We are Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Tourism (FDWVT), the official Destination Management Organisation (DMO) and a partnership organisation. We are much more than just an advertising platform and we hope that by becoming a partner you will join us in our work to raise the profile of this stunning area. Read on for how you can get the most from your partnership with us:

On Our Website

YOUR LISTING

Your listing on our website is your main opportunity to present your business to the public. However, it must be regularly maintained to ensure that it is up-to-date, current and really working for your business.

• When did you last check it?
• Are your pictures as great as they could be?
• Is your listing as good as that of your competitors?

Do look at our helpful guides to reviewing your listing here which give guidance on everything from images to descriptions, categories and facilities.

DO YOU HAVE THE CORRECT TYPE OF LISTING?

Your listing must have one major category which defines where it shows up on the website, these are: accommodation, places to eat, things to do, events. If your business fits into multiple categories you should consider a listing for each category so that you show up in the most appropriate places on our website. Additional listings can be added at a discounted price. The following are examples where a second listing can be beneficial:

• You have more than one self-catering property.
• Your business has more than one category, eg a hotel with a restaurant.
• You have multiple shops in different locations.

We have listings starting at under £10 per month for Bronze partnership, for further details see here.

SPECIAL OFFERS

All partners, except Bronze can create special offers at no cost. They show on the special offers page as well as on your own listing and are another sales opportunity that enables your listing to appear in multiple places on the website and get found in searches. Further details.

ADVERTISING

We have a range of advertising options to highlight your business in prominent places throughout the website, such as on the home page or a landing page such as Things to Do. We are still developing our offer for adverts and we recommend that you discuss this with our partnership team. Further details.

EVENTS

The What’s On section of our website is one of our most popular pages and events can be listed at no cost to partners (except Bronze). If you organise events, you are missing an opportunity if they are not listed with us. We cannot promote them if we don't know about them and we regularly use our social media and PR to draw attention to our What's On.

You don’t have to organise the event yourself, it can be something taking place in your town and village, or have seen a poster for or even something that you are attending. If it's not on our website please tell us about it!

See this page for the details needed to tell us about your events and do give us plenty of notice.

In addition, lots of interesting events attract visitors to the area. You can make use of the content on our What's On to attract visitors to your business.

Keep in Touch

TELL US YOUR NEWS

Do keep us informed about your business as much as possible. Tell us about any improvements or additions, send us any new photos, tell us about your seasonal changes and help us to help promote you.

If you send out press releases or newsletters, do ensure that we are on the distribution list. Tell us about business developments, any new plans you may have and your successes.

Obviously we like to hear what you are doing, but more importantly we use the information to promote your business and the area in the following ways, all of which are free to you:

• On our own social media.
• To compile media briefings.
• For inclusion in our consumer newsletter,.
• For inclusion in our partners’ newsletter.

SEND US YOUR IMAGES

We cannot promote you without visuals! We use a large number of images on this website, on our social media, in our newsletters and guides and are always looking for good quality pictures. Why not contribute pictures of your business, your town or village or your favourite spot or activity? It helps us, other partners and can be another source of free advertising. Further details.

STAY IN CONTACT WITH US

Our main means of communication with you, our partners, is by email. We send out regular email messages to all, or to specific sections of the partnership, eg all in Wales or all attractions. We try to restrict the number of emails to key topics but also send out a monthly newsletter covering minor topics. Old copies of newsletters are available online.

PARTNERS FACEBOOK GROUP

We have a closed Facebook group specifically for partners where you can discuss issues and ask for help as well as support each other in our collected aim to make our region one of the top UK tourist destinations. You will need to request to join this and we will accept you as a group partner. Further details. If you have any problems with this, please contact marketing@visitdeanwye.co.uk who will be delighted to help you.

Marketing

SOCIAL MEDIA

Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you have your own pages, please send us the details so that we can connect. Please use the #DeanWye hashtag and where possible link to our accounts in your posts so that we can see what you post. Social media and digital marketing are very important parts of the modern marketing mix and a great way to get your business promoted. Remember, we can’t share your social media posts if we don’t know about them so always use the hashtag #DeanWye on Twitter and Instagram and tag our destination Facebook page on Facebook posts.

