VisitBritain Partners STA Travel

VisitBritain has partnered STA Travel to jointly market Britain as a tourist destination for the youth market over the next four years.

The deal between the two parties is worth over £2.8 million and will help boost visitor numbers to the country, capitalising on the unique opportunities provided by the recent Royal Wedding, next year’s Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Games.

Sandie Dawe, Chief Executive of VisitBritain said, “This agreement is an opportunity for VisitBritain to utilise the expertise that STA Travel has overseas and will help bring an added focus for our ‘Great Britain You’re Invited’ campaign in the all-important youth travel market. Britain is already a leading international destination for overseas visitors and our marketing programme aims to ensure we continue to compete and grow the value of tourism to this country against fierce global competition.”

STA Travel is the most recent private sector company to contribute towards a £100 million fund that will be used to market Britain overseas, with the private sector match funding the £50 million already committed by VisitBritain. The four-year marketing campaign aims to see an additional £2 billion being spent by overseas visitors across the UK.

The focus of STA Travel’s contribution to the ‘Great Britain You’re Invited’ campaign will be in a portfolio of markets including Australasia, China, Japan, Russia and the USA which are high priority areas for attracting visitors to Britain. It has an influential and experienced presence in these countries with staff that will be able to help drive multi-media campaigns aimed at key target audiences, adding to VisitBritain’s acknowledged excellence in social and digital media.

Group managing director of STA Travel, John Constable, said, “We are delighted to be working with VisitBritain on this important four-year project. The UK is going to be firmly in the spotlight for the 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games and by working with VisitBritain we can showcase how wonderful the UK is as a destination through the global reach of our distribution network.”

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