7 MILLION CUSTOMERS CAN’T BE WRONG

SOUTH WEST RETAIL AND TOURIST FOURSOME JOIN FORCES FOR BETTER BUSINESS

Wookey Hole Caves, Clarks Village, Haynes Motor Museum, and Brean Leisure Park - four of the South West’s most popular leisure destinations - have put their heads together and teamed up to promote a joint marketing strategy for the coming year to stimulate the local economy. .

In a ground-breaking move designed to increase visitor numbers still further and encourage business during a summer beset by extreme temperatures, interest rate rises and now terrorist threats, executives from Wookey Hole Caves at Wells, Clarks Village at Street, Haynes Motor Museum near Yeovil, and Brean Leisure Park on the coast near Weston-super-Mare are pooling information and resources to create links and joint promotions to benefit the staggering total of seven million visitors they attract annually from all over the country.

Ever since Clarks Village opened its doors in August 1993, it has been one of the three largest outlet centers in the UK, and the growth of shopping as a leisure activity over this period has helped make Clarks a South West ‘superstar’ in the retail world, with over 90 different outlets offering phenomenal savings to its customers .

Meanwhile, nearby Wookey Hole Caves has trebled its visitor-numbers thanks to three exciting years of innovation and investment under the ownership of former circus impresario Gerry Cottle. Wookey Hole is now established as the greatest cavern attraction in Western Europe and has already successfully diversified by adding the Valley Of The Dinosaurs (featuring King Kong), and a major Teddy Bear collection to its enduringly popular paper mill, Mirror Maze and antique fairground attractions.

As Daniel Medley, General Manager at Wookey Hole Caves, explains

“This is a really positive step. The advantage of working closely with a retail operation as sophisticated and substantial as Clarks Village is immediately obvious. We expect to see significant benefits to each of us in helping to promote the other. By building in incentives and imaginative promotions with Clarks and the seaside fun at Brean and the fabulous cars at Haynes' we’re going to be delivering extra value and a real choice of entertainment to all Somerset’s visitors.”

Retail - that is, shopping - is now officially the biggest ‘leisure activity” in the United Kingdom, something which might make conventional tourist destinations a mite nervous. But thanks to initiatives such as this one, and the management team of Realm Ltd, the asset management company behind Clark’s success, all three operations look set to benefit.

The joint venture will be launched on September 01st with a “Spend & Save” promotion, set to run for seven weeks at Clarks Village. This will give customers the chance to gain cut-price deals when visiting Wookey Hole, Brean, and Haynes motor museum, will culminate in an entire week of entertainment when full-size dinosaurs from Wookey and fabulous famous movie cars from the Haynes Motor Museum will be among the attractions, helping to drive ‘footfall’ to the respective businesses .

Louise Copp, Centre Manager at Clarks Village, said

“Business today has to work proportionally harder for every pound it takes and Clarks Village will now be working closely with these attractions by combining our Marketing Strategies to help support one another. We attract nearly 3.5 million people through our doors every year and in reaching out help them make decisions about local tourist attractions they can visit with special discounts is a great thing to be able to offer.“

For more information please contact Daniel Medley on 01749 672243

Or

John Turner, Deputy Centre Manager, Clarks Village, 0n 01458 840064