VisitEngland sets out plan for 8 marketing campaigns to boost tourism

Tourist board VisitEngland has announced plans, at London-based World Travel Market exhibition, to launch eight new marketing campaigns in 2013 designed to boost domestic tourism next year.
 
The campaigns will cover the four key themes: countryside, heritage, culture and coastal, and will run in partnership with destinations from all over England as well as national commercial organisations.
 
The themed campaigns will run on radio, in newspaper supplements, and via social media and PR. The £2m in funding from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) plus contributions from partners, will go towards promoting the campaigns.
 
The themes were taken from research by VisitEngland, which found there was still a great lack of knowledge of the type of holidays on offer in England and a “thirst for local inspiration”.
 
“I’m pleased to see that the RGF is supporting VisitEngland and its partners to boost tourism and create over 9,000 jobs over three years in our cultural and heritage-rich communities up and down the country,” Business Minister Michael Fallon said. “The world saw that we could put on a good show from hosting the Olympics and it is important that we capitalise on this in rebalancing the economy and building an aspiration nation.”
 
James Berresford, VisitEngland’s Chief Executive said: “This project enables our public and private sector partners to work together to stimulate tourism and ultimately grow jobs throughout the country.”
 
This marketing activity is in phase two of a three-year investment project called ‘Growing Tourism Locally’.  Funded by £19.8m from the RGF, the project aims to generate £365m in additional tourism spend over the three-year period and inspire more Britons to take more holidays at home.
 
The total investment of the three-year campaign will be approximately £41m including £19.8m from the RGF, £9m from VisitEngland and £12m leveraged from the national and local tourism sector.
 
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