VisitBritain looks at Hollywood packages
After appointing actor Saif Ali Khan as spokesperson for its ‘Bollywood Britain’ campaign, VisitBritain is now mulling over creating similar packages based on Hollywood movies filmed there. Sumathi Ramanathan, VisitBritain’s Regional Manager for Asia Paci
What is the reason behind ‘Bollywood Britain’?
VisitBritain has a long-standing history of working with Bollywood and we have been focusing on marketing in India mainly through film tourism. The concept of set–jetting - when people travel to film locations – has become very popular with Indians. So this campaign is just an evolution of what we have already been doing since the past few years in India.
“Bollywood Britain” focuses on romance, targeting honeymooning and young couples but not restricted to them. We are working with TUI to showcase five packages ranging from a three-day to a nine-day itiner- ary to see different locations where Bollywood romance movies have been filmed. This is the first time we have worked with a tour operator to develop Bollywood-specific itineraries.
Most travellers forget that a single UK visa includes four countries of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England. Ninety per cent of visitors go to London, one per cent to Wales and nine to Scotland. So there is so much scope.
What’s the next step on film tourism?
We are looking to promote the locations where Hollywood movies have been filmed in the UK.
What kind of numbers does UK see from India?
Britain welcomed over 375,000 visitors from India (10 per cent increase from previous year). This touched 312,000 in 2014 between January and September that was a straight 2.6 per cent increase from the same period in 2013. This makes India the biggest source market for visitor numbers from the BRIC countries.
Which cities are doing well?
We see that Tier 2 cities like Kochi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Chennai are showing very good response. The awareness about Britain is low here so there’s real opportunity.
we expect this year’s DestinationBritain to be bigger?
The eleventh edition of DestinationBritain will bigger this year with at least 60- 70 suppliers. It will have three major themes: Countryside, Culture, Luxury.
Filming in the UK is being handled by our sister company called UK Trade & Investment in Mumbai. It has a creative section under which films fall and they have been working very closely with the new Deputy High Commissioner in terms of making it easier for Bollywood producers to film in the UK.