If you are not active on social media, please do let us know as we offer a number of training events across the year, which will help you to get started and get the most from our additional online presence.

PR

We want to get your stories out to the press, online and on our website and blogs. If you have exciting things happening with your business (awards, major expansions/developments, media activity, events) please do tell us. We will use this in our promotions, and we will be in touch via our regular partners' emails to give you information on further opportunities. The more you can tell us what is happening with your business the better we can promote you and the region. If you use your own PR company please ask them to copy us in on any press releases or stories they are promoting for you.

PRESS

We have regular contact with the media and also get requests for filming, press trips, articles, radio interviews etc. but please also let us know if you are involved with any similar media work with your business. This will allow us to help promote any media interaction you get through our channels and helps us build a bigger picture of how much media interest there is in the region. We will always respect embargos from large productions or press releases etc,  but if we know what is happening in advance of breaking news we can plan our media response accordingly.

CONSUMER NEWSLETTER AND COMPETITION PRIZES

Our consumer newsletter goes out each month to subscribers and we are always looking for competition prizes or offers for potential inclusion. We can’t guarantee that your offer will get in a specific newsletter but by offering prizes in advance we can plan a schedule. We also are always on the lookout for smaller social media competition prizes too so please do contact us if you would like to be involved in a promotion.

PUBLICATIONS

Although the bulk of our advertising is now digital, we do still publish an annual guide in which partners can pay for advertising. The Visitor Guide is an A5 publication which is compiled during the autumn and published around Christmas. Partners will normally be invited to advertise at the beginning of September.

Free Resources

THIS WEBSITE

The partners' area of our website is another important source of information for you. Do look at it regularly for information on training courses, offers and discounts, forthcoming and past meetings, events and our latest news. You will also find information about partnership, managing your listing, details of the board, facts and figures about tourism in the area and much more.

MEETINGS

We hold regular meetings for our partners during the quieter times of the year, usually between 4 or 5 per year. Meetings are held at our partners’ locations throughout the area, allowing the host to showcase their business to others. We invite guests to speak on topics that we hope will be relevant and of interest. Perhaps the best aspect of our meetings is that they allow partners to meet and network with others. We also have spotlights inviting partners to speak and invite new partners to introduce themselves to the group. Further details.

Photo Library

We host a large picture library containing over 8,000 high quality images of the area. All of the picture are free for partners to use for your websites, social media and publications. We only ask that credit is attributed to the photographer (where known) or to Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Tourism. Low resolution images can be downloaded, or if you need higher resolution for printed media, we can supply them. Images include scenes of popular places, things to do, food and drink, and also cover our heritage, flora and fauna.

Training

During the winter months we regularly organise training courses that we think will be of interest to partners. Look out for details in our emails or in our Facebook group and on our webpage here. Do also tell us what training you think we should provide or what training you know of which you think other partners should be aware of.

Get Involved

HOW’S BUSINESS?

On our website we publish annual reports about tourism in the area; these contain figures about visitor numbers and the economic impact of tourism. These reports are compiled from statistics provided by partners on how well their business is performing, eg visitor numbers.

RECRUIT NEW PARTNERS

Our main source of income are our partnership fees and we need to continually recruit new partners to survive and to promote the area further. Like all similar organisations, the best source of new partners are the existing ones. If you know other businesses that you think would benefit from joining us, please tell us.

Do look for other businesses in your town or village. Somewhere that has lots of shop, places to eat and drink, and things to do listed will seem more interesting to visitors and somewhere that they want to stay.

SHARE YOUR IDEAS

Although we hope that we are working to promote the area and your businesses, and that our website, social media and advertising is attractive, useful and welcoming to visitors, there is always more that we can do. However, we don’t have the monopoly of good ideas, so do tell us yours. How can the website be improved? Do you have a great idea for a campaign? Are there any anniversaries, or local personalities to celebrate? Is our advertising working? Are we missing major events? What more can we do?

JOIN THE BOARD

Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Tourism has a very small number of employed or contract staff and much of the direction comes from our volunteer board of directors who are all unpaid and give up their time as well as run their own businesses. Each year before our AGM we invite partners to stand for election to join the board. Do consider doing this as we are always looking for partners to contribute fresh ideas.