VisitBritain and Expedia have this week launched a multi-million pound three-year partnership to market Britain abroad to France, Germany and the US, Britain’s three largest and most valuable inbound visitors markets.
According to VisitBritain, this partnership is targeted to deliver over £135 million of additional visitor spend to the UK economy over the three years.
The first phase of the partnership gets underway with the launch of a six-month digital marketing campaign across the three markets including online, social and blogger activity to promote ‘365 Days of #OMGB’ moments across Britain. The campaign will feature bespoke content platforms (link is external) that have been created in each market to showcase the amazing year-round experiences on offer across Britain’s nations and regions. The content platforms incorporate product and partner offers to promote and to convert the inspiration to visit into bookings.
The first year of activity is part of a longer-term partnership between VisitBritain and Expedia with plans set to be announced in the coming weeks.
Visit Britain/VisitEngland Chief Executive Sally Balcombe said:
“Britain is packed full of amazing moments and we want people to book a trip right now to come and experience the sheer diversity of culture, heritage and countryside across our nations and regions. Working with commercial partners including Expedia amplifies our global marketing reach as we drive the inspiration to visit into bookings, boosting the economy and jobs across Britain.”
Expedia Media Solutions Global Senior Vice President Noah Tratt said:
“We are uniquely positioned as a full-service OTA to offer destination marketing organizations, such as VisitBritain, a holistic way to market to and engage travellers around the world at scale, with integrated merchandising and products to drive bookings for real proven results. This partnership with VisitBritain, which builds on our successful collaboration together over the last five years, will influence travelers across the purchase journey by highlighting the many hidden gems across all parts of the country throughout the year with easy ways to book a trip to Britain to experience their own #OMGB moments.”
The bespoke content platform would also allow for other partners, including airline partners, destination management organisations and travel suppliers to provide detailed local information about places that are not so well known by international visitors. A TV campaign will be launched in the US from January, to promote the great experiences and amazing moments that can only be experienced in Britain.
Developing products that makes it easier for overseas visitors to navigate Britain and experience more of what the nations and regions have to offer is central to the partnership, which has already seen the integration of bookable rail products fast-tracked onto the Expedia platform.
The ‘365 Days of #OMGB’ campaign is part of the UK Government’s global GREAT Britain campaign, which showcases the very best of what Britain has to offer as a place to visit, study and do business.
In August UK Prime Minister Theresa May launched a ‘Tourism Action Plan to ensure that Britain remains a top destination for visitors from across the globe.
And latest figures from VisitBritain showed that July was the highest month ever for inbound tourism to the UK with 3.8 million visits, up 2% on July last year. Overseas visitors to the UK spent £2.5 billion in July, 4% up on the same month last year.
Last year set a record for inbound tourism to Britain on visits and spend with 36.1 million visits, 5% up on 2014, and spending up 1% to £22.1 billion.
