Rituparna Chatterjee – Liverpool
VisitBritain is looking to attract 42 million international visitors by 2020. In 2015, Britain received 35.8 million inbound tourists, up by four per cent on 2014. This information was shared by Joss Croft, Britain marketing director, VisitBritain at the inauguration of ExploreGB, the annual flagship event of VisitBritain, which was held at ACC Liverpool from March 3 – 4, 2016. Croft stated, “We are expecting 36.7 million visits in 2016 and a spend of almost £ 23 billion by overseas visitors, up by 4.2 per cent on 2015. These figures show that we are on track to realise our ambition to grow international visits to Britain by more than 20 per cent to 42 million visits by 2020, which could see an additional £ 4.5 billion in visitor spend.”
This growth will be driven across all regions through various initiatives, Croft highlighted. For instance, VisitBritain has launched its largest campaign for 2016, #OMGB GREAT Britain – Home of Amazing Moments, to promote memorable moments visitors can experience only on a trip to Britain. Presently, the campaign is running across Brazil, France, Germany and the US and will be introduced in other markets as well.
Speaking at the inauguration, Joe Anderson, mayor of Liverpool pointed out the diverse tourism offerings of Liverpool. He stated, “We have a diverse range of experiences to offer here from cathedrals to football clubs to universities among others. We are proud of our infrastructure and architecture.”
Highlighting the need to open up the tourism potential of North of England, Chris Brown, director of Marketing Liverpool pointed out that the real strength of this region lies in its architectural, historical, cultural, etc diversity, offered within a very compact environment. Some of these attractions he mentioned include Lake District, Cumbria; Chester Rows, Cheshire; Blackpool, Lancashire; Alnwick Castle, Northumberland; Saltaire, West Yorkshire; Albert Dock, Liverpool; Leeds, Yorkshire, among others.