Wallace and Gromit front campaign to encourage more Britons to holiday in UK
VisitEngland campaign aims to provide growth boost for UK’s fifth-largest industry.
A new VisitEngland campaign to encourage ‘staycationers’ has been unveiled by Tourism Secretary Maria Miller today.
The GREAT Adventure advert is due to air on TV from 12 May. It sees Aardman Animations’ creations Wallace and Gromit travel up and down the UK, exploring the best of what the country has to offer to inspire more Britons to holiday in the UK. It forms part of VisitEngland’s award-winning Holidays at Home are GREAT campaign.
The £4 million campaign, led by VisitEngland and supported by the tourist boards of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, aims to raise domestic tourist spending by £80 million and encourage more than 1 million overnight stays. It follows last year’s hugely successful campaign which featured Stephen Fry and Julie Walters.
Maria Miller said: “As the UK’s fifth-largest industry, tourism delivers £115 billion per year to our economy, and employs almost three million people. So when we increase the number of visitors from both home and abroad, and that means economic growth, jobs and success for our country.
“Not so very long ago, people would visit their travel agent and almost automatically think of a holiday in Spain, Turkey or another part of Europe. The word ‘holiday’ became almost synonymous with the word ‘abroad’. Holidays at Home changes that.
“Wallace and Gromit are two of our best-loved characters, and are another example of our creative industries exporting British culture around the world. So, who better to be the faces of this new campaign, showing us why Holidays at Home are GREAT.”