NEWS


Two tourism schemes secure cash from £40m Discover England Fund


By Samantha Mayling


Two tourism programmes which encourage overseas visitors to explore England and discover food and drink attractions have won funding from the £40 million Discover England Fund.


Worth up to £1 million each, the


projects will target visitors from China, France, Germany, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), India and the Netherlands. Sally Balcombe, VisitEngland


chief executive, said: “Innovative projects such as these, with twin- centre holidays and off-the-beaten- track food and garden trails, showcase aspects of England in exciting new ways.” The successful projects follow


Super Break recruits national sales manager


Super Break has appointed Gary Gillespie as national sales


manager, replacing Graham


Balmforth who retired in January. Gillespie is responsible for the


short break operator’s six-strong sales team and reports to customer experience director Julie Pinkney. He has worked in the industry


for more than 30 years and moved from Innstant Travel, where he was head of sales. His career began at Neilson


Travel and Thomas Cook Retail, before becoming business development manager and then head of sales and training for


Thomas Cook’s Flexibletrips. superbreak.com


6 TravelGBI | March 2018 Penshurst Place and (inset) Copper Rivet Distillery


the 36 bids that have already secured funding from the Discover England Fund. The successful applicants


are Experience England, led by London & Partners with Marketing Manchester and the West Midlands


Growth Company; and the Gourmet Trails of England, led by Go To Places. Experience England offers


itineraries spanning cities and countryside, enabling visitors to “discover real icons of England and the real English way of life”.


The Gourmet Trails of England


offers accommodation, courses, winery and brewery tours and visits to English gardens for tourists from Germany and the Netherlands. Those involved in the project


include Kent, Hertfordshire, Essex, Cheshire and The Peak District and Derbyshire – supported by partners including Eurotunnel, P&O Ferries, The Camping and Caravanning Club and Southeastern. Sandra Matthews-Marsh, Go To


Places chief executive, said: “Our pilot project in Year One gave us some invaluable learnings and showed the strong interest our target markets have in accessing high quality, authentic food, drink


and garden experiences in the UK.” visitbritain.org/discover-england-fund


10,000-year-old Cheddar Man hits the headlines


A Channel 4 documentary about Cheddar Man has thrust Cheddar Gorge & Caves into the national


spotlight. The First Brit: Secrets of the


10,000-Year-Old Man followed a scientific recreation of the face from Britain’s oldest complete skeleton, found in Gough’s Cave in 1903. Leon Troake, operations


manager at Cheddar Gorge &


Caves, said: “Visitors to Gough’s Cave will now not only be able to see where Cheddar man was discovered but also have a good idea of what he looked like and imagine what life would have been like so long ago.” A replica of the skeleton is


exhibited in Gough’s Cave close to


where it was discovered. cheddargorge.co.uk


Welsh government drops plans for Wales-wide tourism tax “The Welsh government has


Hoteliers in Wales welcomed the rejection of proposals for a Wales- wide ‘tourism tax’. The Welsh hospitality trade


feared the tax would make the industry uncompetitive and add hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to tourist bills. British Hospitality Association


(BHA) Cymru has been lobbying ministers and assembly members to drop the plans. Last month, Welsh government


officials rejected the tourism tax plans in favour of a vacant land levy. David Chapman, BHA Cymru


executive director, said: “The industry’s broad message was ‘don’t top up taxes, chop taxes’ and it was listened to by Welsh government. “It saw the need to help our


iconic community businesses, already facing a ‘cauldron of costs’, to boost employment and growth in key rural, coastal and urban locations in Wales.


a very good record of working with BHA in partnership in recent years to support the hospitality industry in Wales, showing an increased understanding of the huge economic significance of the industry here and the need to grow it further and not restrict it. “We now urge all assembly


members to sign up to the BHA’s


Cut Tourism VAT campaign.” bha.org.uk


travelgbi.com


©Channel 4 Plimsoll Productions


©Darryl Curcher


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