoted are gross budgets. In other words, the net expenditure might be lower than the budget due to receipt of income which has been catered for in “Other commercial income”, “Miscellaneous” or “Corporate Champions” where a contra arrangement is in place. To be clear, different types of income will be treated as follows: • Investor member and corporate champion income – treated as corporate income and not used to offset individual budgets.

Level of income monitored in-year to determine whether individual budgets can be increased or need to be reduced. • Business and leisure tourism commission - treated as corporate income and not used to offset individual budgets. Level of

income monitored in-year to determine whether individual budgets can be increased or need to be reduced. • Project buy-in / sponsorship – where a member of the team is able to secure buy-in to a project from partners, the income

raising potential over and above that budgeted for can be used to seek approval for increases in budgeted expenditure. • One-off funding allocations for a specific project not covered within the income projections – added to the appropriate budget

line • Other one-off funding allocations – treated as corporate income • CTN Membership, Advertising, ticket sales and other miscellaneous forms of income – treated as corporate income as these

funds are already taken into account in assembling the e-marketing and the leisure and business tourism related budgets. Overheads, including staff costs Although the proportion of expenditure on labour and overheads appears high in relation to the expenditure on activities, the reality is somewhat less stark. Unlike most public and private sector organisations, Cardiff & Co does not contract out for services such as PR support and copy-writing. Instead, Cardiff & Co delivers all of these activities in-house. Examples include: • All of the copy on the suite of Cardiff & Co websites is written in-house • The copy for the Cardiff Investment brochure was written in-house


• The Cardiff & Co Annual Review is written and designed in-house • All Cardiff & Co advertisements are designed and written in-house • All of Cardiff & Co’s PR activities are delivered in-house As a result, the activity budgets outlined above are a little misleading as they do not take into account the staff time spent delivering in those areas and therefore, do not represent the totality of the activity. For a fuller picture on Cardiff & Co’s delivery during 2011-12, please refer to the section on “Activities” and for a summary of its activities during 2010-11 please refer to the Annual Review 2010-11. The projection for overhead expenditure shows an initial 10% reduction which we aim to achieve by securing contra arrangements with the suppliers of certain services follows by modest increases from 2012-13 onwards. The increases – around 2.5% per annum – reflects the following:

• annual inflation of >3.0% • an increase in credit card payment commission charges payable by Cardiff & Co • but a continuing offsetting effort to drive down overheads via robust procurement .

In terms of staffing, the budget shows a very small increase over the period of this Strategic Business Plan (6% between 2011-12 and 2015-16). The intention is to use the staffing budget to take advantage of subsidised student placement opportunities from time to time afforded by the Go Wales programme and depending on the nature of the market, employ short term staff to provide added impetus to the business tourism agenda. There are some risks linked with allocating such a small increase, including the reliance currently placed on a secondment arrangement with the Welsh Government and the £15k contribution per annum received from the Cardiff Hoteliers’ Association towards the cost of the Convention Bureau Manager post. If either of these arrangements ceased, it would result in the budget and / or staffing having to be revisited. Working on the basis that these risks won’t materialise, the intention is to keep staff costs under close control. However, this does not rule out making changes to the staffing structure or changing individual levels of remuneration. Should either or both be necessary, proposals will be put to the F&GP Committee.


Strategic Relationship with Cardiff Council It is recognised that for this Strategy and Business Plan to be successful, the excellent strategic relationship between Cardiff & Co and Cardiff Council needs to be maintained. Underpinning the relationship are regular quarterly performance review meetings between the parties as well as informal update meetings held on a monthly basis. Furthermore, the Council’s Service Redesign Project is likely to result in yet deeper levels of mutual understanding between the Council and its destination marketing company.

Section Five – The Operational Plan Performance Indicators The Performance Indicators have evolved and been updated over the last couple of years and the table below shows the upward trajectory in all areas. There are slightly fewer PIs for 2011-2016 but they continue to demand year-on-year improvements in performance.

No Item 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 201 2-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 Comments


actual actual

actual actual target target target target target

1. Total web visits (sessions) to Cardiff & Co websites

631,692 901,624 1.374m 1.232m 1.5m 1.7m 1.8m 1.9m 2.0m Reduction entirely due to rationalisation of web stats packages used

2. Business Tourism: value of business generated through Cardiff & Co from completed events

£819,433 £1,035,273 £1.2m £858,299 £1.2m £1.5m £1.7m £1.85m £2.0m

3. Business Tourism: new business in pipeline for Cardiff for next financial year onwards

n/a £1,331,124 £2.36m £1,110,203 £1.3m £1.6m £1.9m £2.2m £2.5m

4. Media Coverage: Editorial Equivalent Value

£1.175m £766,000 £1.565m £1.86m £1.7m £1.9m £2.0m £2.1m £2,2m

5. Number of Cardiff Tourism Network members

100 140 164 173 190 205 220 230 235

6. Delivery of annual non-Cardiff Council income (excluding VAT) and including value of in-kind support

n/a £416,079 £554k £411,900 £480k £500k £520k £545k £570k Includes value attributed to contra deals and external contributions to secondments (excl. Council)

7. Number of business investment enquiries generated

n/a n/a 44 36 150 200 250

8. Value of leisure tourism bookings made directly via Cardiff & Co’s on-line booking system

£102,708 £160,778 £136,738 £62,565 £70,000 £80,000 £90,000 £100,000 £110,000 Reduction in 2010-11 due to focus on CTN members rather than


open selling of all UK hotels

Some Major Projects and Campaigns Major projects to be undertaken during 2011-12 include: • Further development of the Cardiff Ambassador programme as a means of promoting the city as an investment and conference

destination but with an emphasis on exploiting the network rather than growing it • The development of an @CreativeCardiff festival around October encompassing a number of existing festivals and events as a

celebration of Cardiff’s media and creative industries • A Cardiff Ambassadors event in London to take the Central Business District concept to the heart of the world’s financial capital • Development of a “Welcome Back to Cardiff” campaign aimed at encouraging university alumni and others with a Cardiff link to

return to the city-region during 2012, possibly in time for the London 2012 Olympics. • The development of a National High Street Campaign widely acknowledged to have been instigated by Cardiff as a celebration

of variety and choice within the nation’s city centres • The development of bespoke tourism campaigns undertaken in association with transport providers and targeted at traditionally

quiet periods for the city-region’s hotels • Other campaigns as necessary and as the opportunity arises. Working with the Welsh Government During 2011-12, concerted efforts will be made to develop a closer working relationship with the Welsh Government with the aim of identifying opportunities for joint campaigns, sharing of insights and other means of collaboration. Activities The following list of activities is indicative only. They have been presented in this way to ensure that there is sufficient flexibility in-year to adapt to changing situations and take advantage of any fresh opportunities that might arise. Taken as a whole the list in the


table will give a clear indication of the approach the company will adopt in order to deliver the KPIs and PIs identified in the previous sections. Where possible, indicative budgets have been provided to give an idea of the rough cost of the activity. Heading

Types of Activity Lead Timescales Indicative budget (where more than £1k)

Comment

PR and Branding

On-going programme of PR covering breadth of the Cardiff & Co agenda

Hywel Thomas On-going n/a

Programme of media visits Hywel Thomas On-going £3k Targeted approach to be adopted with a focus on high value media and on increasing the proportion of media coverage obtained in the investment promotion field.

