TXGB Destination Case Study | Visit Monmouthshire

Nicola Edwards, Destination Manager at Monmouthshire County Council

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How Monmouthshire is benefitting from TXGB

MWT Cymru spoke to Nicola Edwards, Destination Manager at Monmouthshire County Council, to hear their experience of TXGB.

Visit Monmouthshire connected with TXGB as a way of improving the support they offer destination businesses by enabling them to leverage the reach of VisitMonmouthshire.com to drive more direct bookings. 

​"We were interested in TXGB because of its low commission rate (to help keep booking revenue in the destination for the benefit of individual businesses and their supply chains) and because it has a wide distribution network to enable businesses to increase their reach," Nicola explained.

Context: About Visit Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire - the Food Capital of Wales - is a rural county on the border with England, located at the crossroads between the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park and the low-lying cultural landscape of the Gwent Levels.

Visit Monmouthshire is the official destination marketing organization for the county with a purpose to increase the competitiveness of the area as a year-round sustainable tourism destination for the benefit of its people, environment and communities.
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They work with approximately 500 businesses to promote a wide range of food and other types of experience to UK and overseas leisure, business events, travel trade and group travel markets.

"Our website has been integrated with TXGB since its launch in January 2022 and we are very pleased that Visit Wales have procured the license for Welsh businesses to use it," Nicola said.

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Nicola, how easy was it to connect TXGB with www.visitmonmouthshire.com?

"TXGB integration was included as standard with our Simpleview website but we have since paid for some minor ticketing visibility and styling development work."

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How have you / are you encouraging businesses in Monmouthshire to sign up to TXGB?

"We’ve communicated the opportunities of TXGB to businesses primarily by email, but we’ve also taken the opportunity to ask businesses about the booking platforms they use and whether they are interested in TXGB when they’ve contacted us about other things. There's been a mixed response so far, dependent on the specific booking platform used and its connectivity with TXGB. Now that we can see bookings starting to come in for businesses via TXGB on our website, we can be more confident about promoting the opportunities of TXGB to others. Any future national campaigns which use TXGB and the Visit Britain shop as the fulfilment mechanism will also encourage more businesses to engage with TXGB. We’re not currently charging businesses a commission for bookings via Visit Monmouthshire”.
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[A list of connected booking systems can be found on the TXGB website, here]

Inspire2Adventure (experience provider) and Cromwell's Hideaway (glamping) are two examples of businesses with online bookability via TXGB on Visit Monmouthshire.

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How straightforward is the process of connecting businesses signed up to TXGB with Visit Monmouthshire?

"For businesses already signed up to TXGB (or to platforms connected to TXGB) the process is simple."

[Businesses that are not connected can use TXLoad; this provides a simple booking management system enabling them to connect to sales channels, even if their booking system is not yet connected.]

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We understand you are using TXLoad for event ticketing; can you please explain how this is working and the benefits of this?

"We have used TXLoad for online booking of outdoor theatre performances and art history courses at council operated attractions. TXLoad connects well to our website and is relatively easy to navigate for users."

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What advice would you share with DMOs/Local Authorities that are considering changing / developing their web platform to integrate with TXGB?

"My advice would be to survey your destination businesses first to find out how many are already using TXGB (or any of the connected booking platforms), and how many are interested in signing up. You can then encourage those on connected booking platforms to opt in to TXGB, and those interested in signing up to do so before TXGB integration goes live on your destination website."​

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MWT Cymru has designed a survey for Local Authorities/DMOs to send to businesses in your areas, if you wish to ascertain whether they already offer bookable content, what booking systems they currently use, and so on. Please contact us if you would like us to tailor this survey for your area.

More information about TXGB for tourism teams