Visit England’s Wallace and Gromit campaign to push UK bookings through the trade has boosted the travel agents’ image.
The tourism body led the ‘Holidays at home are GREAT’ campaign in May – supported by tourist boards of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and backed by £2million from the Government.
It encouraged Brits to holiday in the UK and book through travel agents.
In response, holidaymakers who are considering using travel agents for advice is up from 16% to 21% and using agents to book is up from 15% to 20%.
More see agents as offering ‘good value for money when booking UK holidays’ , up from 24% to 28% and those who believe ‘travel agents are knowledgeable about holidays in the UK’ have increased from 38% to 45%.
Visit England’s chief executive James Berresford said accommodation in England had seen 55% increase in business during the summer while attractions have seen a 66% increase.
He cited travel agents who were ‘upselling’ the UK by encouraging holidaymakers to book a UK short break to follow their annual overseas trip.
The tourism body said it was already discussing a high profile campaign for next summer with the Government, with the focus on growing international and domestic travel to other parts of England.
At the moment tourism to London accounts for 55% of the £97 billion spent by tourists in England.
Bourne Leisure’s head of retail sales, Allan Lambert said the campaign had increased brochure demand from agents.
He said support came from the independents and the multiples who saw the value in selling a non-competing product.
Shearing’s commercial director, Caroline Brown, said: "Wallace and Gromit helped us take it to social media and engage the audience. The campaign engaged both the direct consumer and the trade."
Shearings had just redeveloped its websites to make them more mobile-friendly in response to increased use of mobile devices by the over 55s.
Coast & Country, Bay Hotels and Shearings Holidays’ websites will be redesigned to be easy to view on a tablet and smartphone.
