TravelMole Interview: Deirdre Livingstone, VisitBritain

Tuesday, 10 Sep, 2003 0

VisitBritain’s Deirdre Livingstone explains how the organisation will spend £4 million on a campaign to boost short breaks to Britain.

The money will be spent on showcasing 19 British cities in 11 European countries between now and Spring 2004. VisitBritain head of partner marketing, Deirdre Livingstone, says the countries were chosen because they were already the largest source markets for UK short breaks.

According to VisitBritain, during 2002 over 14 million visitors came to Britain from the eleven countries in the campaign – Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

She told TravelMole: “We launched last week in Holland, we are launching this week in Ireland, and next week in Belgium. This means working with the press in the various countries, and with the trade including hotels, ferry operators, attractions, and airlines.”

According to VisitBritain the number of short breaks taken in the UK was boosted by the increasing number of no-frills flights available. Ms Livingstone told TravelMole: “We are promoting cities that are do-able in four days, so connectivity is very important.”

She added that the UK was becoming a more popular destination because people were increasingly taking holidays closer to home. She said: “According to the IPS (International Passenger Survey), in 2001 there were 5.7 million visits to the UK by Europeans that were between one and three night’s long. This is set to increase.”

She said the timing of the campaign was carefully planned: “We are running the campaign in Autumn because that is typically when people take their second or third holiday. We are saying to people, ‘take a break from work’ or ‘come for a short holiday now the kids are back at school'”.

Ms Livingstone said that according to VisitBritain research the strengths of the UK are its culture, food, accommodation and accessibility. She said the campaign would be capitalising on these strengths.

VisitBritain has set up a dedicated website for each of the European countries which includes infomation about Britain as well as over 1,000 special offers that run up to Spring 2004. The organisation is also working with non-travel companies for the first time – undertaking direct mail with MG Rover and American Express.

In a statement the organisation said: “Today, city breaks are the fastest growing sector in the European travel market and the signs are already good that the UK is in pole position to lead the field: nearly two-thirds of the total number of visits made this year were from Western Europe.”