The SM department is responsible for all areas of funding.

Funding is accessed through three tourism bodies:

• Tourism Ireland

• Fáilte Ireland

• Visit Britain

 

Tourism Ireland

Tourism Ireland (TI) provides funding for:

• Sales trips – trips taken by BD teams to visit agents in market

• Familiarization trips – trips hosted by the Abbey Group and taken by agents to experience the tourism product in destination

• New Ventures – marketing opportunities that have been identified as having potential to develop new business streams

 

Funding opens in January for the year ahead, with a second opportunity to apply for funding generally opening during the summer. The process of applying for funding is:

• TI provides funding application templates for each of the three activities

• The SM department circulates the funding applications to all BD teams and asks them to complete them for all of their planned activities

• BD teams complete the funding applications and return them to the SM department

• The SM department submits the applications to TI, creating an individual reference for each application which is added to the corresponding activity and its Tour Plan (TP) reference in the Sales Trip Masterlist

 

Once funding is approved and the sales activity has been completed

• The SM department circulates the funding application to BD for so that feedback on the activity can be recorded and submitted to TI

• SM requests receipts for all relevant expenses incurred for the activity and completes an expenses claim

• The BD team provide feedback on the activity

• SM returns the expenses claim and feedback to TI

 

Once funding is received, SM advises the Accounts department of the funds received per activity, quoting the TP reference of each activity

 

Fáilte Ireland

Fáilte Ireland (FI) provides funding for:

• Familiarization trips

• Business development initiatives – opportunities to drive new or existing business to Ireland that include regional areas and extend the tourism season

 

Funding is open all year, and applications can be submitted at any time.

The process of applying for familiarization trip funding is:

• FI provides a familiarization trip funding application template

• The SM department circulates the application to all BD teams and asks them to complete it for all of their planned fam trips. The proposed fam trip itinerary must also be included

• BD teams complete the funding applications and return them to the SM department

• SM submits the applications to FI, copying in the account handler responsible for the fam trip as FI may ask to meet the agents while they are in destination

• SM notes the application on the Familiarization Trip Masterlist

 

Once funding is approved and the fam trip has been completed

• FI assign a PO specifically for the fam trip

• Customer Care staff in Abbey raise an invoice for the approved amount of funding and send it to FI, quoting the PO number

 

The process of applying for business development funding is similar, but may only occur biyearly:

• FI provides a business development funding application template

• The SM department works with BD, Product, the Business Development and Commercial Directors to create a business development proposal and complete the application

• SM submits the proposal to FI

 

Once funding is approved, half of the funds are received immediately in order to implement the proposal, while the other half is received following the completion of the activity, subject to the satisfaction of the KPIs set by FI.

 

Visit Britain

Visit Britain (VB) provides funding via its Discover England Fund (DEF). This fund supports collaborative marketing between regional brands (DEF projects) within England and destination management companies, with the aim of delivering and marketing bookable English tourism product for international consumers.

It is matched funding, meaning that both VB and Abbey spend the same amount on the activity.

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This collaborative marketing will generally be a combination of online marketing, such as email campaigns or product landing pages on agents’ B2C websites, and offline marketing, such as workshops and trade shows.

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The process of applying for Visit Britain funding is:

• VB provides a business development funding application template and assign Abbey a number of DEF projects to market

• The SM department works with BD (including the overseas market representatives), Product, the Business Development Director, Commercial Director, and UK Managing Director to create a marketing proposal, including a schedule of proposed marketing activities and their costs, according to the application brief

• SM sets agreed KPI’s with VB

• SM agrees an invoice schedule with VB, specifying when each activity is to be invoiced and for how much

• SM informs Accounts of the expected funding

 

Once funding is approved:

• The SM department coordinates all activity that is agreed as part of the partnership

• SM briefs all stakeholders on their assigned activities and ensures that they understand their task and have the necessary resources to complete it

• SM maintains frequent communication with all stakeholders; regular engagement with BD and the market representatives to facilitate the implementation of the scheduled activities and to ensure deadlines are met, and biweekly calls with VB to discuss progress and to advise of any changes to the schedule

• SM assists those responsible for carrying out activity in any way possible, but with a strong focus on content creation

• SM reports to VB on the activities month by month according to the KPI’s agreed

 

According to the invoice schedule:

• VB provide Abbey with a PO for each activity

• SM, in partnership with Accounts, organises the invoice, quoting the PO number, and shares with VB

• SM advises Accounts of the expected funds, quoting the TP reference of each activity if necessary