VisitEngland campaign creates thousands more tourism jobs
VisitEngland has generated £517.9 million additional tourism spend and created 9,620 jobs for the sector through its government-funded Growing Tourism Locally project, it was announced today.
The three-year project, which is in its second year, is aimed at inspiring Britons to take more holidays at home.
It is funded by £19.8 million from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) and with a total investment of £41.6 million including contributions from VisitEngland and the private sector.
These latest figures include the results of marketing campaigns that took place over autumn 2013 and winter 2014 in partnership with a number of destinations across the country.
These campaigns have generated £101.3 million in tourism spend and created 1,876 additional jobs for the sector.
ABTA revealed yesterday that its survey of 2,000 holidaymakers in July this year showed an increase towards booking domestic packages from UK holiday firms, rather than ‘travel only’ or ‘accommodation only’, suggesting VisitEngland’s Wallace and Gromit campaign has been successful.
During the early part of the year, VisitEngland was given £2 million to combat the effects of severe flooding via a targetted marekting camaing to get the message across that most of the country was still open for business.
At the time, Haven had to import £6 million of rock from Scandinavia to bolster the sea defences around its park in Hopton in Norfolk and at Combe Haven on the south coast 100 of its caravans were flooded, costing a further £3 million.
However, by May, the industry had recovered and visitor numbers were on a par with 2013, said VisitEngland.
Shearings, operator of escorted tours and leisure, said its bookings throughout the summer were up 2% and occupancy rates in its own hotels were running at 93%.
It has plans to invest around £15 million in hotel refurbishments over the next three years following a management buy-out and investment from he Moorfield Real Estate Funds, over £5 million of which will be spent this year. By the end of 2017, more than half of its 4,000 hotel rooms across the UK will have been refurbished.
Bourne Leisure, operator of Butlin’s, Haven and Warner, said it had partnered up with long-range weather forecasters in order to be able to target its advertising during spells of good weather, which is when people tend to book UK breaks.
However, VisitEngland said it too was working closely with the Met Office and it had been told that the only reliable forecast is up to five days in advance.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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