City’s growing Fab Four ‘industry’ is worth £90m a year and supports more than 2,000 jobs and now Cavern City Tours has struck a deal with New York-based SiriusXM. Tony McDonough reports
They were ‘four lads who shook the world’ and the Beatles continue to be a major draw for visitors to Liverpool, worth an estimated £90m to the local visitor economy every year.
The city’s Beatles ‘industry’ is growing at up to 15% a year and supports more than 2,000 jobs and Cavern City Tours has now launched a new drive to get the message out to 50m radio listeners across North America.
Cavern City Tours, which owns the Cavern Club and operates the Magical Mystery Tour, has brokered a major deal with the largest satellite radio company in the US, New York-based SiriusXM, to promote Liverpool’s Beatles offer.
The deal will see SiriusXM, one of the world’s largest subscription audio companies with more than 33m subscribers and over 50m weekly listeners, promote the Beatles Industry Group, which includes The Beatles Story, Hard Days Night Hotel, Magical Beatles Museum, the Beatles’ childhood homes and Marketing Liverpool.
The campaign will run until January and incorporates on-air promos across multiple SiriusXM channels (including The Beatles Channel), a dedicated page on the SiriusXM website, social media posts, and inclusion in SiriusXM’s email newsletter – which is sent to over 18m subscribers across the US.
There will also be a competition to win a visit for two to the city to follow in the band’s footsteps, which has already attracted tens thousands of entries shortly after launching.
Bill Heckle, director of Cavern City Tours, said: “Liverpool is extremely popular with American visitors, many of whom come because they’re huge fans of The Beatles and want to see where it all began.
“We see this day in, day out at the Cavern Club and on the Magical Mystery Tour, and SiriusXM has its own dedicated Beatles channel because the band’s music remains so in demand in the US.
“To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the White Album, we are launching this campaign in the US to promote the city and offer one lucky pair the opportunity to visit Liverpool for a packed five days.”
To see the full campaign, click here. Or to find out more about the Beatles tourism in the city, click here.