Marketing Liverpool have been successful in securing £1m over two years from the ‘Discover England Fund’ to develop two exciting new tourism products which will go on sale to international audiences in 2018.
The ‘collections’ project is one of a number of bids to benefit from the UK Governments £40 million Discover England Fund. The Fund is administered by VisitEngland and we will be working together on a programme of activity to ensure that England stays competitive in the rapidly growing global tourism industry, by offering world-class English tourism products to the right customer at the right time. The Fund is a central government funded programme of activity, supported by match funding by partners in the public and private sectors.
The ‘Urban Collective’ and ‘Renaissance Collection’ will be new culturally-led bookable and commissionable ‘collections’ created across and connecting Newcastle, Hull, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool for audiences in near European markets.
The ‘collections’ will reflect the dynamic spirit shared by the cities, all of which were founded on the forces of traditional industry and are now defined by a bold cultural renaissance, housed in richly-varied urban and regenerated environments. The new packages, featuring inbound and inter-city transport offers, accommodation, food and drink, art, music, literature, theatre, dance, sport, architecture, festivals and events will go on sale in near European markets in autumn 2018.
This is one of a number of successful projects made possible by HM Government’s £40m Discover England Fund, administered by VisitEngland.(www.discoverenglandfund.org).
This project will be led by Marketing Liverpool and follows a successful pilot in 2017 led by Visit Hull and East Yorkshire on behalf of the cities of Hull, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. The pilot project developed a ‘Transpennine’ cultural experiences offer for near European markets, anchored by the creation of a Cultural Rover Rail ticket, enabling travel between the 4 cities across an 8-day period.
The new £1m project is focussed on engaging with business sectors across all 5 cities to create new audience-driven bookable commissionable products. Marketing Liverpool will work in partnership with Marketing Manchester, VisitLeeds, Visit Hull and East Yorkshire, NewcastleGateshead Initiative, other public bodies and the commercial sector to deliver the project.
Chris Brown, Director of Marketing Liverpool said, “We are delighted to have been successful securing £1m from the Discover England Fund and to be leading this project on behalf of our fellow northern cities. Combined with the on-going wealth of cultural activity already being developed in our regenerating cities, this project will enable us to build a viable and established long-term tourism offer, enabling visitors to navigate the journey between the cities and book the activities and accommodation in a simpler and more efficient way, contributing to economic growth across the north.”
VisitEngland Chief Executive Sally Balcombe said: “The calibre of submissions reflects the innovation in product development thriving across the country’s tourism landscape. The successful projects will boost international and domestic visitor growth creating a step-change in the industry and spreading the economic benefits of tourism across England. Marketing Liverpool’s winning project showcases the re-emergence and regeneration of our iconic urban cities, giving visitors the opportunity to discover the cultural renaissance taking place across the north.”
For further information, please contact Sydney Cronin at scronin@lccdigitalserver.co.uk
For further information regarding the Discover England Fund, please contact Charlotte Sanders at Charlotte.Sanders@visitengland.org
Notes to editors:
About Marketing Liverpool
We are the Liverpool City Region’s destination marketing organisation (DMO) working in association with the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to promote the city region as a global destination for visitors, conventions and investment. It was established in 2013 and is a division of Liverpool Vision, the Mayor of Liverpool’s economic development company. It is responsible for communicating the city’s brand positively and imaginatively to local, national and global audiences. We work with our partners in business, visitor economy, cultural organisations, educational institutions and community groups to promote the city as a place to live, work, visit, invest and study.
Marketing Liverpool through its Convention Bureau also works to attract major conferences and events, increasing the number of visitors and improving Liverpool’s reputation as a leading UK business destination.
About the Discover England Fund:
In November 2015, the Government announced a £40 million Discover England Fund, an unprecedented opportunity for English tourism. The Fund delivers world-class bookable tourism products, joined up across geographies and/or themes; including integrated transport solutions to provide an end-to-end customer experience.
The Fund supports the growth of one of England’s most valuable export industries, inbound tourism. Tourism is an industry that delivers jobs and economic growth across the English regions. The Fund supported 20 pilot projects in year one (2016/17) that tested product development approaches. In years two and three, 2017-19, the fund will support:
- A number of large-scale collaborative projects to be delivered over the two year period 2017-2019 that will create a step-change in bookable English tourism product for international consumers.
- A smaller funding pot for new one year pilot projects (in year two).
- Continuation funding for existing year one projects that demonstrated early learnings (in year two).
About VisitBritain/VisitEngland
VisitBritain/VisitEngland is the national tourism agency – a non-departmental public body funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS)
Working with a wide range of partners in both the UK and overseas, their mission is to grow the volume and value of inbound tourism across the nations and regions of Britain and to develop world-class English tourism product to support growth aspirations. For further information and to access the latest in-depth market intelligence statistics visit www.visitbritain.org or www.visitbritain.com and
www.visitengland.com for consumer information.