West Wales Hospitality Panel Meeting

7th of February 07 at Aberglasney Gardens

 

Attendees – Gary Davies, Chris Osborne, Diana James, Tim Giles, Nia Hale, Lisa Johnston, Russell Thomas

 

Apologies – Phill Drakeford, Lynne Jones, Alan Dutton

 

Action Points from previous panel meeting:-

RT stated that there were a few changes in the last meeting, he highlighted that DEIN offer a programme of assistance called Specialist Support for companies that wish to engage with specialist consultants. These specialisms may range from Marketing, Strategic Planning, PR, ISO accreditation, etc. and others of which Recruitment Consultancy could be such a specialism. 

 

Generally, Recruitment consultants or agencies charge 10% on the first years salary of anyone that they successfully place with an company that they are contracted with, ie. if they assist a company in successfully recruiting an HRD Manager for example, on a salary of approx £30,000; the company can expect to pay the Recruitment Agency £3,000.

 

Specialist Support will grant aid 50% of the overall cost, therefore in the above example, the cost would be reduced to £1,500. 

 

There are a number of eligibility requirements before full approval may be given, and no engagement with a consultancy firm should occur (if the applicant is seeking Specialist Support assistance) before full approval is granted. But the main eligibility requirement in the case of Hospitality and Tourism companies is an ability to clearly demonstrate that they are involved with business to business trading. Purely catering for the consumer is regarded as retail, and this is an ineligible activity. RT agreed to send further information to Gallu - RT

 

LJ stated that there was no take up on the Cultural Awareness workshop which was arranged.  CO asked DJ if there was any project which TTFW could deliver with Leornado Divinci – It was decided to put this on the back burner for a bit.

CO stated that he had a meeting coming up with EURES and maybe they could ask if they had any funding and if they were interested in getting involved with us.

TG suggested contacted a few businesses individually and running a pilot of the course to see if people engage. – LJ

TG asked if there was any progress on the acting skills course however LJ highlighted that there was no budget left at the moment however it was something that Gallu would look at the Customer Care Steering Group.  TG suggested working with Performing Arts Centres such as Trinity College.

 

Gallu Update – Gallu statistics were handed out.  LJ highlighted that courses had been arranged up until the 16th of February and after that they would have to be arranged at either full cost recovery or influence other projects to deliver on our behalf.  Trade days were continuing to be carried out.

LJ talked about the R&R group and that a Pilot careers day was arranged with Careers Wales in Oakwood Theme Park with Sir Thomas Picton School.  Pembrokeshire College carried out various demonstrations for the pupils and parents and they had a talk by the HR manager of Oakwood and a tour of the park and then a tourism quiz to round the day off.  TG suggested the pilot was carried on as there was no real cost involved except for the quiz and this did not have to carry out.

RT suggested putting case studies together for different jobs in tourism and showing the different career paths as he had done something similar in Mid Wales with agriculture.

Gallu to explore a careers brochure for S W Wales, investigate any other publications, use local people discuss with Spring board, Visit Wales and Careers Wales West to influence there is it makes it more financial viable and less duplication. - LJ

Russell Thomas to send through the booklet that Agriculture have already created regarding careers. - RT

CO suggested that everyone looked at the Careers Wales website as it has a dynamic interface.

LJ stated that the Job Centre Plus pilot had not yet got off the ground.

LE stated that the Business Plan for the Mystery Shopper Scheme was coming along and the Customer Care Steering Group was meeting next week to take it forward.

MM stated that she was in the process of sending information out about ‘The day in the life’ to try and get the main influences in tourism involved in the project.

 

West Wales Hospitality Forum –

LJ stated that 1200 invites had gone out to date and the invites for Swansea Bay was to go out again.  Letters were also to go out to local AM’s

LJ handed the flyer out for the West Wales Hospitality Forum on the 28th of February at the Machynys Golf Club.

With regard to the presentation it was discussed that CO or GD would carry out an introduction and the Gallu cd would be shown and then Gallu would highlight what they were planning to do in the future.

It was suggested that feedback forms were produced for the day to find out the success of the day by finding out people’s opinions of the day and Gallu.  The results from the feedback forms could then be analysed and sent to local AM’s to highlight the importance of tourism. 

 

Future of Gallu –

GD highlighted that the EU funding was coming to an end at the end of March however the RTP have enough funding to keep two members of staff on.  GD stated that LJ and LE were continuing with the project however MM would be leaving due to family reasons and KC had accepted another post with NPT Council.   GD stated that the next 6 months will be spent developing Gallu further and also maintaining some of the courses which are being run and hopefully after that there will be convergence funding.

 

SMS Messages - LJ stated that a pilot of the SMS Messaging services had been carried out to panel members.  LJ stated that it was a way of reminding the trade of courses and informing them of new courses.  GD stated that it could just be a way of directing people to the website for information.  It was decided that it would need to be investigated.

It was highlighted the importance of working closely with the TA to avoid information overload from different sources.

GD suggested asking textanywhere would like an opportunity to explain how the trade could utilize text messaging service and off the back of this would they give us a special deal for making the introduction by way of a sponsorship. It was suggested to carry out a bigger pilot with the trade – LJ

 

Future Meetings – List attached

 

AOB – RT asked if there were any tourism awards in the region as he had attended many awards for other sectors.  GD stated that Visit Wales arrange awards every other year however there are no regional awards that link into these.  Tourism Swansea Bay arranged awards for the first time this year but there was a lot of work put into them and time.  Carmarthenshire Tourist Association link in with their local business awards which works well.  GD stated that the TA for each area should link into their local business awards and then the finalists could go onto the Visit Wales awards.

TG suggested that in future the topics are discussed with the TA for the West Wales Hospitality Forum.  CO stated that there was a representative from each area on the panel. GD suggested that Gallu attend the Tourism Support meetings.  It was suggested to put TA Business needs on the agenda in future. 

CO suggested arranging an end of project get together at the end of March to mark the end of the Objective One funded Gallu 1 and its success- LJ

 

Next Meeting – 12th June 07 at 10.30am – venue to be confirmed