VisitCornwall along with its counterpart, Visit Devon, has welcomed comments made by the Tourism Minster identifying the two counties as being ‘super destinations’, prime for targeting overseas visitors.
John Penrose considers Cornwall and Devon, alongside London, in their attractiveness among high-spending overseas visitors and urges the tourism bodies for the two counties to work with the local tourism industry to promote the region.
Malcolm Bell, head of tourism at VisitCornwall, said: “We are highly encouraged to be recognised in this way but with limited budgets our promotional spend has to be thoroughly considered and underpinned by the drive for effectiveness and maximum return on investment.
“92% of our visitors are domestic so our marketing spend reflects this with the majority of our activity being UK focused. We obviously recognise the importance of the remaining 8% of visitors that come from overseas and with Germany being our strongest market we are working with Visit Devon on a targeted campaign to capitalise on this.
“To attract visitors from other overseas destination we require the support of VisitBritain and following Mr Penrose’s positive views for the region, we would like to see Cornwall and Devon featured alongside the likes of London in its £100 million drive to make Britain the must-see destination.”
Rose Bates, general manager of Visit Devon, added: “Cornwall and Devon enjoy a successful partnership targeting German speaking markets and this is supported by private sector investment so we are pleased that through this work we are already practising the Tourism Minster’s recommendations.”
As part of the German promotional campaign, VisitCornwall and Visit Devon exhibited at ITB in Berlin which is regarded as being one of the most important trade and consumer events in the worldwide travel industry. The region is now hosting a series of German press visits and assisting with media enquires to generate quality coverage. A German Facebook page has also been launched.
