2013-04-24 — /travelprnews.com/ — VisitEngland has revealed the list of high street travel agents and operators signed up to ‘Great Adventure’, a new marketing campaign starring Wallace & Gromit, designed to inspire Britons to take a holiday at home this year. Led by VisitEngland and supported by the home nation tourist boards of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the campaign will focus on a television advertisement airing for the first time on 12 May, encouraging consumers to book through their local travel agent.
The national tourist board has signed up a range of high-street travel agents including TUI, Thomas Cook, Advantage, Midcounties Co-op Travel, Premier Travel and The Travel Network Group to support the campaign with exciting British holiday packages and promotional activity. Also on board are operators Attraction World, Superbreak, Hoseasons, Bourne Leisure and Shearings Holidays, all of which provide an outstanding level of service and knowledge when booking a UK break.
James Berresford, VisitEngland’s Chief Executive, commented:
“We’ve had a fantastic response from the domestic travel trade, and their enthusiasm for our next Holidays at Home are GREAT campaign is second to none. I’m looking forward to seeing our tour operator and retail partners get behind the Wallace & Gromit TV advertisement and help boost UK tourism this year.”
Caroline Brown, Commercial Director at Shearings Holidays, commented:
“Shearings is proud to be a part of this year’s GREAT campaign, alongside two of Britain’s greatest ambassadors. As the campaign shows, there’s a wealth of fascinating history and heritage, outstanding natural beauty, and rich culture to explore – not to mention the Great British sense of humour, perfectly encapsulated by Wallace & Gromit. No wonder more and more holidaymakers are realising they can find their perfect holiday experience on this legendary isle of ours.”
This campaign forms part of Holidays at Home are GREAT, a pan-UK government funded strategy which launched last year. Designed to boost domestic tourism, the campaign aims to raise £80m in additional tourism spend and over a million overnight stays.
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For more information contact:
Sarah Long, Head of Corporate Communications Tel: 020 7578 1452, Mob: 07500555651, Email: sarah.long@visitengland.org www.visitengland.org
Emma White, Corporate Communications Executive Tel 020 7578 1471, Email: emmalucy.white@visitengland.org
Notes to Editors
• The home nation tourist boards include: VisitScotland, VisitWales and Northern Ireland Tourist Board.
• The TV ad will start on 12 May and run for 2 months and will reflect the GREAT branding launched last year by the Prime Minister.
• The ad will run on TV, in cinemas, Video on Demand, Digital Online Display and Out of Home.
• The campaign is funded by £2million of additional funding from the Government and £2m in-kind support from operators and travel agents.
• Tour operators and travel agents involved in the campaign will be announced soon.
• Travel trade activity will continue until September.
• The first Holidays at Home are GREAT campaign launched in 2012 with a TV ad and accompanying website offering offers on thousands of holidays throughout the country. Over £60m in incremental spend was generated by the www.great2012offers.com website and a further £240m was generated by the TV ad. Based on an average spending of £66 per night on English Holidays, this £300m equates to over 4.5million nights away.
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
• VisitEngland markets England under the Enjoy England consumer brand in the domestic market and markets England under the VisitEngland brand internationally
About Aardman
Aardman, based in Bristol (UK) co-founded and run by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, is a world leader in animation. It produces feature films, television series, television commercials and digital entertainment for both the domestic and international market. Their multi-award winning productions are novel, entertaining, brilliantly characterised and full of charm that reflects the unique talent, energy and personal commitment of the very special people who make up the Aardman team. The studio’s work is often imitated and yet the company continues to lead the field producing a rare brand of visually stunning and amusing independent and commercials productions. www.aardman.com