Tourist Attractions: North East

(asked on 16th March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the tourism industry throughout the North East.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 28th March 2022

In January this year I chaired the first Inter-Ministerial Group on the Visitor Economy, where we discussed how the visitor economy could support the levelling up agenda. We are now running a ‘Policy Sprint’ to look at how we can turn that into reality by maximising opportunities for the North East of England. The overall aim is to deliver genuine impact in the region and beyond, and provide long term growth by realising the potential of the Visitor Economy to level up the North East.

VisitEngland’s current domestic campaign ‘Escape the Everyday’ features Newcastle and York as two of the highlighted cities. The ‘Escape the Everyday’ campaign encourages the “pre-nester”(18-34 year old) audience to book an English city break this spring.

We also launched the second round of the Escape the Everyday Destination Management Organisation (DMO) Recovery Marketing Fund in February, providing the opportunity for DMOs across England to apply for grant funding to deliver local marketing activities.

VisitBritain’s business events team work closely with NewcastleGateshead Initiative and has provided recent support to them in the form of free participation at MeetGB, free promotion on a virtual platform to promote the region to international association organisers, attendance at VB’s City Sustainability roundtable and providing them access to apply to the Business Events Growth Programme for International events.

VisitBritain’s business support team has engaged with the North East during a variety of events and programmes including the ‘Taking England to the World Education Programme’, a ‘Business Support Roadshow’ and the North East Tourism Awards, which were run by NewcastleGateshead Initiative.

VisitBritain has also hosted international travel trade buyers on educational visits across Britain, including four buyers from the Nordics Group who visited Newcastle and Northumberland. A variety of suppliers from the North East attended ExploreGB Virtual, including: Durham Cathedral, Hadrian's Wall Holidays, the Sandman Hotel Group and Alnwick Castle and Gardens.

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