Exploitation of events and launches to generate media coverage e.g. Heineken Cup Final and Amlin Challenge Final, St. David’s Week, Hay Book Festival, The Big Cheese Festival and the opening of the BBC’s Drama Village

Hywel Thomas Ongoing £4k

Delivery of joint media campaigns with partner organisations such as the BBC, Wales Millennium Centre, St. David’s Centre etc.

Hywel Thomas Ongoing £2k

Continued updating of the Cardiff media pack for general usage

Hywel Thomas Ongoing n/a


around big events

Targeted welcoming and hosting activities for media in partnership with Cardiff event organisers e.g. Six Nations rugby, Speedway etc .

Hywel Thomas Activity will depend on date of events.

£3k But seek to reduce via partner contributions.

Reproduction of the Cardiff pocket map

Anna Garton May 2011 £5k Maps were extremely popular during 2009-10 and were equally valued by leisure and business tourists.

Production and distribution of portfolio of Cardiff & Co e-newsletters

Hywel Thomas / Ed Townsend

On-going £1k Need to renew templates for: Visit Cardiff Newsletter Convention Bureau Newsletter Travel Trade Newsletter Corporate Newsletter “What’s Occurrin?”

Further development of high quality image library using Flickr to embed within web pages

Adele Page On-going £7k Contract needs to be signed with photographer to enable us to use the images and share them with our partners

Media Monitoring - PR Press Cutting service ongoing

Ed Townsend Already in place £4k

Corporate Publications – Print & Design

Adele Page On-going £2k Covers Annual Review and the Strategy and Business Plan 2011-16

Press Photography

Anna Garton As necessary £4k

Regular updating of research activities demonstrating how Cardiff compares with its competitor cities.

Ed Townsend On-going n/a PR activity or production of publications to be considered on back of research.

Production and effective usage of promotional merchandise (carrier bags, pens, mugs, pin badges etc)

Adele Page June 2011 £4k


Other ad hoc PR and branding

activities consistent with the company’s strategy

Anna Garton/ Hywel Thomas

Ongoing n/a

e-Comms and e-Marketing

Maintenance and further development of existing and additional New Mind powered websites for the Cardiff city-region

Anna Garton Annual £18k

Migration of remaining websites from existing supplier to New Mind


DMS Charges


Continued promotion of the Cardiff iPhone App


Annual bandwidth charges for Cardiff on Show

Anna Garton Annual £5.5k

Development work over sites to improve special offers capability, reporting and appeal

Anna Garton July 2011 £2.5k

Continued development of content across all sites, particularly news stories, offers etc, in order to keep content fresh and sites highly ranked in search engines

Anna Garton Ongoing n/a

Additional e-mails for Communicator e-newsletters

Anna Garton December 2011 £1k

Update and migrate foreign Anna Garton / September 2011 £7k The cost will be reduced provided a contra


language sites to new supplier, ensuring enhanced SEO performance

Adele Page deal can be struck with a translation company in return for Corporate Champion status.

Promotion of our new online marketing channels such as banner advertising, featured products etc

Anna Garton Early September 2011

£500

Continued development of Cardiff & Co’s social media activities, including via Twitter, facebook and Linked-In

Carys Pugh D’Auria, Anna Garton / Richard Thomas

Ongoing £500

Other costs associated with ad hoc surveys, newsletters, ad word campaigns etc

Anna Garton Ongoing £1k

Other ad-hoc e-Communications and e-Marketing activities consistent with the company’s strategy


Inward Investment

Further development and migration of www.investincardiff.com website as part of wider development referred to above.

Carys Pugh D’Auria & Anna Garton

Ongoing n/a

Maintenance of Property Portal Carys Pugh D’Auria

Ongoing n/a Evolvin will project manage the property portal in lieu of Silver Corporate Champion status. There are two advert spaces on this site which can either be offered as part of an investor package or can be sold.

Further development of Carys Pugh Ongoing n/a The work here will include examining


www.workincardiff.com and www.liveincardiff.com websites as part of wider development referred to above.

D’Auria & Anna Garton

the potential for linking up with head hunters, recruitment agencies, estate agents etc

Copy-writing, design and print of Inward Investment Publications, eg:

• Media and creative • Financial and Professional

Services • ICT

Carys Pugh D’Auria

Autumn 2011 £2k

Updating of Investors’ Guide and digital publication


Summer 2011 £2k

Updating of Top 10 Reasons to Invest in Cardiff and print


Summer 2011 £2k

New pop-up stands as required Carys Pugh D’Auria

Summer 2011 £0.5k

Viral marketing campaigns focused on priority sectors


Ongoing n/a

Online advertising to drive visitors to the website


Ongoing £5k

Subscription to relevant titles, networks, databases


April 2011 £3k

Sector marketing: Four Cardiff Ambassador events in London to focus on key sectors

Carys Pugh D/Auria

May, July, Sept, Nov 2011

£20k Costs to be offset by contra deals and sponsorships.

PR for the above events Carys Pugh Ongoing n/a Consideration to be given to contra


D’Auria deal Develop sector information packs

for journalists to include overview, company case studies and potential spokespeople (online and offline)


Ongoing £1k

Development and implementation of an @creative Cardiff festival as an umbrella identity for a number of events and activities already developed


October 2011 £10k Budget to be supplemented by contributions from elsewhere

Launch of Financial Sector Skills Council Wales report in conjunction with Welsh Government sector team


September / October 2011

£2k

London based activities with London Welsh RFC and Wales in London

Richard Thomas / Carys Pugh D’Auria

Ongoing £7k Part of the company’s efforts to increase its visibility in London

Event in association with the Cardiff Commercial Property Forum


By end of March 2012

£2.5k

Presentation to Pension Fund Managers in London on the Cardiff 2020 Vision


Autumn 2011 £3k

Visit programme for sectoral journalists and / or investment contacts


Ongoing £5k

Collaboration with Welsh Carys Pugh tbc £5k


Government sector teams on selected key projects

D’Auria

Research on conferences and conventions focused on Cardiff’s priority sectors so that the Convention Bureau team can follow up


Ongoing n/a

Other ad hoc activities consistent with the company’s strategy.


