VISITENGLAND SHOWCASES ROMANTIC BREAKS IN NEW MARKETING CAMPAIGN

2013-01-14 — /travelprnews.com/ — VisitEngland, the national tourist board, today launched a new multi-channel marketing campaign designed to boost domestic tourism in 2013 by highlighting some of England’s most romantic heritage cities.  The two-week campaign is the first of six set to launch over the next three months, covering the four key themes of countryside, coast, heritage and culture – in total funded by £1.6million from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund, plus additional contributions from businesses and partners in the tourism sector.

The participating destinations are Bath, Chester, London, Oxford, Salisbury, Stratford-upon-Avon and York.  The campaign will focus on the spectacular historic settings that these city destinations offer, as well as the boutique accommodation, quality restaurants and indulgent activities that create a perfect romantic getaway.

The campaign will incorporate a range of national online, broadcast and print elements in partnership with network radio stations Classic FM and Gold, as well as The Guardian, The Daily Mail and Mail onSunday. There will also be a substantial programme of digital and social media activity, including Facebook competitions, video content, and a dedicated section on visitengland.com: www.visitengland.com/moreromantic.

James Berresford, VisitEngland’s Chief Executive, commented:
“This exciting campaign is the first of several launching this year with the aim of growing tourism in England. Starting in time for the run up to Valentine’s Day and Easter, the campaign promotes some of England’s most beautiful historic destinations. This is a great example of the industry working in partnership to stimulate tourism and grow jobs throughout the country.”

This new marketing activity is part of VisitEngland’s 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 2012-15 period and inspire more UK residents to take more holidays at home.  The project aims to stimulate local employment to create jobs in the tourism sector by 9,100 over a three-year period to March 2015.

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

Notes to Editors:
The total investment of the three-year campaign will be approximately £41.9m including £19.8m from the Regional Growth Fund, £9.1m from VisitEngland, £12.7m leveraged from both national and local tourism partners over the 2012-15 period.

The destination management organisations participating in the Romantic heritage Cities campaign are:
• Bath Tourism Plus
• Marketing Cheshire
• London & Partners
• Shakespeare’s England (Stratford upon Avon)
• VisitWiltshire
• Visit York

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 £2.6bn fund operating across England from 2011 to 2016. It supports projects and programmes that lever private sector investment to create economic growth and sustainable employment. The first three rounds allocated £2.4 billion which will generate over £13 billion of private sector investment and create or safeguard over 500,000 jobs. The fourth round of RGF will be open shortly.

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