Port Blair, Mar 17: Visit Britain shone the spotlight on Birmingham, the West Midlands and Great Britain in an event in Kolkata on Wednesday, 16 March 2022.
The team invited tourism industry stakeholders from the eastern region to showcase the UK tourism and hospitality and driving bookings ahead of an exciting summer. Representatives from around 40 tourism agencies and Associations from the east of India attended the event.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Nick Low, British Deputy High Commissioner to Kolkata said: “It’s a treat to have our friends from Visit Britain, the United Kingdom’s national tourism agency, back in Kolkata. And the timing couldn’t be better – the United Kingdom will lift all its remaining pandemic international travel restrictions from this Friday! Let’s fall in love again? No! Because we’ve never fallen out of love. This year we are highlighting the magnificent West Midlands, truly the Heart of Britain. Home to Shakespeare, the Commonwealth Games, three cities, four boroughs and a royal town. Cradle of the industrial revolution and now a green workshop. And enough world-class arts, culture, cuisine, history, shopping and sport to last a lifetime. Let’s go!”
In his visit to Kolkata, Mr. Vishal Bhatia, Country Manager, Visit Britain said: “India is a very important inbound visitor for the UK – visitors from India spent £753 million across the UK in 2019 – and we know there is pent-up demand for travel from India. The UK already enjoys favourable perceptions in India, ranking 4th out of 60 countries for ‘historic buildings and monuments, and ‘interesting and exciting contemporary culture’ in the 2021 Nation Brands Index.
We have a year of landmark, unmissable and historic events this year in the UK, including Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and ‘Unboxed,’ the UK-wide celebration of creativity – all set to be global tourism draws and offering visitors from India once-in-a-lifetime experiences that they can only have in the UK– as well as the return of favourite annual festivals and events.”
Focusing on diversity, the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games is the ‘Games for Everyone’, with Birmingham a truly global city, home to people from more than 180 countries.
Being held from 28 July to 8 August 2022, the Games will be the biggest sporting and cultural event ever held in Birmingham, with thousands of world-class athletes, more than one million spectators, and an estimated global audience of 1.5 billion. Alongside the sporting programme is a six-month cultural festival, the Birmingham 2022 Festival, underway from March, to celebrate creativity across the West Midlands.
The Queen’s Baton Relay is travelling around the Commonwealth, with a recent historic stop in Dubai, UAE, as part of UK National Day at Dubai Expo, and the UK before arriving in Birmingham for the Opening Ceremony on 28 July.
Visit Britain launched a paid consumer content campaign with Reliance JIO, one of India’s largest Telecom service providers and content creators. It includes developing new content to promote experiences and boosting awareness of activities and attractions across the West Midlands, inspiring Indian travellers to include these on their next trip.
The first phase sees a series of short films with two Indian ‘influencers’, on-air in India from 20 February on Jio’s digital platforms (Jio TV & Cinemas). The initial promotional video can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCu2FFA1rec (NB credit Jio Creative Labs).
Hosting a series of trade engagement events and travel industry educational roadshows across India to promote West Midlands and the tourism products on offer, driving bookings.
The focus is also to extend travel packages by two to three nights, broadening travel itineraries and encouraging visitors to explore further and stay longer. Everyone can read more about the trade engagement plans in a recent article in India’s TravTalk magazine with Visit Britain’s business manager Shuja Bin Mehdi here.
