Visit England, the official travel promotion agency for England, has reported that literary tours, Science adventures, historical tours and tours to movie sets will remain the favourite motivations for tourism to England in 2013.
Literary tours have see an increase in popularity, with 2013 being the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and 2012 being the bicentenary of Charles Dickens and the year of the World Shakespeare Festival. These tours typically offer visits to the literary figures’ residences and work places. Norwich is the first English city to be awarded a UNESCO City of Literature honour, and is only one of six cities in the world with that distinction.
History tours are an attraction for tourists, especially those tours that visit the darker pages of history, including Jack the Ripper walking tours of Spitalfields and Petticoat Lane in London, a Gangster Tour that involves a trip around London’s past criminal underworld with Stephen Marcu, and the newly opened, Blackpool Dungeons. The year 2013 will mark 125 years since Jack the Ripper was last at large in East London.
The year is also of special interest to tourists who are interested in science fiction tours, as 2013 marks 50 years of Doctor Who. Tourists will also be visiting the newly opened, Star Wars Miniland Experience at Legoland Windsor, the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham, and The Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Visitors are also recommended to include a Warner Bros Studio Tour in their itinerary, featuring The Making of Harry Potter, which opened in 2012, and a visit to Pinewood Studios, where most of the James Bond films were shot, and where expansion plans are underway.
