Get out of London, industry told

London sells itself, so Visit Britain is leading the charge to get travellers into the regions.

“The government said in the manifesto for the election that they would like to see regional growth speeding up,” Visit Britain strategy director Patricia Yates said.

The aim is that clients see regional English product when they go to travel agents and tour operators in all international markets.

This push was clear at Visit Britain’s Explore Great Britain conference in Liverpool, which hosting 320 international buyers from around the world.

In its second year, it hosted nine buyers from Australia who had the chance to meet 300 suppliers.

They included representatives from Tempo Holidays, Helloworld, Infinity Holidays, Access UK, Holidays on Location, Odyssey Travel, Outdoor Travel, Venture Holidays and British Travel. Explore_GB_Liverpool_2016-172

“Australia is one of the markets were travel trade is maintaining or growing,” Visit Britain marketing director Joss Croft told Travel Weekly.

Croft links this to the volcano eruption in Iceland several years ago.

“This was a stimulus to book through the trade, if things didn’t go well they have an agent looking out for them,” Croft said.

Australians travel across the year, in low or shoulder season.

“They travel across the whole of the UK and that’s really important,” Croft said.

Australia is the tenth market in terms of visitation but it is the fifth in terms of average spend, at more than a billion pounds a year.

Croft predicts that Australia will become the third biggest spenders by 2020.

Britain recorded record growth last year, with a 4% increase in arrivals on 2014 figures to 35.8 million visitors.

Tourism is one of the fastest export industries in the UK but it is crucial to stay competitive, Croft said.

Arrivals growth has led to an increase in spend, which is up 4.5%.

There is a strong emphasis on China, with one of the four international directorates dedicated to the country alone with the three other divisions of Asia, Europe and Americas.

“It sometimes feels like a land grab with the time and resources we are putting into China,” Yates said.

Visitation from China is up 37% from last year.

“For future prosperity we need to be competing effectively there.”

America remains the “most valuable market” but there has been a decline in visitation figures, which the tourism body attributes to a baby boomer brand proposition.

“We need to get a more modern contemporary appeal,” Yates said.

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