COMMENT IN MY OPINION
It’s been a busy few months at VisitEngland and VisitBritain as we
bring the two organisations closer together to grow tourism with greater co-ordination across the industry. In recent weeks, we met more than 800 industry colleagues up and down the country during the regional engagement programme to discuss the £40 million Discover England Fund. This fund is for building world-class
‘bookable’ tourism products that meet the demands of international customers while also benefiting domestic visitors by providing an integrated tourism experience from ‘start to finish’.
Meeting the industry The sessions set out our ambitions for the fund’s delivery, the high- level criteria for potential bidders to consider and suggested timeframes for its phased implementation. It was a fantastic opportunity to
network with tourism businesses as we seek greater collaboration across the private and public sectors, and the regions, to grow English tourism as part of this once-in-a-generation opportunity. We received valuable feedback
from the travel trade, destination management organisations, transport and attraction providers, and local authorities across England, which we’ve published on our website. We are now feeding into the final development of the fund’s bidding criteria, which will be available in May. You can keep up to date via our website at
visitbritain.org/ discover-england-fund-overview.
Our £40m fund for England will boost inbound tourism
Successful bidders will build world-class tourism products
SALLY BALCOMBE
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, VISITBRITAIN AND VISITENGLAND
The GREAT campaign While product development is a major part of VisitEngland’s work, other priorities include the launch next month of the latest version of our hugely successful ‘Holidays at Home are GREAT’ domestic tourism campaign. The £2.5 million campaign will use stunning images of the amazing experiences on offer across the UK to inspire more people to take holidays at home. As well as showcasing the very best of destination UK, the digital, TV, print and outdoor marketing campaign will also invite people to upload images of their own memorable moments using the hashtag #OMGB. We want to encourage more people
to take their holidays and short breaks in the UK so that selling domestic holidays continues to be good business for travel agents.
Engaging with businesses As I write, the latest domestic tourism statistics for 2015 are just in showing
strong growth in England with spend up 8% on 2014 figures to £19.6 billion. These results echo the growth we are seeing internationally. Last year set a record for inbound tourism to the UK with 35.8 million visits, 4% up on 2014. Comparing growth over the past five years shows that there were six million more visits in 2015 than 2010, an increase of 20%. These figures are a tangible endorsement of the growing importance of tourism to the UK economy, one of our fastest-growing export industries and one of the most globally competitive. We want our nations and regions to be at the top of people’s list of must-visit destinations. That is why engaging and collaborating with businesses and organisations across our country’s tourism landscape is our top priority, as we work together to drive growth in tourism and spread its economic benefits across the whole of the UK.
32
travelweekly.co.uk 14 April 2016
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76