Ongoing n/a

Business Tourism

Further development of www.meetincardiff.com website as part of wider development referred to above. To include addition of sample itineraries, social programme ideas, maps / travel distances, subvention and assistance details etc

Anna Garton / Heledd Williams

Ongoing n/a

Attend Meet the Buyer events, including C&IT, M&IT, for face-to-face networking and speed-dating sessions

Heledd Williams

Ongoing £6k

Partnering with an organisation like Eventia to deliver an event in London targeting conference buyers

Heledd Williams

By end March 2012 £5k

A Cardiff based event to strengthen links with hotel and venues operational sales staff

Heledd Williams

July 2011 £3k

Use of Cardiff Ambassadors Heledd Ongoing n/a


events in London to generate new contacts, entertain existing contacts and secure introductions to potential conference and event buyers

Williams

Quarterly Meet in Cardiff e-Newsletters and ad hoc editions as and when appropriate

Heledd Williams

Ongoing £2k Will include occasional distribution to a segmented market e.g. those within a specific geographic patch.

Attendance of local networking events to build up awareness of the Convention Bureau’s services and generates new leads

Heledd Williams

Ongoing £1k

Staging of an event in partnership with a local business network e.g. IoD with the aim of generating leads from contacts outside the city-region

Heledd Williams

Ongoing £2k

Data purchase, possibly sourced from C&IT or M&IT.

Heledd Williams

May 2011 £2k

Memberships, e.g. Eventia Heledd Williams

Annual £3.5k

Weekend FAM visits for conference organisers and agencies – 6 themed trips / year

Heledd Williams

Ongoing £4k

Daytime FAM trips – 6 themed trips / year

Heledd Williams

Ongoing

£2k

“Super” Cardiff FAM visit for 30-50 buyers on the same weekend

Heledd Williams

January 2012 £15k To be done in conjunction with all hoteliers, venues and attractions. Requets for Visit Wales support. Access to be negotiated to


comp / discounted bedrooms, function rooms, entertainment and entry to attractions

Attendance of networking conferences to maximise the membership benefits and networking opportunities of Eventia, MPI, SITE etc

Pat Crimp / Heledd Williams

On-going £1k

Annual Licence and management of Convention Bureau enquiry response service – the Chaser system

Heledd Williams

Annual £1.5k

Maintenance and use of the Velvet Software package – conference bookings.com – to secure overnight stays for Cardiff and drive up commission for Cardiff & Co

Heledd Williams

Ongoing and Annual

£9.5k

Investigate greater use of registrations.com and its functionality with the aim of selling the service to other users

Heledd Williams

Ongoing £1.5k

Annual on site Chase systems training / updates

Heledd Williams

Ongoing £1k

Publications – Print, Design & distribution of the Venue Directory

Anna Garton By January 2012 £5k

Welcome desks at various conferences

Cheryl Walker Ongoing £1k


Other ad hoc activities consistent with the company’s strategy

Heledd Williams

Ongoing n/a

Leisure Tourism and Retail

Discussion with the Cardiff Retail Partnership regarding a Xmas campaign using www.shopincardiff.com as the fulfilment route

Louise Prynne

October 2011

n/a

Further development of www.visitcardiff.com website as part of wider development referred to above.


Further development of www.eventsincardiff.com website as part of wider development referred to above.


Further development of www.shopincardiff.com website as part of wider development referred to above.


Continued Membership of Southern Wales Marketing to promote Cardiff to the UK and overseas travel trade markets

Pat Crimp On-going £10k

Undertake additional travel trade activity to include B2B workshops, familiarisation visits, coach / group advertising, tour operator campaigns in partnership with Visit

Pat Crimp and Vicky Jones

Ongoing £10k


Britain and other partners .

To continue to build the travel trade database and improve the Cardiff product and package offer on the travel trade pages of the website and update the travel trade publication

Vicky Jones and Ai-Lin Kee

Ongoing n/a

To communicate offers and new developments to the UK and overseas travel trade through e-newsletters and events

Vicky Jones and Ed Townsend

June, September and January

n/a

Tourism Publications - Print & Design - Essential Guide – 90,000 copies

Anna Garton January 2012 £30k

Cost effective online consumer campaigns with relevant partners and production of consumer e-newsletters

Pat Crimp and Anna Garton

Autumn & Spring – newsletters bimonthly

£5k

To review membership benefits of the Wales Tourism Alliance

Pat Crimp January 2012 n/a

Development of digital versions of the above guides, including accessibility via mobile

Anna Garton March 2011 n/a


All Ongoing n/a

Network development

Further development of the Cardiff Ambassadors’ Programme via

Pat Crimp Ongoing £5K


quality recruitment, exploitation and events

Increase attendance and sponsorship levels at this year’s Cardiff Ambassadors’ Gala Dinner

Pat Crimp November 2011 £30k Potential Income: £20K

Continue to develop a programme of quality London based Ambassador/Inward Investment events

Carys Pugh D’Auria and Pat Crimp

May, July & September 2011

n/a

To attend two UK Ambassador Networking Group Conferences

Pat Crimp October 2011 & March 2012

n/a

To communicate regularly with Ambassadors through e-newsletters and revamp of dynamic Ambassador pages .

Pat Crimp Ongoing n/a

Continued liaison with universities to offer services and collateral at Welcome/International Days

Ai-Lin Kee Summer & Autumn 2011

n/a

Further development of relationship with University to exploit sector, key speakers and Alumni opportunities.

Richard Thomas, Pat Crimp and Carys Pugh D’Auria

Ongoing n/a

Development of special offers for HE staff and the staff of other investors

Vicky Jones Ongoing n/a

Development of 2010-11 Cardiff Tourism Network Prospectus and

Vicky Jones August 2011 £5k Potential Income £55K


recruitment of new members

Quarterly Cardiff Tourism Network events and member relations

Vicky Jones On-going £5k Cost offset via Corporate Champion contra deal with Orchard

Uploading of all data into CRM A-Lin Kee Ongoing n/a Being undertaken as part of the DMS project

Retention and renewal of existing agreements and recruitment of new Cardiff Corporate Champions

Richard Thomas, Pat Crimp and Louise Prynne

Ongoing n/a

Cardiff Corporate Champion collateral reprint

Pat Crimp By end of year £1K

Dissemination of the Broadcast Reel to TV Broadcasters, film crews and other media .

Pat Crimp Ongoing n/a

To capture Ambassador events on film for Image Bank storage and web films .

Pat Crimp Ongoing £5k

Build relationships and business contacts through relevant memberships and joint working partnerships and networking events

All Ongoing £2k

Exploitation of links with London Welsh RFC in order to grow our London-based network

Richard Thomas

Ongoing £3k

Attendance at monthly Cardiff Hoteliers’ Association Executive Group meetings to review

Richard Thomas

On-going n/a


Convention Bureau activities and leads

Submission of bids for CRT funding in addition to SWM support

Pat Crimp Ongoing n/a Income: £10K (Networks)& £4K (Leisure)

To proactively secure speaking opportunities on destination marketing nationally and internationally

Richard Thomas

From April 2010 onwards

n/a To secure income for the company and to promote Cardiff by using it as a destination marketing case study

Research into and monitoring of competitor destination marketing companies with a view to identifying best practice and assessing Cardiff & Co’s effectiveness on a £ for £ basis

Richard Thomas / Pat Crimp

Ongoing £1k To learn lessons and establish effectiveness

On-going relationship building programme of meetings by the Chairman and MD

Bill Savage and Richard Thomas

On-going n/a

Investor relations Bill Savage and Richard Thomas

On-going n/a Ensuring that investors are well informed of developments and are given a profile in the media whenever possible.


