English Tourism Week
Be A Local Tourist
English Tourism Week (10-18 March) in the South East was an important one for local businesses with the key message to ‘Be A Local Tourist’.
Friday 16 March - National MPs Constituency Day
MPs across the country went back to visit their local constituency. Prime Minister, David Cameron flew back from the United States to the Four Pillars in Witney to join Lady Cobham, Chairman of Visit England at the Oxfordshire Cotswolds Tourism Businesses Networking Event. He presented Charles Holmes, CEO of the Four Pillars Hotel Group, was recently presented with a Silver Green Tourism Business Award accreditation across the whole group of hotels. The industry had an opportunity to examine the value of tourism to the nation as well as demonstrating its role in promoting the Oxfordshire Cotswolds to tourists and visitors.
John Bercow, MP for Buckingham and Winslow and Speaker of The House of Commons, visited Buckingham Tourist Information Centre. He was briefed by the Town Mayor, Mike Smith and the TIC team.
In the same week Damian Hinds (East Hampshire’s MP) visited Petersfield’s Tourist Information Centre. It was a great opportunity to highlight the many services that the centre provides to both the local residents, visitors and businesses and the vital role it plays in improving the economy of the District.
Tourist Information Centres were a popular choice as James Berresford, CEO of Visit England opened the Tourist Information Centre in Worthing
History Revealed
MLA Renaissance History Revealed project promoting 15 museums in Hampshire & the Isle of Wight used the event to highlight the wealth of history on the doorstep.
From posters on buses, articles in local papers and a radio campaign on Wave FM, the week was kicked off with actors adopting well-known historical figures in Winchester, Portsmouth and Southampton.
Other events
VisitEastbourne invited local businesses and social media users to a tweetup and networking opportunity to encourage the local community to make the most of tourism and event opportunities.
The Kent Big Weekend saw tourism attractions and venues offering a number of free tickets for one weekend to kick-start the main season 79,500 applications had been received by the time the website closed for new entries at midnight on Monday 13 February – 27,800 more than last year. The applications were entered into a ballot for each of the 123 attractions available and the 16,500 free tickets allocated.
More than 1,115,600 page views were recorded during the three weeks that the website was live for applications. On average, people spent more than 11 minutes browsing and viewed at least 28 webpages while selecting attractions they would like to visit. Two coach parties from northern France joined thousands of Kent residents visiting the county’s top tourist attractions during the My Kent Big Weekend.
Visit Kent, the event organisers, joined forces with travel company Eurolines and Eurotunnel to highlight Kent’s cross-Channel links during the annual celebration of the county’s tourism economy. The itineraries for the French guests included The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Dickens World, Rochester, Canterbury Cathedral, Chilham, and the Rough Old Wife Cidery, Old Wives Lees, near Canterbury.
And on Saturday (March 24) two coach parties of Kent people headed to Calais, Boulogne and Dunkerque to enjoy such attractions as the International City of Lace and Fashion, Europe’s largest aquarium, and the Museum of Cassel.
Sandra Matthews-Marsh, chief executive at Visit Kent, said: “The ease of going to France for a day out is a major attraction which brings many people to stay in Kent. I am delighted that we have been able to include our cross-Channel providers and our tourism partners in France in the My Kent Big Weekend this year. We received more than 2,353 applications for our Transmanche coach trips in the My Kent Big Weekend ballots which really shows how much local people enjoy a day trip to France and beyond.”
