VisitEngland’s bid for additional funding from the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) was successful, it was announced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The money will be used on a three-year project entitled, ‘Growing Tourism Locally’. A key part of the project will be a national campaign aimed at inspiring Britons to take more short breaks and holidays at home and in doing so grow jobs in the tourism sector.

James Berresford, VisitEngland’s Chief Executive commented: “This is a huge boost for VisitEngland as the country’s national tourist board, working in partnership to facilitate growth at a local level, and an acknowledgement of the value of our industry to England’s economy. With this additional money we can mount a serious campaign to stimulate domestic tourism that has the potential to create the equivalent of 9,500 full time jobs in areas across the country suffering economic challenges.”

Mr Berresford goes onto say: “Our strategy is to work with tourism partners and the private sector at a national and local level. Our partners will manage elements of the campaign pertaining directly to their local destination, whilst VisitEngland will manage the national strategy which will support this local activity. We will work closely with Government on the next stage of the process which determines the terms and conditions of the funding.”

‘The national marketing campaign will see VisitEngland working closely with private sector partners to match fund the grant received from the RGF.

The campaign will capitalise on next year’s once-in-a-generation events like London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, The Diamond Jubilee, the Cultural Olympiad, and the Torch Relay that will act as a catalyst to showcase the whole of the country.  

The funding applied for will be allocated to a number of destination partners in England that will work closely with VisitEngland to design and implement local campaigns. Some of those partners have already been confirmed and include Marketing Manchester, Marketing Birmingham, Bath Tourism Plus, Visit Peak District and Derbyshire, Cumbria Tourism and Visit York. In addition to targeted activity in these areas there will be a series of thematic campaigns focusing on countryside, heritage, coastal and business tourism.