From the 7th to the 22nd March, tourism destinations from Northern England are staging a Northern takeover of London’s award-winning City Information Centre (CIC). The two week showcase will be a celebration of quality and variety of reasons to ‘Go a Little Further’.
Members of the Liverpool Tourist Information Centre took over the centre this week to answer questions about the city region, suggest itineraries and promote competitions and special offers. Thousands of visitors passed through the centre and were told all about the city region.
Jackie Crawford, Information Services Manager at Liverpool City Council, said:
“Too many people have very little knowledge of England outside of London. They are unaware of the fantastic visitor offer we have in Liverpool, how easy it is to get here and that, contrary to popular belief, the sun does shine and there’s excellent food & drink available. This gave us the opportunity to tell tourists in London about the culture, history and events we have and how accessible it is from London.”
The northern takeover is one of the most visible Northern Tourism Growth Fund activities (NTGF), a one-off £10M Government investment designed to increase the share of international tourists visiting Northern England. Most activity has focused on sales missions and media trips to raise awareness of Northern England in the important markets of USA, Australia, China, Germany and Holland – where there are existing transport routes that don’t necessitate travelling through London.
With evaluation due towards the end of 2016, the Northern Tourism Growth Fund expects to deliver an additional 3,000 jobs and £177m of incremental spend. Liverpool is one of the tourism destination partners involved in the activity programme, which represents the Northern Powerhouse in action.