We all enjoy seeing items on television and in newspapers that shows our island in a positive light and you may have noticed more of these over the last few years, but have you ever wondered how these features come about? We take a look behind the scenes...

Whenever a journalist or TV personality visits the island for professional purposes you can be quite sure that a fair amount of work has gone on behind the scenes to arrange that visit and help it to be a success.

Such PR is important because, at a time when government is looking hard at the bottom line, it is very cost-effective when quantified in terms of how much a similar amount of advertising exposure would have cost:

Richard Slee, marketing manager at the Department of Economic Development told the Examiner: ’In 2016 we managed to achieve a record £2.3m worth of tourism press coverage outside of what our colleagues generated for the TT and we are well on our way to exceeding that again in 2017.’

He is a member of the small and committed team who look after marketing and PR at the department and their aim is not simply to let everyone know how wonderful the island is but, specifically to increase actual visitor numbers and visitor spend.

To this end the team coordinates tourism marketing activity across a broad range of TV, radio, digital and traditional advertising channels.

When it come to landing quality press coverage the team can be working on anything from a small mention in a ’what’s on this week’ column to multi-page features involving the likes of well-known travel celebrities like Ray Mears.

The team assess each press visit using a ’tiering’ system based on the amount of possible coverage which gives an indication as to how much support the Department should offer for that visit.

Support could be anything from arranging flights to something as simple as arranging an activity for a journalist to take part in while they’re here. The department works closely with Manx National Heritage and Isle of Man Transport to enable visiting journalists to provide balanced coverage across many of attractions which makes our island so special.

According to Trip Advisor, the railways are the top attraction for visitors to the island, followed by the Manx Museum, the horse trams, House of Manannan, Castle Rushen, Peel Castle and the Old Horses’ Home.

The department’s marketing team can help to create an itinerary for visiting journalists based on these top attractions or maybe something more niche, depending on the publication and the particular theme they want to focus on. A writer might wish to go kayaking, or mountain biking, for example and this can be arranged for them.

Recently, the island’s local food offering has increasingly attracted attention from reputable specialist publications The Grocer and visitors have included specialist food writers such as Xanthe Clay from the Telegraph and Joe Warwick from the Guardian.

’We engage so many local attractions and restaurants when we build itineraries often at late notice due to the nature of journalist availability and are constantly amazed how helpful our on island partners are when it comes to helping to boost the island’s profile as a holiday destination,’ Jess Turner, PR manager at the DED, told us.

Sometimes it’s quirkier items which generate a lot of coverage.

Two years ago Adrian Gray, a world-leading stone balancer, visited the island and his balanced stone sculptures were photographed against a backdrop of some of the island’s most stunning landscapes.

This gave the island nearly £300,000 worth of coverage from media including the BBC, the Independent and the Daily Express who used it as ’Photo of the Day’ in one of their publications.

’The team also enabled a video which featured basking sharks in Fleshwick to go viral last year by reaching out to national media and this in turn generated a further £60,000 in press coverage,’ said Jess.

She added: ’We know from customer research that first time visitors often find out about the island through PR pieces in UK national and regional titles as well as mainstream TV programmes such as Countryfile. It’s a very important marketing channal for the department.’

The value of coverage is also measured though website engagement. A prime example would be the visit by ITV’s Julia Bradbury in October 2016. She came over to shoot an episode in the Britain’s Best Walks series and after the programme was broadcast there was a 90 per cent increase in users on the Visit Isle of Man website.

Richard concluded: ’We are highly targeted in our approach to promoting the island. PR is an important component within our promotional arsenal as all of the coverage needs to showcase the island and places it in people’s minds as being clean, quiet and beautiful and somewhere special to visit.’