Travel agents based in countries including India, Saudi Arabia and Brazil need more education and help in selling British destinations outside of London, a new report has found.
The new report by olive, on behalf of VisitBritain, found a lack of knowledge about destinations within the UK for emerging markets, with travel agents having a heavy influence on where they go.
London has the ‘dazzle’ factor and a status symbol but agents also have the opportunity to sell visits to the countryside and other cities to holidaymakers, according to the report.
Beaches are not a particular area of interest but promotion could focus on easy rail access, history and scenery.
Scotland is the best known location outside of London, although passenger statistics from 2013 show Birmingham, Bath, York and Southampton had some of the largest increase in visitors.
The East and West Midlands generally saw a ‘very healthy’ increase in holiday visitors last year as did the south west and Yorkshire, with all the UK seeing a boost in 2013.
International spend in the rest of England grew 15% last year while spend in Scotland went up 20%.
“We need to encourage people to come back time after time, which in turn will mean our visitors venture out across Britain. London is the global superstar of tourism destinations, a city that all around the world people want to visit. Because of this, we need to make sure we are inspiring them on the Britain-wide offering and informing on how easy it is to travel across the country in such a short space of time,” said VisitBritain’s director of strategy Patricia Yates.
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