News 05.11.18 HISTORIC ENGLISH CITIES
Travelling through time
Fifteen of England’s Historic Cities (UKI400) will join the City of London at WTM London to promote a new touring option.
England Originals offers five new pre-bookable itineraries lasting three or four days, each with a different theme. The Discover England-funded project is designed to present rail-based itineraries as one product for the travel trade to package and sell.
The Thinkers and Writers Tour visits Oxford, Worcester and Stratford Upon Avon; the Time Travellers Tour includes Greenwich, Canterbury and Cambridge; the Treasure Trove Tour visits Durham, York and Lincoln; the Wall to Wall Tour Chester, Lancaster and Carlisle and the Western Wonders Tour features Truro, Bath and Salisbury. All encourage visitors to begin or end their tours in the City of London. “It’s the first time [these historic British cities] have come together to promote themselves, aiming at a younger audience,” said a spokesperson.
WTM London will see England’s Historic Cities show off the England Originals app, designed to work at specific points in each itinerary, plus 3D table-top tours of each city. It is hoped that the use of technology will attract a broader audience to historical touring.
ALABAMA ANNIVERSARIES
Lift-off for celebrations
Alabama (NA450) will reveal plans for its 200th anniversary at WTM London as it also prepares to mark 50 years since the first moon landing. The southern state will kick off its celebrations on December 14 this year, beginning 12 months of events to mark the creation of Alabama from the Mississippi Territory. Alabama became the nation’s 22nd state on December 14, 1819, and several locations will highlight the event throughout 2019, including Huntsville, where the first constitutional convention for the state took place. The bicentennial
10 05.11.2018 Huntsville US Space & Rocket Center, Alabama
will feature travelling exhibitions, community festivals, genealogy workshops, cemetery surveys, historical gardens, reunions and other special celebrations. The Alabama Pastport, available in book form and as a smartphone app, will allow visitors to mark off
historic, cultural, natural history and entertainment sites as they tour the state.
Next year will also see Alabama mark 50 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing. Celebrations will again centre on Huntsville, where much of the technical work on the
Time to Czech out the alternatives
Encouraging visitors to step outside the capital city of Prague will head up the Czech Republic’s tourism marketing as it continues to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia in 2018. CzechTourism (EU1620) will launch its 2019 Alternative Cities campaign using VR technology at WTM London. This will feature destinations such as the country’s second city of Brno and the spa town of Karlovy Vary, said to be home to the world’s largest concentration of hot mineral springs. Part of the campaign will focus on the Czech Republic’s booming microbrewery scene, encompassing mountain beer trails and the country’s hop-growing tradition. Katarina Hobbs, CzechTourism UK and Ireland director, said: “The entry and exit point for many will always be Prague, but we are trying to encourage visits to other cities.” Marketing of these cities will revolve around three categories: Joyful, aimed at families and couples; Heritage, targeted at the over 50s; and Happening, focusing on millennials in the livelier locations. As part of this campaign, CzechTourism will confirm a
The town of Karlovy Vary is home to many mineral springs
partnership at WTM London with Jet2holidays and British Airways Holidays to promote the country’s cultural, heritage and activity tourism opportunities.
The Czech Republic’s main draw remains its capital, which has two key hotel developments in the pipeline. Next year, the five-star Radisson Blu opens off Charles Square following a rebrand and reconstruction of the existing property, and in 2020 the first W Hotel opens in the country. The 154-room W Prague on Wenceslas Square is
a restoration of an Art Nouveau property plus a new extension. Prague City Tourism will launch a digital smartcard next year. It will act as a travel pass around the city and offer exclusive discounts on all main galleries, museums and at cultural events. It hopes to sell 250,000 cards per year and expects to launch it in physical and virtual form from April 1, 2019.
In another initiative, CzechTourism will add an LGBT module to its online travel agents’ training programme next year.
rockets that made the mission possible was done at Nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Apollo 11 was launched on July 16, 1969, and landed on the moon four days later. “They trained there and did all the calculations there. Without the work done in Alabama, Apollo 11 would not have returned home,” said an Alabama spokesperson. A boost to the anniversary celebrations has come from the hit film First Man, released in the UK in October, which tells the story of astronaut Neil Armstrong and the Nasa mission to land on the moon. Events to mark the anniversary will include a Guinness World record attempt for the most simultaneous rocket launches, and an Apollo Homecoming Dinner at Huntsville’s US Space & Rocket Center.
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