Pat Crimp / Richard Thomas

Ongoing n/a

Commercial Operations

Production of a digital advertising sales pack which highlights the profile raising opportunities available via Cardiff & Co and their cost

Louise Prynne / Vicky Jones

Summer 2011 n/a To increase our ability to generate commercial income.


Undertake audit of commercial income and expenditure to identify new sources of income and in kind support to offset spend

Louise Prynne Sept 2011

n/a

Identify opportunity to deliver enhanced role and investment in company by key ambassadors

Louise Prynne / Pat Crimp

Oct 2011 n/a

Undertake SWOT of web platforms and identify opportunities for improvement/commercial development

Louise Prynne Ongoing £1K

Enhance relationship with Cardiff City FC, Cardiff Blues and Cardiff Devils and Glamorgan cricket through closer collaborative working

Louise Prynne Oct 2011 n/a

On-going relationship building programme of meetings

Richard Thomas/Louise Prynne/Key managers

On-going £1K

Evaluate commercial opportunity to develop a Cardiff Business network to complement the CTN to generate income and provide added value and a point of difference from other network groups in the city region

Louise Prynne September 2011 £3K

Identify opportunity and develop investment packages for one new

Louise Prynne / Richard

Dec 2011 for new financial year

£10K


B2B campaign and one consumer campaign with partner investment to develop Cardiff & Co’s reputation as the city’s official destination marketing and inward investment company

Thomas


Louise Prynne Ongoing n/a

ends 27 May 2011

www.whycardiff.com

Cardiff & CoEnd of year review 2010-11

Investor Members 2010-11

Partners

www.whycardiff.com

Corporate Champions 2010-11

Front cover im

age: The O

ld Lib

rary, home

of Th

e Card

iff Sto

ry

Contents

1

Chairman’s Foreword page 2Managing Director’s Foreword page 42010-11 - a year of consolidation & activity page 6Cardiff reaches out through London page 6Successfully promoting rail links page 7Attracting Investors page 8Cardiff Tourism Network page 9Corporate Champions page 10Cardiff Ambassadors’ Programme page 10The Cardiff Commitment page 12The Ryder Cup page 12The Cardiff Debate page 13Research page 14Media visits and requests page 16Media coverage page 16Examples of media coverage secured page 18Publications page 20Other communication activities page 21E-communications page 22The Cardiff iPhone App page 23Investment Promotion page 24 Business Tourism page 25Leisure and retail tourism page 26Governance Issues page 27Performance against KPIs page 28

www.whycardiff.com

2

Chairman’s ForewordOver the last year the Managing Director and his team havebeen successfully concentrating on building partnerships andcampaigns and the board has been concentrating on securingthe strategic future of the company.A year ago I set out my view of the challenges we faced inbuilding a long term future for Cardiff & Co, to support thecompany’s objective to promote the Capital city-region bothnationally and internationally.I identified the need to show real value to existing investors andto improve collaboration with the Welsh Government and otherbodies. In this challenging economic climate, the biggestchallenge of all was to secure significant core funding for thecompany’s activities.Perhaps the greatest success the board can report is that wehave been able to put in place a five-year Strategy and BusinessPlan as a result of an agreement with Cardiff Council to providecore investment for that period. This is a much more positivelaunch-pad for attracting further private sector investment andbuilding new partnerships.Cardiff & Co is now working very closely with the WelshGovernment and its tourism and investment agencies. This isvital, ensuring that Cardiff plays the leading role in the Welsheconomy that one expects from the capital city.This new five-year commitment means that investors can joinCardiff & Co with confidence, knowing that the company ishere to stay.

Aerial view of Cardiff

3

Bill Savage - Chairman

Cardiff Council, for its part, has endorsed the message thatCardiff & Co has the professionalism needed to be trusted withpromoting the capital of Wales and its surrounding region.Given that Cardiff & Co is now in its fifth year of operating this isa truly significant milestone that can now be built upon forstronger growth and continued achievement of the company’sgoals.The board has worked hard during the last year to reach thispoint and I am grateful for the support they have given.I would also like to congratulate the Managing Director and histeam for continuing to develop new and dynamic activitieswithin their limited budgets.Our investors have proved to be the backbone of the companyand they have helped to provide the credibility the companyneeded as it looked for longer term security. Our investors,Corporate Champions and tourism network members havetogether shown faith in the Board and the Managing Director.As the company moves with confidence into its second phasewhich will see it working to the five year Strategy and BusinessPlan, the time is right for me to stand down from this nonexecutive role, handing the reins over to the right person.It had always been my intention to step down by April 2012 butfollowing my recruitment to a new full time executive roleelsewhere, I have brought the timing forward. I will remain asChairman of the company until the September Board meetingand will work closely with the Chairman of our Audit Committeeand the MD to put in place the recruitment process for mysuccessor. The Board is relishing the opportunity to build on the foundationslaid and is looking forward to further commitments to ensure thatmore and more people recognise the Cardiff city-region as anideal place to invest, live, work, meet, study, visit and play. This isthe perfect time for a new Chairman to take the lead with theboard and the executive.

Bill SavageChairman

www.whycardiff.com

4

Cardiff & Co is looking forward to a year focused on delivery after12 months of consolidation and laying foundations for the future. It has undoubtedly been a difficult year in terms of the economy,while uncertainty surrounding the company’s future coreinvestment position left us with some difficult challenges. Despitethis background, I am able to report that the company was ableto deliver an expanded programme of activities. We have ineffect come to the end of Phase I for Cardiff & Co. We are nowsecurely established and can look forward to focusing all ourattention on delivery as we enter the five year-long Phase II.Indeed, Delivery, Delivery, Delivery, is the mantra I would adoptfor the coming year. The Chairman and the Board have rightlyconcentrated on securing the company’s future and the fiveyear Strategy and Business Plan we have developed gives theexecutive team the opportunity to showcase the city even more.There have been significant successes during the last year andwe have continued our drive to promote the city-region bytaking our good news out to the world marketplace using Londonas a gateway.We have used the St. David’s Day Dinner in London as apromotional vehicle for the Cardiff city-region and have alsofostered strong links with the London-based Welsh community viaLondon Welsh RFC – Cardiff & Co being one of ten foundingmembers of the London Welsh RFC Business Club. We have also developed our own presence with CardiffAmbassador events in London aimed at gathering togetherthose who act as advocates for the Cardiff city-region in theworld’s financial capital. We are also pleased that some Cardiffcity-region based businesses have used these events to promotetheir business and develop new opportunities in what is a hugemarket. Even greater emphasis will be placed on the Londonagenda from 2011 onwards.Away from London, Cardiff & Co joined forces with Cardiff andBristol councils to press the case for the electrification of rail linksfrom London and for High Speed Rail. Two events gave highprominence to these rail issues – a Cardiff Ambassadors springbreakfast and a conference organised jointly with the Institute ofWelsh Affairs and Cardiff Business Partnership to highlight anddebate electrification and connectivity in the Cardiff city-region.After an initial delay, this work was rewarded with theannouncement of plans for the electrification of the main linebetween London Paddington and Cardiff.As part of our efforts to be at the forefront of e-marketing, wehave added to the promotional tools at our disposal by

