Another Great Week

Had another exciting, fun and productive week in the world of Treasure Trails H & W.

Twitter continues to amuse and delight me and I am loving the new relationships I am forming with people that I wouldn't otherwise have met. Twitter forms a backdrop to my week and dipping in and out of it throughout the week means I am constantly being stimulated by what I read of other people's thoughts, blogs, ideas and tips!

Four exciting meetings this week to report on..... first one was with a hotel in Ross-on-Wye called The Kings Head. I met up with James Vidler the owner, who'd contacted me originally through Twitter and we talked about how we could do business together which would benefit both of us. He has decided to not only stock some of our regular Trails but to commission us to adapt the Ross Trail to start and finish from The Kings Head, in the High Street. If these go well, then he will think about commissioning more specials for his customers.

My second meeting was with the Tourist Information Centre in Ross-on-Wye. Clare O'Reilly, the manager is wonderfully supportive of the product and gave me some great feedback about what people are looking for in terms of activities when they arrive in the town.

I also met with Christine Prosser, from Visit Herefordshire, who is responsible for the events that they arrange to attract tourists into the county. We are working with her to provide a "Bee Trail" for the University of the Great Outdoors event happening in Herefordshire in May and she is pleased with how it is shaping up. Lots of work to do on the project, not least of which is to find a sponsor to cover the production costs of the bees themselves and the trail leaflet.

Meeting number four was with Lisa Purslow, the Healthy Lifestyle Coordinator in the Herefordshire PCT, with a view to exploring how Treasure Trails can help with her goals and objectives around the Change4Life national and local campaigns. We talked through some ideas and I am sure that we will be able to work together in some way or another. Obesity is a growing problem!

Lots of Trails sold this week through the internet, although not as many as I'd have hoped as it was half term but it wasn't half term with weather conducive to being out and about exploring! Roll on the summer.

Publicity

Great publicity for our North East Scotland licensee :>

TRAIL BLAZERS SCOOP BIG PRIZE

Published Date: 05 February 2010
A COUPLE are celebrating an unexpected windfall thanks to their problem solving abilities.

Raymond and Margaret Simpson won £346.50 after successfully completing the Stonehaven Murder Mystery trail and being randomly selected as North-east winners in the Treasure Trails annual regional competition.
Treasure Trails write murder mystery,treasure hunt and spy mission trails which get people outside, exploring their local area and having fun. The trails follow a fairly short route so the whole family can join in and get some exercise, whilst learning about the most beautiful and interesting places in their area.
After completing the Stonehaven Murder Mystery trail, the couple then submitted their answer online before being notified about their win. Margaret and Raymond, who help run the Aberdeen branch of Jog Scotland, were delighted to hear of their good fortune.
Margaret said: "It was a very nice surprise when we heard we had won. The trails are a great idea for different groups of people to learn more about their area or other areas and suitable for families too. I'd been to Stonehaven many times, but the trail introduced me to things I'd never noticed in the town before. And it's cheap too - there are not many family days out that you can have for just a fiver!"
Raymond added: "We liked it so much that we are thinking of introducing some of the trails to our Jog Scotland routes."
Treasure Trails North-east Scotland was started by Liz Johnston in 2008 after she completed one of the trails in Glasgow.
She said: "We wondered what on earth we were going to do, how we were going to keep four adults, four children and a dog occupied whilst having fun for the afternoon, especially when it turned out to be grey and drizzly.
"The trail offered the perfect solution as it sounded very enjoyable, we would be outdoors and everyone would be exercising, including the dog! Having downloaded the trail from the website, I noticed that you could buy a licence for the area. I sent off for details and the rest is history."
The company was started in Cornwall by Steve Ridd MBE in 2005, with the aim of getting local people out and about exploring all the beautiful and historical places Cornwall has to offer.
Liz added: "The excitement of solving the clues and having some fun in the great outdoors with family and friends is all the incentive our customers need to do a Treasure Trail. But we also add a competitive element to spice things up a bit!'
The company now has over 380 Treasure Trails across the whole of the UK and gave away nearly £5,000 this year in prizes. Go to www.treasuretrails.co.uk for more information.

All Good Stuff

Had a really good week with Treasure Trails which began with a trip to Poston Mill to meet the owners and marketing manager and talk through how we can help them with Things to Do for their guests. Have worked on a proposal with different ideas which hopefully will appeal to them, just got to wait now.

Monday afternoon, met up with a lady that up to now I have only tweeted with. Was such fun to chat face to face - hope to meet her again soon!

Monday evening had the new Treasure Trails licensees for Warwickshire and West Midlands over for dinner and to exchange news and views about the Treasure Trails business - so great to have one of the counties that joins ours now occupied and we look forward to doing some of their Trails in due course.

Tuesday caught up with some of the admin - still chasing our prize winners from the prize draw we did early January - only two more to track down now! Maybe they don't want their three free Trails :) Also had an invitation to join Visit Herefordshire at the NEC for the Outdoor Show, so hope we get to take that up as it would be a good practise run for when we go up there for Crufts in March.

Wednesday, heard from the Golden Valley and Black Mountain experience, a local conglomerate of cottages and B&Bs, who have asked for some Trails to do together at the start of British Tourism Week, so hope to get some reasonable publiciity out of that. Gave them three copies of the Golden Valley Trail which is a driving Trail starting in Madley and finishing at Arthur's Stone near Hay on Wye. British Tourism Week starts on 14th March, so they are going to do the Trail then.

Also on Wednesday, packaged up Susanna's Challenge - a challenge we have put together for a group of hens, which they will do at the end of the month in Ledbury. they will have a fab time.

Last night, met up with the Inspire Herefordshire Ladies networking group - a really great group of women. We had a talk on Social Media from Heather Gorringe of Wiggly Wigglers and Christine Hope of Hopes of Longtown which was really inspirational and gave us all a renewed sense of purpose!

Today, more admin stuff including booking some more fairs and shows for this year and generally twittering and preparing for various meetings next week.

Article in the Scotsman

Fantastic article in last Saturday's The Scotsman by a Trailer - worth a read. Click on the picture to get it to a size that's readable !!