Membership Benefits

Destination Staffordshire is the official tourist board for the county, and our role is to promote Staffordshire all-year round as a place to visit, both for day trips and overnight stays.

We promote members of all shapes and sizes, whether they are attractions, accommodation businesses, places to eat, or event organisers.

While we aim to raise awareness of everything Staffordshire tourism has to offer, our focus is on our members, and there are a number of benefits which are open to members-only.

Here are four reasons to be a part of the biggest community of tourism and hospitality businesses in the county.

You can feature in our marketing

Here’s Andrea Webster, from Weston Park, on why they value being a part of our campaigns, and why our marketing activity is so important.

Every year, we run digital marketing campaigns at key times like Easter and before the school summer holidays, promoting the county to people living within 2-3 hours drive of Staffordshire as well as residents.

Our members are at the very heart of them, featuring in paid campaigns on Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and the Google Display Network.

Our members also feature heavily in organic social media coverage, regular e-shots to our database, press releases to our local media contacts, and printed materials, such as visitor maps and guides.

Coverage in the regional and national media

Here’s James Oddy, from The Duncombe Arms, on how they have benefited from taking part in press trips.

Alongside the work we do with the local media, we invest in PR to generate regional and national coverage for our destination and members.

This focusses on key events, important anniversaries, openings and uncovering our hidden gems, through major national newspapers.

We also organise regular visits from journalists, bloggers and influencers, creating an itinerary for an extended trip to showcase our top attractions and things to do, places to stay, and great restaurants.

In recent years we have hosted journalists from The Guardian, The Telegraph, Sunday Mirror, and the Press Association, generating thousands of pounds worth of media coverage and raising awareness of our members with new audiences.

Help finding business support

Here’s Chris Lewis, from The Lewis Partnership, on our partnerships and the business support they have taken advantage of.

While we may no longer offer fully-funded business support programmes of our own, we often team up with other organisations to help you source advice, funding, and 1-2-1 training.

For example we worked closely with the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Growth Hub on the Kickstarting Tourism Programme in 2020, which provided grants to small and medium-sized tourism businesses.

And we have partnered with Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, and the Federation of Small Businesses, to provide full access to specialist legal and HR advice for businesses of all sizes.

Get your voice heard

Here’s Francis Jackson, from Alton Towers Resort, on why our role as the voice of the industry is so important to them.

As the official tourist board for the county, we are your voice, raising awareness of the issues that matter to you in our conversations with politicians local and national, and major industry organisations like VisitEngland.

Through our relationship with VisitEngland, we helped to lobby the Government to introduce measures to help the tourism sector during the Coronavirus pandemic, and developed the We’re Good To Go industry standard to help the sector reopen safely.

On the day the industry reopened after the first lockdown in July 2020, we hosted a visit for Lord Patrick McLoughlin, chair of the British Tourist Authority, to see first-hand changes our tourism businesses had made to give visitors confidence to return.

And as part of the steering group, we’ve helped VisitEngland create a new online portal for the tourism awards, simplifying and synchronising the application process.

Destination Staffordshire membership packages

We offer four main membership packages, which range from Free to £250 for 12 months, along with our bespoke packages.

Details for each package, along with an easy online application form and our terms and conditions, can be found at https://www.enjoystaffordshire.com/trade/join-us