The national tourism agency VisitBritain may be advised to double-check the spelling of promoted destinations, the next time they roll out a multi-million pound advertising campaign.
An eagle-eyed commuter in New York spotted the misspelling of Wales’ ‘Brecon Beacons’, instead the beauty spot had been spelt: ‘Breacon Beacons’.
The embarrassing glitch occurred on the latest campaign advertising ‘Great’ Britain – which aims to remind tourists around the world what is great about Britain, including this years major events: the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee.
A member of the public uploaded the mistake onto the Internet, after it was spotted on a New York subway.
Mark Di-Toro from VisitBritain said: “This stems from an earlier version of the Brecon Beacons creative.
“The mistake was picked up before the launch of the campaign in London and was subsequently amended”.
However some of the images, which weren’t amended, were used by their advertising agency in America.
He added: “It’s a regrettable mistake which will not be repeated, but we have so much more to come from our £125 million advertising programme, which will act to inspire the world to visit Britain”.
VisitBritain’s marketing campaign will cost around £125 million in total, and will run over the next four years. £25 million has been spent on the current ‘Great’ poster campaign globally.
The adverts have been created to increase the current figure of tourists who visit Britain each year, bringing in an extra 4.2 million people.
Elizabeth Daniels, the managing director of Brecon Beacons Holiday Cottages revealed her delight after finding out VisitBritain had chosen to market the area.
However she said: “It is an enormous shame that potential travellers from New York will be googling Breacon by mistake”.
Although advertisers have been let off gently this time, as search engines correct the misspelling of ‘Breacon Beacons’.
Article by Charlotte Greenhalgh
