Get involved in English Tourism Week

This year will see the first English Tourism Week 2012 (ETW12), a week-long celebration of activity designed to showcase the value of our industry, highlighting the contribution made by businesses large and small, public and private, to our local communities and to the national economy.

The ETW12 campaign plan has been designed to raise English Tourism's profile with national and local decision makers, the media, those who work in the industry and those considering a career in the industry. ETW12 particularly seeks to communicate the value of tourism at a local level, its importance to the local economy as a job creator and to the residents' quality of life. For the first time we'll be targeting the tourism ambassador on your doorstep!

VisitEngland, supported by a Steering Group, has put together a campaign plan which provides a national umbrella of media activity enabling leadership at local level. With that in mind ETW12 will kick start on March 10th with what we're describing as a Wonderful Weekend of activity and special events aimed at reminding local residents of the tourism experience on their doorstep. We've had some great early adopters from a Great Cake Bake Competition at Bodiam Castle to backstage tours in London. During the body of the week the Best of Britain & Ireland Show will provide a platform for travel trade and media engagement.

We have written to English MPs reminding them of the value of tourism in their part of the country and suggesting they demonstrate their support by visiting a tourism business in their constituency on Friday 16th. We're also suggesting that "Captain's of the Tourism Industry" might like to demonstrate tourism career opportunities by going "back to the floor" on that date too. The final weekend (which includes Mother's Day) provides destinations and businesses with a second opportunity to invite the public to experience tourism on their doorstep.

Since 2005 Visit Kent has been running a "Big Day Out" promotion designed to encourage local engagement and support for tourism. The VK team report that last year's Big Weekend Out generated an estimated £250,000 in secondary spend; 34:1 ROI and priceless word of mouth recommendations. They'll be running their 2012 Weekend on 17-18 March and recommend that destinations join them to open or close this special week. At www.englishtourismweek.co.uk you will find more information (including the Visit Kent case study and offer of support) ideas and inspiration and a complete tool-kit of easy to edit posters to help you promote your activities during the week, ETW12 logos, email and web banners, handy guides and official brochures for your use.

VisitEngland is working with the Mirror on a "Tourism Super Star" competition and will be using their corporate and consumer communications channels to generate ETW12 awareness but we now need your help in inviting your businesses and organisations all over England to join in the celebrations and get involved in the week.

We hope you will agree that this is a great opportunity and supports your work with local businesses in promoting the wonderful tourism products on offer in your destination and providing you with a vehicle to kick start your local tourism season in a year which could otherwise so easily be dominated by national events. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
• Use the English Tourism Week branding and invite your local tourism businesses to get behind and involved in the week.
• Email out the "How to get involved" flyer and suggest that your businesses contact you with what they intend to do. Emphasise the point that there will be a lot of noise behind the Tourism Week and Wonderful Weekend and they can benefit from it.
• Maybe you have a particular idea or theme of your own you could use? You could suggest to local hotel, restaurant or business associations to encourage them to adopt it and share ideas.
• Publicise ETW12 through your destination website, newsletters and mailings.
• Display ETW12 posters.
• Write to your MP and invite him or her to get involved on Friday 16 March. (For info they have also been invited to attend an MPs reception hosted by the Tourism Alliance on Monday 12 March - you'll find details in the ETW12 tool-kit).

New this week is an online submission form where you and your local tourism businesses can enter events and promotions taking place over ETW12 and VisitEngland will feature on its corporate or consumer website. If you require any further information or would like to comment on this initiative please email etw@visitengland.org

We hope you will join us in this promotion of our industry in what we all expect to be a very exciting year for us all!

Kind regards,

David Curtis-Brignell
Chairman of the English Tourism Week Steering Group