Managing Director’s Foreword

Cardiff Ambassadors Spring Breakfast

5

Richard Thomas - Managing Director

launching heavily into social networking media, with Facebookand Twitter now playing a leading role in our work. In addition, anew iPhone App was launched this year, with regular updates. The Destination Management System (DMS) we introduced in2009-10 in partnership with Cardiff Council has drawn togetherthe databases used to promote the city-region and is nowproving to be invaluable, especially as it allows us to enter dataonce but publish to many platforms, including those of Visit Walesand Visit Britain. And on the inward investment front, we entered into apartnership with Evolvin, a Cardiff Bay based company, todevelop a Property Finder for the city-region which can beaccessed via www.investincardiff.com.On the events front, the Ryder Cup presented an opportunity forCardiff & Co to take part in promotional activity at events inLondon, the Wales Millennium Centre, the Millennium Stadiumand at the Celtic Manor Resort.Our PR efforts continue to gather momentum and our CardiffTourism Network continues to grow, with members coming fromas far West as Seven Sisters, as far East as Magor and as far Northas Brecon – truly a city-region span.The Cardiff Commitment – a collaboration with the CardiffHoteliers’ Association to guarantee rooms and room rates forspecific events - has also proved to be a success. Thecommitment helped ease the path for visitors to the BritishSpeedway Grand Prix for the second year and the organisersregard it as critical to the retention of the event in Cardiff. Thecommitment was also in place for the Rugby League’sMillennium Magic weekend, with good feedback from organisersand fans.I spoke last year of Cardiff & Co as a company punching aboveits weight. We have achieved significant successes in a difficultyear and we look forward to adding to these in the knowledgethat we are operating with renewed investor confidence andstrengthened partnerships. We look forward to taking the Cardiffcity-region message out to the rest of the UK and the rest of theworld. And if you’re not already on board, why not join us and do yourbit for Wales’ capital city? You’d be in good company.

Richard ThomasManaging Director

www.whycardiff.com

6

2010-11 - a year of consolidation and activityOverviewThe year 2010-11 gave Cardiff & Co financial stability and a newlevel of activity, taking advantage of new media and socialnetworking vehicles. E-marketing has enabled the company toreach many more individuals and organisations as it promotesthe Cardiff city region across the world. Private sector support has grown during the year with newCorporate Champions signing up to support the work of thecompany. This support has helped to underpin a solid year ofachievement and, along with a new commitment from CardiffCouncil, lays the foundations for a new era of increased activity.The Cardiff Tourism Network has continued to grow, providingsolid links with the organisations that together make Cardiff anideal place to visit, invest, live, work, meet, study and play.

Cardiff reaches out through LondonThe company has continued to concentrate considerable efforton using London as a gateway to its target audiences, with anumber of events showcasing the capital of Wales in the UK’scapital city.

A highlight was the launch of the UK Competitiveness Index at aCardiff Ambassador event in London. The Index was launchedby its author, Prof. Robert Huggins of UWIC.

John Taylor, London Welsh RFCPhotography by Joe Jones

IOD Pall Mall; the venue for the launchof The UK Competitiveness Index 2010

Cardiff & Co has teamed up with London Welsh RFC, holding aCardiff Ambassador event in London in association with theLondon Welsh RFC Business Club. Eighty guests came together atPortcullis House, Houses of Parliament to hear the Secretary ofState for Wales, Cheryl Gillan MP, give the keynote address.The company also sponsored the annual St David’s Day dinnerin London for the second year in succession.

Successfully promoting rail linksCardiff & Co worked closely during the year with the councilleaders of Cardiff and Bristol, as part of the Great WesternPartnership, to press the case for high speed rail links and theelectrification of the London to South Wales line. A successful Cardiff Ambassadors Spring Breakfast at the Valeresort was followed by a conference based on Mark Barry’sreport, A Metro for Wales’s capital city-region, organised byCardiff & Co in partnership with the Institute of Welsh Affairs andCardiff Business Partnership. The lobbying activities bore fruit withthe announcement of the electrification of the London toCardiff rail line after initial fears that the new government hadturned their backs on this route.

7

“London is the key tobringing new businessesto the city region andCardiff & Co have hit onjust the right strategy.”Nigel Roberts, Chairman,Paramount Office Interiors

Cardiff Ambassadors Spring BreakfastPortcullis House, Houses of Parliament

www.whycardiff.com

8

Attracting investorsCore investment has been provided on a rolling basis by CardiffCouncil and the Cardiff Harbour Authority. During the year 2010-11 Cardiff & Co was able to agree a new five year investmentpackage with Cardiff Council, setting the company on a firmfinancial footing and allowing the development of a five-yearstrategy and business plan.Cardiff & Co offers businesses a range of opportunities to investin promoting the capital of Wales and its surrounding region. TheCardiff Tourism Network attracts a large number of mainlysmaller organisations who can take advantage of thepromotional and networking opportunities offered. CorporateChampions invest in a higher profile and can choose Gold orSilver commitment. The company has a smaller number ofinvestor members who provide significant funding and are moreclosely involved in shaping the company’s role and activities.The investor members are St David’s Partnership, CardiffUniversity, UWIC, and Cardiff Airport. Income from sources other than Cardiff Council and CardiffHarbour Authority during 2010-11 was £411k, including in-kindsupport from corporate champions and the value of asecondment arrangement with the then Welsh AssemblyGovernment.

“Cardiff & Co has got togrips with promoting thecity region to the world.Theirs is a professionalapproach that matchesour values at Quadrant.” Bill Jenkins, Chief Executive, Quadrant Media &Communications Limited

Cardiff Tourism NetworkThe Cardiff Tourism Network has become a major force withinthe city-region, with membership growing ahead of target. Atthe year end there were 173 members generating income inexcess of £70,000 which, in turn, is reinvested in key marketingmaterials such as the 90,000 copy Essential Guide. Themembership growth has also generated a welcome increase inthe flow of news about the city region, helping to keep thevisitcardiff.com website lively and fresh.The network holds regular meetings, with high profile speakersproviding insight into major issues and developments affectingthe tourism industry in the region. Highlights for the year were 100attending the event at the Parc Hotel by Thistle to hear WRUchief executive Roger Lewis on the role of the MillenniumStadium and 80 members attended the event in the Royal Hotel,where Paul Bellamy, chief executive of BSI Speedway was thespeaker.

