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UK tourism eyes once-in-a-generation opportunity
Laurence Bresh, Visit Britain’s marketing director Britain, says this year’s London Olympics will be "the first real social media Olympics" and to compete destinations will need to be very aware of what’s being posted about them on the various social media channels.
"You need to be on top of social media to know what’s being said about your destination, and to respond to what’s being said," Bresh added.
Visit Britain monitors online conversations 24 hours a day, seven days a week from various points around the world. "We communicate messages and we respond to messages very quickly," Bresh said.
Visit Britain has 800,000 Facebook followers and a quarter of a million followers on the Chinese micro blogging site, Weibo.
Visit Britain has used Olympic athletes from Australia to blog about their experiences while visiting the UK. "It’s more effective to have people like that tweeting about Britain rather than us telling people how wonderful Britain is," said Bresh,
Bresh said it was crucial that Britain made the most of the Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations to promote tourism to the UK. "If we don’t capitalise this year, we won’t get a chance for another generation," he added.
By Ian Jarrett
Ian Jarrett
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