VisitEngland has seen success in the first year of its ‘Growing Tourism Locally’ campaign with tourism spend up GBP98.2 million year-on-year.
The tourism agency has been working directly with destinations and the private sector to develop dedicated marketing campaigns, using GBP19.8 million from the government’s Regional Growth Fund; GBP9m from VisitEngland and GBP12m from the tourism sector.
Marketing started with Cumbria in August 2012 followed by other campaigns from Nottingham and York.
As well as the boost in tourism spend, an additional 1, 861 jobs have been created. In total the three-year project aims to boost tourism spend by GBP365 million and set up 9,100 jobs.
“The tourism industry is a key part of the country’s economic growth strategy. It supports local jobs and businesses up and down the country. The Growing Tourism Locally campaign is giving a boost to the domestic market and in its first year it has seen just under GBP100 million,” said Minister for Tourism Helen Grant.
James Berresford, VisitEngland’s chief executive added: “The RGF funding has provided a huge boost for tourism in England. This project enables our public and private sector partners to work together to stimulate tourism and ultimately create new jobs throughout the country with particular emphasis on some local areas. The first year has proved incredibly successful with destinations throughout the country benefiting significantly from this investment, boosting local economies and creating important jobs.”
In Nottingham, the ‘In Notts We Love’ campaign helped towards generating GBP3.1 million tourism spend. Its highlights included record visitor numbers at Trent Bridge; double the number of visitors to Sherwood Forest’s Robin Hood Festival and more visiting Wollaton Hall.
“It all underpins the importance of partnership working, and in Nottinghamshire, we, our partners and our stakeholders, really understand the importance of the visitor economy and its far reaching impact. 2013 has been a great year, and I look forward to Nottinghamshire building impact in 2014 and beyond,” said Jennifer Spencer, chief executive of Experience Nottinghamshire.
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