Braced For The Easter Rush

Where has January gone? Soon it will be ‘silly season’ (the frenzied run up to Easter) for LDS Tourism Services and we will be dashing from one TIP to another, distributing all the last minute brochures and leaflets. Believe it or not, literature continues to arrive at our warehouse right up to Good Friday - but we always do our upmost to get the best coverage possible in whatever time remains.

We were delighted to read on the TravelMole website that British Airways and EasyJet are to offer low cost flights from twelve European countries to 10 UK cities as part of a tourism drive by VisitBritain - among them Liverpool and Manchester. The promotion follows last year’s 'See More Britain For Less' campaign, which highlighted the affordability of travel to the UK. Apparently, the latest campaign is “based around contrasting themes” of the chosen cities “with information on traditional and contemporary experiences with a twist”. The campaign’s micro-sites can be accessed via visitbritain.com

If you have five minutes to spare, it is also well worth checking out the Why We Love Britain page on WinkBall. Reporters have been dispatched to find out what “one thing” people love most about being in Britain. You can see their answers and add your own video messages too, but please ensure you have javascript enabled and flash installed first.

Visit Chester and Cheshire (VCC), the tourism management organisation for Cheshire and Warrington, held an ‘At Home’ event in their offices above Chester Railway Station on 21st January. Diana, Jenny and Hayley went along to the informal gathering to catch up with long-standing associates, meet others involved in the local tourist industry and chat with the team about their plans for the future. The evening was extremely successful, with plenty of networking opportunities and an abundance of Moët and delicious nibbles laid on. A big thank you to all at VCC from the managers at LDSTS for a very pleasant evening.

Jenny and Hayley will also be attending the Success Through People day at Haydock Park Racecourse on 4th February. Be sure to say “hello” if you bump into them.

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Image: VCC offices, Chester © LDS Tourism Services Ltd, 2010

The Holiday & Travel Show

Manchester Central (11th-13th January 2008)

Paula and Diana have just returned from a very busy three days on the Cadw stand at the Holiday & Travel Show, which took place at Manchester Central (formerly the G-Mex) last Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Diana talking to a member of the public

With over 800 exhibitors from the UK and abroad, the event attracted a wide range of people with an interest in travel and sightseeing. The Cadw stand was particularly popular with couples and families looking for things to do on their days off - and also with students studying in the North West.

View from the Premier Lodge hotel room

Over 300 people entered the competition to win a year's free membership of Cadw, and many others picked up leaflets about the individual monuments and castles. The event was a tremendous success for all concerned!

New Displays in Moto Services

We are delighted to announce that we are again taking on the Manchester Birch Service Stations on the M62 between Junctions 18 and 19.

After signing a contract with Moto, via our colleagues Take One Media, we now have exclusive display rights in the foyers of these exceptionally busy sites – as well as the eastbound and westbound Travelodge Hotels.

As I’m sure you will agree, these outlets are a tremendous addition to our ever-expanding Motorway Services Network. If you would like your leaflets to be displayed in these sites, please contact Hayley, our Business Development Manager, for further details.

City Breaks in Britain

New research released last week by VisitBritain, the national tourism agency, suggests that Brits are embracing the buzz around city break destinations.

The report makes interesting reading. Apparently, the most visited English cities are London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle, Liverpool and York - which is great news for the North West.

It would seem that eight out of the top ten most visited destinations in England are cities. The number of overnight visits made to the eight cities in 2006 was more than 22.8 million, indicating that city breaks on our own doorstep are of huge appeal to domestic tourists. To capitalise on and further encourage this popularity, the Enjoy England team at VisitBritain have launched a new campaign to inspire Brits to visit city break destinations. City Breaks offers Britons a wealth of reasons to visit 36 cities the length and breadth of England via their dedicated website.

Information on the website is broken down into 9 handy categories, each containing relevant city holiday ideas. These range from ‘Arts and Culture’, ‘Food’ and ‘Shopping’ through to ‘Music’, ‘Romance’ and ‘Fun with Friends’ – aiming to enthuse and inspire with lots of great ideas. The campaign has already been complimented by a 52 page Guardian supplement on 29th September, showcasing the cities involved in the campaign and driving people to the City Breaks website.

The campaign follows the successful City Culture campaigns run in the past two years, where 97% of website visitors said they had been encouraged to visit different parts of England than they had previously considered. This is a breakdown of the results:

1. London - 10,959,000
2. Manchester - 2,490,000
3. Birmingham - 2,287,000
4. Bristol - 1,825,000
5. Blackpool - 1,787,000
6. Leeds - 1,436,000
7. Scarborough - 1,383,000
8. Newcastle upon Tyne - 1,298,000
9. Liverpool - 1,257,000
10. York - 1,247,000

Incidentally, you can find our home city of Chester on their list, too!