9

Cardiff Tourism Network event, Hilton Hotel Richard Thomas, Jon Horne & Roger Lewis at theCardiff Tourism Network event, Parc Hotel by Thistle

“I work closely with Cardiff & Co and find they offeropportunities to promote the city and my own product. Weare an award-winning service so we generate news. I helpthem and they help me – a great example of howteamwork can add value all round.”Jim Cowan, Cardiff History and Hauntings

www.whycardiff.com

10

Corporate Champions The list of companies supporting Cardiff & Co as CorporateChampions has grown during the year, with existing championsalso renewing their backing. At the time of publication, thechampions now include Paramount, Redrow, Wales MillenniumCentre, Orchard, Quadrant, First Great Western, CardiffWaterside Partners, CapitalFM and Cardiff Devils.

Cardiff Ambassadors’ ProgrammeThe programme has seen the creation of a powerful network ofadvocates for the Cardiff city-region – a network that talks upthe destination as a place to invest or hold conferences andmajor events. The 450 ambassadors have become an importantvehicle for specific campaigns and lobbying issues and havetaken the lead in promoting the city region through the Londongateway.Under the Ambassadors’ umbrella, Cardiff & Co hosted theLondon launch of the UK Competitiveness Index by Prof RobertHuggins of UWIC. The Ambassadors also joined up with LondonWelsh RFC Business Club to hold an event for 80 guests atPortcullis House, with Cheryl Gillan MP, the Secretary of State forWales, as keynote speaker.

The ex Welsh rugby InternationalRichard Parks spoke at the event

Cardiff Ambassadors Gala Dinnerat National Museum Cardiff

Ambassador

The Cardiff Ambassadors’ Programme was also used to give amajor boost to the Great Western Partnership, whichcampaigned for rail improvements to the London to South Waleslines. A spring breakfast reinforced the collaboration betweenCardiff and Bristol Councils as the two cities came together topress for electrification of the lines.The Ambassadors Programme was also used as the umbrella foran event at 3 Assembly Square, with Jana Bennett, Director ofBBC Vision as the speaker. This event was hailed as a significantsuccess and has contributed to the recognition of the importantrole that Cardiff has to play in the growth of media and creativeindustries. The year’s highlight for the Ambassador programme was againthe Gala Dinner in November, with 300 attendees and a waitinglist of others wanting to attend. The Gala Dinner attractedincreased sponsorship and for 2011 will move to a bigger venueto accommodate the extra interest and generate morerevenue. The event plays a critical role in re-energising theCardiff Ambassador network and is a helpful tool for therecruitment of new Ambassadors.

11

Jana Bennett, Director of BBC Visionspeaking at a Cardiff Ambassador event

Tim Vincent & Richard Parks at theCardiff Ambassadors Gala Dinner

www.whycardiff.com

12

The Cardiff CommitmentThe Cardiff Commitment has been a major success for the city-region. It is a partnership between the Cardiff Hoteliers’Association, the Millennium Stadium and Cardiff & Co. Thecommitment guarantees a set number of hotel rooms atcompetitive and reasonable prices for major events. The firstcommitment event, the 2010 Speedway Grand Prix, attractedaround 50,000 people to the city and helped Team Cardiffretain the 2011 Grand Prix. The commitment was also animportant tool in helping the Millennium Stadium win backRugby League’s Millennium Magic in February 2011 where 14teams played seven games of rugby over the weekend,attracting 65,000 fans in total. The commitment is a pledge by the Cardiff Hoteliers’ Associationto set aside 20% of its rooms for major events and conferencebid documents at reasonable rates for the customers and tooffer competitive rates for the event organisers.

The Ryder CupThe Ryder Cup presented an ideal opportunity to raise theprofile of the city region with those visiting the Ryder Cup andwith invited guests. To this end, Cardiff & Co was involved inpartnership activity with the Welsh Assembly Government andNewport City Council. This included a business focused RyderCup dinner in London hosted by the Deputy First Minister, to raisethe profile of business investment into Wales. The event was anexcellent vehicle to raise the profile of South East Wales in theCity of London.Cardiff & Co was instrumental in the publication and distributionof World Class Wales, a publication designed to raise the profileof Cardiff and Wales around the Ryder Cup and beyond.Distribution was undertaken in the two weeks prior to Ryder Cupto all Cardiff and Newport hotels, Ryder Cup chauffeured carsand golf clubs in Wales.Businesses and partners in the city were invited as guests ofCardiff & Co to the Welcome to Wales concert at the MillenniumStadium. Cardiff & Co also attended the formal Ryder Cupdinner held on the stage of the Wales Millennium Centre, wherethe main guest was the President of the European Commission,José Manuel Barroso. The Chinese Ambassador to the UK alsoattended, as well as a number of inward investors to Cardiff andWales. Cardiff & Co hosted current and potential investors aswell as local stakeholders. For the Ryder Cup itself, Cardiff & Coused 10 donated ground admission tickets to further relationshipswith prospective Cardiff & Co investors.

"A vibrant, youthful citywith a can-do attitude tocreativity.”Jane Oriel, Classical Music

The Cardiff DebateCardiff & Co sponsored the ‘Cardiff Debate’ organised by theCardiff Commercial Property Forum on 26 November, held at 3Assembly Square. Richard Thomas, the MD opened proceedingswith the key-note speech.Panellists included Alun Cairns MP; Cllr Neil McEvoy, DeputyLeader Cardiff Council; Nigel Roberts, Paramount Interiors;Andrew Boat, Sir Robert McAlpine and Gareth Williams,Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners. The MC for the event wasRoger Thomas, Chair of the Cardiff Commercial Property Forumand Partner at Cooke & Arkwright.A new property portal designed to showcase the best of thecity-region’s commercial property was launched at the ‘CardiffDebate’. Because of its integration with www.investincardiff.com,the property finder provides a one-stop-shop for data rangingfrom detailed information on individual commercial properties(including images and videos), through to generic informationon the city-region’s demographics, transport links, skills base anda whole host of other issues relevant to the investment decision-making process.The portal is a partnership project with Evolvin, a softwareconsultancy company based in Cardiff Bay.

13

Launch of the Propety Portalon www.investincardiff.com 3 Assembly Square, Cardiff Bay

www.whycardiff.com

ResearchDesktop research is undertaken continuously to establish howCardiff and Cardiff institutions rate alongside their peers.During the year:• St David’s, Cardiff officially pushed its way into the top threebusiest city shopping centres in the UK.

• Cardiff University announced it had landed a record £150million in new research funding.

• Cardiff rose one place to fourth in the UK Competitivenessindex and is one of only four large cities above the UKaverage.

• Cardiff became the first city in Wales to be awarded thestatus of coach friendly by the Confederation of PassengerTransport (CPT).

• Ghost walks in Llandaff beat Stonehenge in Essential Travel’stop 10 list of great value UK tourist attractions costing under £10.

• UWIC was named as one of the UK’s top 10 new universitieswhile keeping its position as top new university in Wales.

• The National course at the Vale Resort was recognised as theUK’s Most Enjoyable Golf Course.

• Cardiff University researcher Dr Paolo Borri of the school ofbiosciences secured a £1.1 million Engineering and PhysicalSciences Research Council (EPSRC) Leadership Award.

