Skift Take
VisitBritain is gung-ho on developing and curating travel content to promote lesser known destinations in England, Scotland and Wales, while at the same time expanding the travel conversation among visitors with each other.
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VisitBritain's CEO Sally Balcombe will speak about marketing destinations to next generation consumers at the Skift Global Forum on October 14 and 15 in Brooklyn, New York. See the complete list of amazing speakers and topics at this year’s event.
VisitBritain is responsible for promoting travel to England, Scotland, and Wales, but it needs to do that in new ways to remain relevant for younger, digital-savvy audiences keen on exploring areas outside London and Edinburgh, especially.
The biggest development is the new VisitBritain.com website launching in October, which will have more of a storytelling delivery and more robust content highlighting local experiences in the countryside and second-tier cities.
That is representative of the shift among destination marketing organizations into something more resembling travel media companies, where the priority is the end user experience and user interface versus a billboard for destination partners.
The new website will also showcase a growing roster of travel influencers, travel sector-specific experts, and other outside content creators who can engage their own audiences to share Britain's travel experiences in a more authentic and organic manner.
Looking ahead to 2016, VisitBritain is going to begin promoting the region’s vast meetings and conventions sector. Previously, the organization believed that the individual cities and convention centers were best suited for that role. However, with increasing competition especially in the association market, and the booming convention district development in places like Manchester and Liverpool, there’s considerable opportunity to grow market share with the additional promotional efforts the national DMO can provide.
VisitBritain’s CEO Sally Balcombe oversees the organization’s repositioning of the destination brand and the shift toward more digital content targeting the next generation consumer, but she hesitates to call Great Britain a mature brand overall.
"Are we a mature brand?" she asks. “I think there are large parts of Britain that are not well known, that are not a mature brand in many people's minds, including American minds. Americans do know Britain, do love the Brits, and we love you, but I think there's a huge amount of the brand and the product that we've got that is not known and is potentially new and exciting.”
Following is our conversation with Balcombe about the futu
