Britain promotes countryside
VisitBritain goes regional as it brings its picturesque British countryside to the attention of the travel agents and tour operators.
VisitBritain now wants travellers to look outside of London. It has therefore brought its culture and countryside to the travel agents’ attention through yet another Bollywood campaign - ‘Bollywood is Great’ in partnership with Turkish Airlines. This is the first time that the airline is partnering with a national tourist board on a global level.
Sumathi Ramanathan, Regional General Manager (Asia Pacific & Middle East), VisitBritain, explains, “One of our core strategic objectives is regionality as in travel beyond London and exploring the picturesque British countryside. Our core synergies with the film
Shaandaar are well matched as it has been extensively shot in the English countryside of Yorkshire, Durham and Leeds and in the North of England. We want the Indian traveller to see Britain in a new light and encourage them to visit places within the beautiful countryside.”
VisitBritain will conduct a webinar for the travel agents and tour operators in January next year introducing them to the re-launch of BritAgent and the new visa module from UKVI. “We will continue with our trade seminars and presentations throughout the year, Explore GreatBritain in February-March 2016 and the Great Tourism Weeks in August-September 2016,” Ramanathan adds.
This campaign has a focus across Turkish Airlines’ five regional gateways - Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh, as well as London’s Heathrow and Gatwick. The 12-month marketing partnership will see VisitBritain and Turkish Airlines develop an international marketing campaign and will initially focus on Indian, Saudi Arabian and other Gulf markets.
Produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions,
Shaandaar is a rom-com starring Bolywood actors Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. Saif Ali Khan is VisitBritain’s spokesperson and is part of the existing ongoing Bollywood Britain campaign since March 2015 which is a much larger campaign. When asked whether VisitBritain would ever consider appointing a Bollywood brand ambassador, she says, “VisitBritain can only consider appointing a Goodwill Ambassador or a spokesperson as we are always working with challenging budgets.”