“Delectable North Wales” and Stakeholders: The London & North Western Railway’s Marketing of North Wales, c.1904–1914

Abstract

This article discusses the London & North Western Railway’s (LNWR) marketing activities before 1914. It extends our understanding of British railway marketing by examining how the company forged links with stakeholders in North Wales, particularly the resort authorities, in support of its development of the tourist trade there. While the company remained the dominant force in promoting the region, cooperative working facilitated the sharing of market intelligence, exchange of best practice, coordination of advertising efforts, coordination of services, and the harmonizing of a promotional message that appealed to middle-class discretionary travelers that North Wales was a place for health and pleasure. The article also shows how the LNWR deployed a system of integrated marketing communications, providing one of the earliest known examples within British business of such practice. The sum result was positive impacts on the development of the North Welsh tourist trade in the years before the World War I.

Management and business history – a reflexive research agenda for the 2020s

“…Even some apparently well-chronicled industries such as rail transport have new angles which can be explored because of the sheer size and diversity of activities of the organisations in that sector – a good example of recent activity in this direction is Turner’s (2018) work on the role of railways in developing North Wales as a tourist destination. Related to transport is also an extremely broad area of management and business in the public sector, political economy and municipal governance, including municipal trading.…”