In the UK the most important ‘tourist board’ is VisitBritain, which has a wide range of responsibilities including the promotion of the UK as a destination throughout the world.
Within VisitBritain, each country has its own tourist board:
- VisitEngland
- Visit Wales
- Visit Scotland
- Visit Northern Ireland
An example of one of the campaigns organised by the national tourist boards is shown below.
Recently, VisitEngland and the host nation tourist boards of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London, started running the biggest-ever domestic marketing campaign to date. The campaign called Holidays at Home are GREAT! was designed to encourage Brits to take more domestic short breaks and holidays.
Over the past four years, the campaign has featured top stars of stage, screen and animation. Key components include a high-profile TV advert designed to inspire consumers, a website providing offers and discounts, and supporting resources and materials for industry and travel trade.
Our GREAT story started with four of our best-loved actors – Michelle Dockery, Julie Walters, Stephen Fry and Rupert Grint.
Our first Holidays at Home are GREAT! campaign was designed to boost the numbers of Brits visiting UK destinations and showcase the wide range of experiences to be had in this country and the exceptional value they presented in the special year of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The initial campaign involved a TV advertising campaign fronted by four of our best-loved actors – Stephen Fry, Julie Walters, Rupert Grint and Michelle Dockery. The ad featured the themes of coast, countryside and city, with a call to action to visit a specially designed website portal for the campaign. The website featured special deals from our industry partners including discount vouchers and other great offers and linked directly through to individual businesses’ websites for further information and to book directly with the provider.
Activity
After reading the information above, working in pairs, develop a ‘story-board’ for a television advertisement to encourage domestic tourists to visit a destination where you would live. Which actor would you choose to feature in your advertisement?
You could produce a series of sketches to show how the advertisement would look. A PowerPoint could also be produced.
Downloadable Content
- Word (.docx): U3-3.1-R7-Tourist-Boards.docx