The Government announced on 5 December that it is committing a further £90 million to the overall GREAT campaign over the next two years. £45 million will be allocated in 2014/15 and £45 million in 2015/16, a significant increase on this year’s allocation of £30 million.
This new funding pot will go a long way to continue the world-class marketing under the GREAT banner, which has already helped secure record amounts of spend from overseas visitors, just one year on from the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The GREAT image campaign
The global showcasing of Britain in 2012 did wonders for Britain’s image around the world, particularly in tourism’s new growth markets. The challenge, however, is to make sure that the millions who watched Britain on their screens come to experience it first hand.
2013/14 sees the third year of the match-funded £100 million GREAT Britain programme, with additional funds invested by Government for an image campaign. It’s part of a broader Government initiative to show the world that Britain is a great place to visit, study in, invest in and do business with – tightly integrated with the work carried out by the other government agencies and departments such as the UKTI, FCO and British Council along with DCMS.
The programme has three simple aims:
- Build awareness of our attractiveness as a tourism destination amongst those who have not yet visited Britain.
- Encourage prior visitors to return.
- Provide a series of opportunities and incentives to visit Britain now, working in partnership with the private sector.
Objectives
The programme is designed to both build the aspiration to travel to Britain, and to increase the number of people visiting the UK. The combined objectives over the four years are:
- 4.6 million visitors
- £2.3 billion visitor spend
- 57,000 job opportunities
- £460 million in tax revenues
Progress so far
By March 2013, (which was the end of the second year of the programme) it had achieved:
- 1.92 million visitors from overseas – 25% ahead of March 2013 target
- At least £0.96 billion visitor spend – 25% ahead of March 2013 target
- 24,000 new job opportunities – 25% ahead of March 2013 target
- £6.9 billion in PR coverage – 600% of four-year target
- Britain has moved up 1 place to 4th in overall nation brand ranking and moved into the top 10 for welcome
- Partner support for activities worth £26 million in cash and in kind – 50% of four-year target
- VisitBritain modelling estimates that the GREAT image campaign has potentially generated a return of £200.25 million and 422,000 visits to Britain, indicating a return on investment (ROI) of 8:1.
- 72% of the audience in target cities recall seeing the GREAT campaign.
- 23% of those who recall the campaign plan to visit in the next year as opposed to 11% of those who do not recall the campaign.
- Analysis of the first year of GREAT Britain activity has revealed that it has potentially delivered an additional 422,000 visits from the target cities.
- Across all of the survey cities, people strongly agreed that the promotional work made them want to visit places outside London.
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