VisitEngland’s latest ‘Growing Tourism Locally’ results announced

Local marketing campaigns deliver jobs and growth boost for England

Visit England’s ‘Growing Tourism Locally’ campaign has generated £416 million in additional tourism spend to date and created over 7,700 new jobs in the sector, latest data reveals.

The three year campaign, that runs to March 2015, is funded by £19.8m from the government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF). The total investment for the campaign is £41.6m including contributions from VisitEngland and the private sector, with the aim to inspire UK residents to take more holidays at home and stimulate employment to grow jobs in the tourism sector.

This latest round of results reveals the impact of local marketing campaigns that took place over the Spring and Summer of 2013, in partnership with a number of destinations across the country. These campaigns alone have generated £185.1 million in tourism spend and 3,428 additional jobs for the sector.

Tourism Minister Helen Grant said:

"The tourism industry is making a huge contribution to economic growth and job creation. These fantastic results show the government’s investment in the industry is helping to generate additional tourism spend and creating thousands of new jobs across the country."

The campaign included destination based campaigns featured across a selection of national and regional print, broadcast and digital media. Campaigns included amongst others a ‘Kids Love Cornwall’ campaign promoting family friendly breaks, a campaign in Newcastle titled ‘Have the Tyne of Your Life’ championing the ‘Geordie city break’; and a heritage themed campaign in Durham featuring attractions including Beamish Museum.

James Berresford, VisitEngland’s Chief Executive said:

"The Growing Tourism Locally project continues to deliver fantastic results, creating jobs and providing a boost for tourism in England by showcasing the high quality product on offer in England through these creative marketing campaigns. It demonstrates the benefits of public and private sector partners working together to stimulate the visitor economy. After a successful first year the project continues to build on this success in its second year, with destinations throughout the country benefiting significantly from this investment."

Get involved via twitter

To celebrate the contribution tourism is making to the economic, we’re asking people working in the sector to tweet a picture of the industry through their eyes, showing the inspiring views and workplaces that make the industry such a great place to work in and develop a career.

If you work in the tourism sector you can take part and follow the conversation using the hashtag #MyTourismJob

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