Britain shows off its style to Asia

Britain came to Bali in May to promote its GREAT image – Great music, great luxury, great culture and great countryside.

Britain came to Bali in May to promote its GREAT image – Great music, great luxury, great culture and great countryside.

The Britain is Great message was delivered by more than 50 UK suppliers to 84 of the region’s top travel agents, including Mayflower  Acme Tours, Golden Holidays  and Mitra Tours and Travels from Kuala Lumpur, and Chan Brothers Travel from Singapore.

Japan, India and the UAE were heavily represented among the buyers.

Visit Britain said it is “nurturing” the markets of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea, and would be stepping up its BritAgent learning programme for overseas travel agents to incorporate increased interaction with agents, offer rewards, as well as a new events calendar and a visitor itinerary building tool.

Christopher Rodrigues, chairman of VisitBritain, said the APMEA region was “more important than ever” because while it provided 11% of visitors (3.7 million) to Britain, it produced 24% of the total spend. He said Visit Britain would be enhancing its engagement with the trade with whom it had “underinvested”.   

Responding to reports that indicated Chinese travellers were now more interested in culture than shopping, Rodrigues said, “We do well with shopping in Britain and we’re world class in culture. Whatever they want, we’ve got it.”

Jaco Coetzee, Visit Britain head of trade and commercial, said a new travel trade website would  be available in nine languages and would include a directory to allow agents to search for companies with whom they could work - “like an online dating service”, he added.

In 2014, inbound visitor numbers to Britain reached a record 34.8 million, up 6% on 2013.

Scotland was prominent at the event, promoting its 2015 Year of Food and Drink,  Wales showcased its 2016 Year of Adventure, England expanded on its Year of the English Garden in 2016, while Ireland drew attention to the Wild Atlantic way, 

Sumathi Ramanathan, VisitBritain regional manager, Asia Pacific and Middle East, said VB was working with the top three or four travel agents in each of the ‘nurturing markets’ and encouraging them to diversify their products while offering destination training and some joint-marketing initiatives to stimulate demand.

She said a major challenge was to present Britain as a destination for families and while the country might not match the United States for theme parks, it still had plenty to offer family groups.

Recent trends, she said, were for visitors to shop beyond the big department stores and seek bespoke goods, food experiences and explore local markets