11 March 2008

Tourist Industry Roundup

We're up to our eyes in it as usual, but we still like to stay abreast of what's happening with our friends and colleagues in the industry. So, here are a handful of news-items we've 'homed in' on this week:

On 23rd April the 'Tourism Oscars' will take place in St Georges Hall, Liverpool, in celebration of the 2008 European Capital of Culture and St George’s Day. Amazingly, this is the first time in its 19-year history that the Enjoy England Awards for Excellence will be held outside London, so it will be quite a feather in NW England's hat. Fingers crossed that the region will also receive some recognition from the judges.

Some of you may be interested to learn that a new microsite has been launched to support the year-long Culture 08 campaign (organised to celebrate some of England's best cultural attractions), which includes a journey planner, travel itinerary with Google maps, a 'My Events' section and an 'Inspire Me' functionality, which randomly generates event details that the user could attend across England.

According to TravelMole, the "UK is the sixth most competitive country when it comes to tourism". An international study has revealed that we have moved up from 10th position in the Global Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report (put together by the World Economic Forum) - showing a marked improvement in areas such as environmental sustainability and air transport infrastructure. However, we received a comparatively low score for safety and security, coming way down the list in 65th place!

Many of you will no doubt be attending the British Travel Trade Fair in Birmingham this week - we'll be there ourselves to assist Cadw with their stand on the final day. We wish you a successful show and hope that you get plenty of useful networking opportunities. We would love to hear your thoughts on this year's event, and also, if Karl Lornie, the Paul McCartney tribute act, is a good as they say he is!

2 comments:

flopowell said...

Karl Lornie was indeed a fantastic Paul McCartney tribute act, he entertained the audience and surrounding exhibitors with some excellent beatles tunes, providing welcome relief to the day. He has Paul's expressions down perfectly!

Paula Bardell-Hedley said...

Many thanks for your comments, Flo. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the music. -- Paula