Government launches £4m campaign to promote UK tourism

Stephen Fry, Julie Walters, Harry Potter's Rupert Grint, and Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery, are to be the faces of a new £4m government campaign, aiming to persuade us to take our holidays in the UK this year.

The campaign, to consist of a series of TV adverts, acknowledging the London Olympics and Jubilee celebrations this summer, will have the strapline: “There's so much happening in Britain in 2012, why on earth would you want to go abroad!"

The adverts will first be aired on March 8. It will be the biggest-ever campaign for domestic tourism in the UK.

The campaign has attracted criticism from those involved in the outbound tourism industry who are already facing the challenge of selling holidays to a nation in recession.

The potential impact of the Olympics and the Jubilee on tourism, both within the UK and from overseas, remains a matter of some debate.

While such major events might be considered a boon to the UK economy and to the travel industry in particular, many observers suggest the impact is more complicated.

As we covered in the February issue of CSMA Club Magazine, UK tourism may suffer a decline as a result of the Olympics. While hotels in London – and in many commutable areas around the capital – have raised their prices to capitalise on demand for the Olympics, that demand has not so far come to fruition.

"Forward bookings are dramatically down," Tom Jenkins, executive director of the European Tour Operators Association told us. "At some point hotels will correct their prices... London will fill up during the Olympics but it will be people who have found cut-price last-minute deals."

While many foreign tourists will be giving London a wide berth during 2012, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt intends the new ad campaign to promote more tourism within the UK.

Hunt is also promoting a Visit England scheme offering 20.12 per cent off trips within the UK and has been touring the country urging local businesses to take advantage of opportunities afforded by the Olympics, and the pre-Games torch relay.

However, companies attempting to sell foreign holidays to a cash-strapped nation, see the campaign as an own goal. Kane Pirie, of online travel agent Travel Republic, commented: “This is a scandalous waste of public funds, not least as it is totally futile. The government is in danger of positioning itself between UK voters and their most loved annual treat - a break in the sun at least once a year.

“With eye-watering increases in hidden holiday taxes this year, the government seems hell bent on crippling the outbound travel industry. Using some of those taxes to openly campaign against us is the last straw for me."

Research has shown that 12 per cent of Britons plan to take a holiday abroad specifically to avoid the Olympics.

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