2012-11-08 — /travelprnews.com/ — Today at World Travel Market, VisitEngland announced plans to launch eight marketing campaigns in 2013 to run from January to boost domestic tourism next year. The campaigns will cover the four key themes of 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. Funded by £2million from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) plus contributions from partners, these campaigns provide a cost effective opportunity for English destinations to inspire more domestic visitors next year.
The themes were informed by research undertaken 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.
Business Minister Michael Fallon said:
“I’m pleased to see that the Regional Growth Fund is supporting VisitEngland and its partners to boost tourism and create over 9,000 jobs over 3 years in our cultural and heritage-rich communities up and down the country. 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.”
Sport and Tourism Minister Hugh Robertson, said:
“Tourism is a vibrant, important industry that contributes significantly to economic growth. This investment from the Regional Growth Fund will encourage such partnerships at a local level, bringing in additional tourist spend, helping to create jobs and building on the success of London 2012.”
James Berresford, VisitEngland’s Chief Executive said:
“The RGF money is a huge boost for tourism in England. This project enables our public and private sector partners to work together to stimulate tourism and ultimately grow jobs throughout the country. It’s not too late for destinations throughout England to get on board with whichever campaign best fits their tourism offering, providing a real boost at a local level.”
This marketing activity is phase two of a three-year investment project called ‘Growing Tourism Locally’. Funded by £19.8million from the RGF, the project aims to generate £365million in additional tourism spend over the three year period and inspire more Britons to take more holidays at home. The project should help to stimulate employment to grow jobs in the tourism sector by 9,100 over the three years.
The total investment of the three-year campaign will be approximately £41m including £19.8m from the Regional Growth Fund, £9m from VisitEngland, £12m leveraged from the national and local tourism sector.
Ends
For more information contact:
Sarah Long, Head of Corporate Communications Tel: 020 7578 1452, Mob: 07500555651, Email: sarah.long@visitengland.org Website: www.visitengland.org
About VisitEngland
• VisitEngland is the country’s national tourist board. We work in partnership with the industry to develop the visitor experience across England, plan national tourism strategy, grow the value of tourism in England and provide advocacy for the industry and our visitors
• Our work is underpinned by robust research and customer insights. You can access the latest in-depth market intelligence and statistics on www.visitengland.org/insight-statistics
• For corporate information see www.visitengland.org and for consumer information see www.visitengland.com
About the Regional Growth Fund
• The Regional Growth Fund (RGF) is a £2.4 billion fund operating across England from 2011 to 2015. It supports projects and programmes with significant potential for economic growth that can create additional, sustainable private sector employment. It aims particularly to help those areas and communities which were dependent on the public sector to make the transition to sustainable private sector-led growth and prosperity.
Notes to Editors
• Countryside campaigns will include ‘Rural Escapes’ and ‘Great Outdoors’
• Heritage campaigns will include ‘Romantic City Breaks’ and ‘Hair-raising Histories’
• Coastal campaigns will include ‘Great English Seaside’ and ‘Coastal Escape’
• Culture campaign will be called ‘Cultural Cities’
• Covering each theme will be a ‘Festivals and Music’ strand
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