• Footfall counters recorded that one million extra shopperswere pouring into Cardiff every month since the new StDavid’s Centre opened.

• The best sights in Cardiff featured in an award-winning videoby green commuter Steve Castle about his daily commute bybicycle between his home in Penarth and his workplace inLlandaff.

• The Cardiff International White Water centre was Best VisitorExperience in the National Tourism Awards. The Hilton Cardiffwon Team of the Year.

• Latest figures showed that 14.6 million people visited Cardiffthe previous year. The number of visitors to Cardiff hasincreased every year since 2002 and has risen by 59% since1998.

• The steaks at the Miller & Carter steakhouse in Cardiff Baycame top in a taste test involving a panel of leading chefs,food journalists and professionals from the meat industry,organised by Cook Magazine.

• Mimosa Kitchen & Bar appeared in the Good Food Guide forthe second successive year.

• St Fagans: National History Museum became one of the UK’stop 10 free attractions as voted by users of TripAdvisor, theworld’s largest travel site.

• St David's in Cardiff has received global recognition afterwinning the International Shopping Centre of the Year Awardin the Global Retail Leisure International (RLI) Awards.

14

“Wales Millennium Centrehas brought a newcultural and artisticdimension to the city.”William Ham Bevan, Daily Telegraph

• Hilton Cardiff was the number one hotel for food andbeverage out of more than 80 Hilton Worldwide hotels acrossthe country for the second year running.

• Sunday Times Travel magazine hailed Cardiff Central Libraryas one of the six best in the world – the only UK library tofeature in the list.

• The Vale Resort at Hensol received maximum points in an AAreview, to add to its AA rosette for its Vale Grill restaurant.

• Pioneering research undertaken by Cardiff University’sViolence and Society Research Group was recognised with aQueen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education.

• Seven buildings in Cardiff were shortlisted by the RoyalInstitute of British Architecture (RIBA) – in recognition ofexcellence in design. They are 3 Assembly Square, ChapterArts Centre, Central Library, Sleeperz Hotel, The TeenageCancer Trust’s Skypad unit and the new WJEC headquarters.

• Olwen Mosely, director of enterprise at Cardiff School of Artand Design at UWIC, had her many achievementsrecognised by winning a prestigious Inspire Wales Award.

• Cardiff is to be home to one of the biggest software centres inWales as part of a £4.3 million BT programme to create aglobal network of leading edge IT development centres.

• The Celtic Manor Resort, a Cardiff Tourism Network member,won gold as the best UK hotel, while Wales Millennium Centrealso picked up a silver award for access excellence in theawards organised by Meetings and Incentive Travelmagazine.

• Rory Burns, a Sports Science student at UWIC’s Cardiff Schoolof Sport, was awarded the MCC Walter Lawrence Trophy formaking the highest individual score during the MCC UniversityCentre of Excellence season.

15

The Cardiff International WhiteWater won Best Visitor Experiencein the National Tourism Awards

St Fagans: National History Museum became one of theUK’s top 10 free attractions as voted by users of TripAdvisor

www.whycardiff.com

16

Media visits and requestsMedia visits are critical to raising awareness of the destinationand generating the positive media coverage detailed below.During the year Cardiff & Co worked with Visit Wales and VisitBritain to organise journalist visits as well as organising our own.Among those organised were:• The Guardian•Daily Mirror•Channel 9 Australia•Meetings and Incentive Travel• Singapore Today• La Repubblica•Echappes Bell from France 5 TV• Spanish documentary TV programme TravelineDuring the Ryder Cup, Cardiff & Co worked with Sky News toproduce a series of short ‘buffers’ for its golf coverage.

Media coverageThe value of media coverage generated by Cardiff & Co ismeasured by applying a multiplier of 3x to the rate card value ofthe space or time occupied. Where available actual rates areused, with estimates for broadcast and internet coverage.

The media coverage generated for the year 2010-11 was £1.86million against a target of £1.5 million. The coverage wasenhanced by the visit of the French TV travel programme BellesEchappes, generating more than £500,000 of value from the 30-minute programme broadcast on France 5.

£0

£500,000

£1,000,000

£1,500,000

£2,000,000

2008-09

Financial Year

2010-112009-10

£1.565m£1.86m

£766,000

Value of media coverage secured

The leisure and retail tourism sector accounted for the largestshare of coverage, with 75%, followed by corporate coverageat 11% and investor confidence at 10%.

Cardiff & Co aims to secure the majority of its media coverageoutside the Welsh media. In 2010-11 Welsh media accounted forjust under a quarter of the coverage and international was justunder half. UK national, regional and specialist publications andbroadcast accounted for the remaining quarter.

17

Coverage by business sector

Corporate

Business

Group Travel

74.8%

10.9%

1.3%1%

0.7%

11.2%Leisure & Retail

Ryder Cup

Investor Confidence

“Cardiff’s identity is asmixed as the music: cityamong the trees, castleamong the city.” Phillip Tang, TNT magazine

UK National

Welsh Media

Overseas

UK Regional

Specialist Travel & Travel Trade

Other Specialist

Conference Trade

Investment/Property

24%

14%

46%

0.46%0.1%

6.7%

5%

4%

Coverage by media sector

18

1 3 5

2 4 6

1

2

3

Oxford TimesAugust 2010

Mucho ViajeAugust 2010

Western Mail20 May 2010

La RepubblicaJune 2010

Western Mail14 January 2011

Western Mail15 June 2010

www.whycardiff.com

19

4

5

6

www.whycardiff.com

20

PublicationsThe new Essential Guide and Cardiff Venue Directory have beensuccessfully produced for 2011. This year the print figures werereduced slightly to take account of improved digital viewingsoftware. There were 90,000 Essential Guides printed and 4,000Venue Directories. New software has been introduced which has greatly improvedthe look and readability of the publications online. This has alsoenabled us to track the number of views the publications havereceived, as well as tracking the source of the views. From publication to the end of March 2011 the Cardiff EssentialGuide received nearly 5,000 views and the Venue Directory justunder 1,000. The new software also allows the publications to beshared easily via Social Media channels and can easily beembedded within webpages.

Cardiff Essential Guide & Venue Directory

21

Other communication activitiesDuring the year production of regular newsletters switched froma downloadable print-based design to take advantage of newsoftware in the Destination Management System (DMS) allowingdirect distribution of electronic newsletters to a larger databaseof consumer, travel trade, convention and corporate clients. Thedistribution list for the consumer newsletter has increased by 30%and now reaches more than 9,000 people.

Visit Cardiff E-Newsletter

“Operating from Cardiffprovides advantages thatwould not be found inLondon. We have littletrouble attracting the rightkind of people. There isalso an ability and awillingness of people towork together and take acollaborative approach.”James Rudolph, MD theTarget Group

www.whycardiff.com

22

E-communications Considerable development and expansion has taken place inthe field of e-communications with the launch of Twitter andFacebook accounts which already have a combined total of justover 4,900 followers. A new website, www.shopincardiff.com waslaunched during the year, completing a suite of sites to cover theprincipal areas of promotion for the Cardiff city-region. The mainwebsite portals of meet, events, shop and visit are now poweredby the DMS system and visits have increased by 10% on average.The most notable increase has been in visits towww.investincardiff.com which increased by 48%.

