Promoting Portobello and Portobello Beach?

[cuth]

admin: split from .

As a matter of interest, why are we so keen to get people to visit the beach? It's not as though it's going to close down if no-one turns up.

There are only four businesses on the front and they all seem packed most of the time. None of the businesses on the High Street really cater for tourists. I don't think people really come to Porty Beach and think 'Oh! I might as well get a new pair of specs and kilo of spuds while I'm here'.

[Lambie]

That deserves a bit of thought.

[Maria]

[wangi]

It's win-win surely? A more lively and vibrant Prom would support further businesses and help those already there through the leaner months. That means more choice for us locals.

The High St and Bath St are the gateway to the beach and I'm sure there's a lot of knock-on possibilities for increasing turnover for shops.

[Puerto bella]

[rapunzell]

are we in this?:

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[Bob Jefferson]

[Bob Jefferson]

We spent a couple of days in Blackpool recently. Not much has changed in the 40 or so years since I last visited as a child but Blackpool has BIG plans. Re-branding, re-positioning, in fact.

Miles of new promenade and sea defences have been constructed with help from a £62 million contribution from DEFRA, itself just part of a much bigger 15 year re-generation plan costing many hundreds of millions of pounds.

OK, Portobello isn't Blackpool and nor would we want to be but BPL isn't going to be left in the past and nor should we.

[Poppy]

[Puerto bella]

[Puerto bella]

[Porty]

[rapunzell]

[Bob Jefferson]

[Bob Jefferson]

Just realised there is already another thread relating to the wider issues of promoting Portobello. Admin, could you do some tidying up when you have time please?

admin: somewhat tidied up... ish...

[Mark Cameron]

I agree. Porty needs a joined up and well thought out approach to promoting itself with a wider audience - we need a vision for Portobello and a list of actions that together would see our town prosper.

One aim would be to getting Porty listed as one of the top 10 thing to do when in Edinburgh (we don't even feature in the 65 sights for Edinburgh in the Lonely Planet's section for Edinburgh!) I've emailed them to see if they can give us a mention.

Tripadvisor at least lists us as no 18 but I guess more comments/feedback left might bump us up that list. Visit scotland doesn't list a beach under it's visitor attractions for Edinburgh.

THe size of the task is significant but as many have said on this forum before we have a great community spirit in Porty that with the right approach could make a real difference (look at Leith's shore 10 years ago compared with now!)

[wangi]

[Mark Cameron]

This is great publicity and the more of this we can get the better but I guess the big question is how we, as a community, can create the impetus to make change happen in our own back yard.

I certainly don't have the answers but would be willing to get involved if the desire to make change happen is out there.

[Lambie]

I'm in.

[Mark Cameron]

Just received the following reply from Lonely Planet - might be worthwhile if a few more people dropped them a line too.

"Thanks for recommending this beach – I'm sure our authors will be very interested to hear about it. I'll forward your email on so they can check it out when next updating our Scotland guidebook.
Reader recommendations are a great help to our authors in choosing places to list in our books, and we appreciate you taking the time to send this in.
If you have any more suggestions or feedback that you think might be useful please feel free to send them in via our website:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/contact/gui ... edback/new
Regards,
Trent"

[Lambie]

This is a great response isn't it? Between this and trip advisor and petitioning visit Scotland we're surely raising the Porty Profile

[Mark Cameron]

Does anyone know if there are spaces available on the community council and is it open for anyone to join?

[Mark Cameron]

[Maria]

[Mark Cameron]

[Lambie]

[Mark Cameron]

that would be great. I also emailed Timeout as they too don't mention Porty on their website as a thing to do in Edinburgh. There's also another one Virtualtourist.com which has no meantion of us either in the Edinburgh section. This too allows reviews to be added so I'm in the process of sorting that now.

[Maria]

[Maria]

[Mark Cameron]

That's fantastic news.

[Mark Cameron]

Just had a look at the latest review on Tripadvisor and this made it stand out to me how little we are promoted.

"We learned about the Portobello Beach from our Guest House host when we arrived a little early for check-in. Truthfully, we hadn't actually realised that there WAS a beach and promenade so near to Edinburgh city centre and we were DELIGHTED by it. The sun was shining, children were building sandcastles or paddling in the water and the whole atmosphere... "

Does anyone know whether the Community Council, Edinburgh City Council or the Tourist Board are taking proactive steps to promote Porty? - we have a gem on our doorsteps and with a little action we can get the place noticed which in turn drives up visitors and cash for our community.

[Puerto bella]

On the bus back from town this afternoon. Two young Dutch people asked me to tell them when we got to Portobello. We started chatting, they were on hol for a week, had done the tourist stuff, been to Linlithgow and Stirling as well and wanted to see our beach as they'd seen it flying in.....they'd found their way here reading bus stops/ maps, but there was no sign to tell them when they'd reached Porty as we know.

They were surprised that the place wasn't promoted by the tourist people they'd spoken with. I showed them the beach and as the rain was coming on - pointed them in the direction of the Beach House - hope they weren't thinking it would be like a Dutch coffee shop

Felt like a bit of a tour guide but also felt somebody needed to show them and they were very nice.

I concluded that we need 'signposting', by that I meant verbal or a leaflet at the tourist office, bus stops - community council/ amenity society - can't you do that? Maybe in the summer months - a walking tour - there are lots of very knowlegable historian type people who could help with that? More spill out seating from the cafes onto the Prom and move those bloody unsightly bins that block the view of the beach.

[seanie]

Talking of signposting - a replacement 'Welcome to Portobello' sign is due to back up along towards Kings Road.

[Puerto bella]

[Mark Cameron]

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction ... ml#REVIEWS

Still at number 7. If you've not posted a review why not take 10 minutes out to promote your town. Who knows it might benefit our traders and community in the longer term.