Visit Lincoln & Experience Nottinghamshire launch American Visitor Campaign

Visit Lincoln and Experience Nottinghamshire have launched their first joint overseas promotional campaign to attract more American visitors to the region. Together, they form one of a number of successful applicants to benefit from the £2 million GREAT UK Challenge Fund, part of the Government’s GREAT Britain campaign. Activity includes three new themed itineraries, short promotional films, attending travel trade events to meet US operators and a high profile press visit for American travel journalists. Representatives from Visit Lincoln and Experience Nottinghamshire also attended Explore GB on Wednesday 2 March 2016, a two day travel show arranged by VisitBritain in Liverpool, and attended by international buyers and tour operators. Emma Tatlow, Head of Visit Lincoln, said: “For the first time Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire are working together as neighbouring counties to promote the region to American visitors. The activity is capitalising on all the good work that was done last year with the United States for the 800^th anniversary of Magna Carta. “America is a huge market to tap into. Nearly three million American visitors came to Britain in 2014, and whilst here they spent £2.94 billion on accommodation, food, heritage visits, sightseeing and shopping. “The GREAT campaign project aims to deliver significant and long term increases in tourism for the region. Our goal is to raise awareness of the region to US tour operators, to improve their product knowledge of the destination, and encouraging inclusion in their programmes. Long term, this will support growth in the region’s visitor economy. Sarah Thursfield, Head of Marketing at Experience Nottinghamshire, said: “American visitors love our history and heritage. We know that just over 50 percent of trips are to London, and just under 40 per cent take place across the rest of the country. This project has enabled us to encourage American visitors to Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire as an addition to the capital, or to come back to our region for their next visit. There is still a lot of work to do, but we’re already seeing results, with the promotional films capturing 88,000 views since they were launched”. The three new American themed trails are called The Trail of the Mayflower Pilgrims, The Legend of Robin Hood and Magna Carta, Kings and Castles. Each one has been created to inspire more visitors from America to experience the region’s heritage offer. The trails include attractions such as the new David P.J Ross Magna Carta, the £22 million Lincoln Castle Revealed project, King John and Newark Castle, as well as Nottingham Castle, Southwell Minster, the Archbishops Palace and the National Civil War Centre. The funding from the GREAT Britain campaign has been part matched by a group of stakeholders based across the region. The promotional activity started in September 2015 and will run until March 2016. Visit www.lincsandnottstours.com to see the itineraries. The activity and promotional videos can be viewed at www.britainisgreat.com/lincs-and-notts-tours.