Industry Toolkit

January 2012 saw the launch of Visit Britain’s (VB’s) new initiative to encourage past customers, friends and relatives to Britain in 2012 as part of their GREAT Britain – You’re Invited campaign.

As Lancashire’s 2012 includes such significant events as the 400^th Anniversary of the Lancashire Witch Trials, the Preston Guild , the Open Golf and Centenary of Blackpool Illuminations there’s no better year to encourage customers, friends and relatives to revisit Lancashire.

VB’s online tourism industry toolkit is available free of charge to help you participate in, and benefit from, the campaign. The toolkit includes adverts, newsletter templates, posters and e-cards which you can personalise with your own message and tailor for your own use.

This is an important new phase of VB’s £100 million four-year marketing programme to gain greater international exposure and increase the number of visitors to Britain.

Working in partnership with you, they aim to reinvigorate Britain’s appeal in core markets such as the US and increase business in the important growth markets such as the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries. VB’s goal is to deliver 4 million visitors over four years who will spend an additional £2 billion.

A variety of free tools are available for the public to help send their invite to friends and relations around the world. This includes a ‘10 GREAT Reasons’ app on our Love UK Facebook page. International friends or relatives who receive an invitation will be entered into a draw to win two return flights to the UK while anyone sending an invite has the chance to win a Samsung Galaxy Tab. The Visiting Friends and Relations market is worth £3.6 billion and offers huge potential for each region in UK across the whole of 2012, which is the year to be in Britain.

Expedia, one of the world’s largest online travel websites and one of our industry partners, is supporting the campaign by pushing out messaging and invites via their extensive database using the “Share Your GREAT Britain” strapline.