VisitBritain, the UK body tasked with developing tourism in the nation, has announced that its GREAT international promotional campaign is bearing fruit in increased tourism spend.
The GREAT tourism campaign cost £25 million and is focussed on garnering interest from travellers in 14 major cities in nine countries around the globe. Predictions for its success estimate an additional inbound tourism spend of £200 million over the next two years.
A survey in the target cities that was carried out to gauge the effectiveness of the campaign has revealed that an impressive 72 percent of those questioned had recalled seeing the promotion, and 23 percent of respondents that were aware of the promotion said that they intended visiting the UK within the next year, compared to 11 percent of those that had not been made aware of the campaign. Estimating the GREAT campaign’s success in hard figures reveals that it potentially lured 422,000 extra visitors from the target cities.
Respondents also confirmed that the promotion had encouraged them to visit destinations in the UK other than the nation’s main tourist centre, London.
VisitBritain is predicting that the 31 million visitors that descended on the UK in 2012, spending £18.6 billion, will increase to 40 million a year by 2020, with the spend increased to £31.5 billion.
Maria Miller, the UK’s culture secretary, said, ‘The GREAT campaign has been fantastic, encouraging overseas visitors to come and experience the very best of Britain. We need to keep up the momentum, and continue to increase both the number of visitor numbers and the amount of money they spend here. The tourism industry has a key role to play in delivering economic growth and the GREAT campaign remains at the heart of the sector’s strategy.’