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2010-112009-102008-09

Financial Year

No

. o

f V

isito

rs

1,232,020

901,624

1,374,854

Visitors to all Cardiff & Co websites

www.shopincardiff.com

23The Cardiff i-Phone AppA new Cardiff iPhone app was launched in February. The App,which is updated every three months, is available from iTunes for£1.19. It offers information for visitors on where to stay, what tosee and do and where to shop. The new app is a naturalsuccessor to the mobile version of the www.visitcardiff.com site,and will see further developments in the next financial year.

Financial Year

0

1

2

3

4

5

Pa

ge

Vie

ws

2008-09

3.36

2010-11

2.57

2009-10

2.84

Average page views on tourism sites per visitor

Cardiff Visitor Guide App for iPhone The launch of the Cardiff iPhone App

www.whycardiff.com

24

Investment PromotionThe challenging economic climate has had a huge impact oninward investment, with flows into the UK dropping to a quarterof what they were in 2007. In Cardiff, the promotion of inwardinvestment and investor confidence continued, with an evengreater emphasis on value for money and highly targetedactivities. The focus, therefore, was on building relationships withkey stakeholders through the Cardiff Ambassador network toenable the dissemination of key investment messages to a wideraudience.The marketing focused on key high-growth, added value sectors- Creative Industries; Financial and Professional Services; ICT; LifeSciences - which have the potential to deliver jobs andeconomic growth to the Cardiff city-region.During the year, the creative industries were celebrated with anevent around the BBC's drama village in the bay and thepromotion of Cardiff Design Festival; there was considerablepress coverage of the financial services sector in Cardiff in theinfluential ‘Banker’ magazine published by the Financial Timesafter Cardiff & Co organised a roundtable with the journalist; thelife sciences sector was covered by a new brochure anddisseminated at Medica by key stakeholders, the propertysector was supported by the development of a new propertyportal on investincardiff which showcases city-region propertiesand agents to prospects.The Ryder Cup provided a huge opportunity to showcase thecity-region as an investment destination to the many corporatesthat visited, supported by Cardiff sponsored literature in hotelrooms and chauffered cars. Supporting tools continued to bedeveloped with the invest website attracting 50,000 visitors,assisted greatly by the explosion in social media and the'investincardiff' twitter and linkedin accounts.Mirroring the economic times, the number of enquiries weredown to 36, however, more recently a small number of qualityenquiries have been received, which is encouraging for the yearto come.

“Cardiff – so modern andcosmopolitan – yet stillvery Welsh.”Richard Coulter, Bristol Evening PostRyder Cup 2010, The Celtic Manor Resort

25

Business TourismThe joint investment between Cardiff Hoteliers’ Association andCardiff & Co was renewed during the year and a newConvention Bureau manager was appointed. The value ofconference business secured by Cardiff & Co in Cardiff andcompleted during 2010-11 was £858k. In addition, Cardiff & Cohas almost £1.4m of confirmed conference business on its bookswith contracts signed for 2011-12 onwards.

Nevertheless, the company is mindful of the need to continue todrive the agenda forward and from 2011-12 is increasing itsresources in this area as part of its drive to use business tourism asa means of showcasing the city to potential investors as well asgenerating income for the city’s hotels.

£0

£200,000

£400,000

£600,000

£800,000

£1,000,000

£1,200,000

Financial Year

Bo

okin

g V

alu

e

2008-09

£1,035,273

£1,400,000

2010-11

£858,299

2009-10

£1,200,000

Estimated booking value of completed conferences

£0

£500,000

£1,000,000

£1,500,000

£2,000,000

£2,500,000

2009-102008-09

At end of Financial Year

Bo

okin

g V

alu

e

£1,331,124

£2,360,000

2010-11

£1,398,155

Value of confirmed conference business in the pipeline

www.whycardiff.com

Leisure and retail tourism Considerable work was undertaken to improve links with theTravel trade to encourage increased numbers of visitors. As well as producing newsletters, Cardiff & Co took part infamiliarisation visits to the city-region for travel trade from theUSA, Netherlands and Mexico. Cardiff & Co has also taken aleading role in Southern Wales Marketing, which undertakes UKand overseas consumer and travel trade marketing activity.

“Cardiff is the ultimatecapital for shopping.”Denise Barclay, Oxford Limited Edition

26

Wales Millennium Centre

27

Governance IssuesOne year on from the completion of a Review of Governance,undertaken on behalf of the board by Robert John in 2009, theBoard reviewed the implementation of the arrangements. Theyfound that all of the measures had been implementedeffectively.In terms of Board membership, the number of Directors wasreduced during the year with recruitment postponed until thecompany achieved clarity regarding its future investmentposition. Now that investment commitments have been secured,a concerted effort will be made to refresh and strengthen theBoard during 2011-12.The following Board Directors left in the 10/11 financial year:David Halton and Keith Dye. Board Directors in position at theend of the year were as below.

Bill Savage Chairman

Richard Moremon David Grant

Noreen Bray

Suzi Clay Jon Horne

Rob Jones

Cllr Neil McEvoy

Cllr Mark StephensMark Hallett Patrick Duffy

www.whycardiff.com

28

Performance against KPIsThe KPIs have evolved and been updated over the last two yearsand the table below shows the actual figures for the previoustwo years and the targets for 2011-12.

Item 2009-10 Actual 2010 -11 Actual 2011-12 Target

1 Total web visits (sessions) to Cardiff & Cowebsites

1.374m 1.232m 1.5m

2 Business Tourism: value of businessgenerated through Cardiff & Co fromcompleted events

£1.2m £858,299 £1.2m

3 Business Tourism: new business inpipeline for Cardiff for next financialyear onwards

£2.36m £1,398,155 £1.3m

4 Media Coverage: Editorial EquivalentValue

£1.565m £1.86m £1.7m

5 Number of Cardiff Tourism Networkmembers

164 173 190

6 Delivery of annual non-Cardiff Councilincome (excluding VAT) and includingvalue of in-kind support

£554k £411,900 £480k

7 Number of business investment enquiriesgenerated

44 36 150

8 Value of leisure tourism bookings madedirectly via Cardiff & Co’s on-linebooking system

£136,738 £62,565 £70,000

Notes:

www.whycardiff.com

Cardiff & Co2nd Floor, The Old LibraryThe Hayes, Cardiff CF10 1AHT: +44(0)29 2087 1847E: [email protected]

9lives Offset is manufactured from 100%recycled fibre at a mill accredited withISO14001 environmental managementstandard. The pulp used in this product

is bleached using a Totally ChlorineFree process. www.whycardiff.com

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Cardiff and Co. (16.01M).pdf

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