VisitBritain's annual travel trade event for the tourism industry now in its fifth year, opens 8–10 May 2019.
VisitBritain is gearing up to host its annual flagship travel trade event to sell destination Britain to the world.
ExploreGB takes place in Harrogate, Yorkshire where more than 250 international travel buyers from 31 countries will do business with more than 320 tourism suppliers.
ArtFund has chosen its five nominees for Museum of the Year 2019, including one from each of the devolved nations. The winner will receive £100,000.
The nominees are:
Dundee has benefitted from Scotland's first museum of design, V&A Dundee, since its opening in September 2018 with a boost in visitor numbers.
V&A Dundee has welcomed more than 340,000 people in its first three months of operation. Other cultural venues in the area that have benefitted from the new musuem include:
Discovery Point – site of the Antarctic-exploring RSS Discovery ship and museum – saw its visitor numbers increase by 40 per cent in 2018
McManus Art Gallery & Museum saw a 31 per cent increase.
Arts Council England and the Centre for Towns are collaborating on a project to find out more about cultural infrastructure and engagement in towns across England.
Aiming to publish findings in autumn 2019, the organisations looks to fill the gaps of other studies which have traditionally skipped over cultural engagement in towns.
VisitBritain's I Travel For campaign continues to show the world the unseen side of the UK, launching in France in February 2019.
The print, cinema, social media and Métro advertising campaign runs until the end of March, and is intended to introduce potential French tourists to the less explored destinations in Britain and experiences they may not have thought possible just over the Channel.
Watch one of the campaign videos below.
IT is one of Manchester's most iconic pubs - but the historic Mr Thomas's Chop House which first opened its doors in 1867 is about to get a radical name change.
Owner Roger Ward is renaming it Mrs Sarah's Chop House in honour of the formidable ladies who ran the Victorian pub dining rooms at a time when women weren't even allowed inside the fashionable Chop Houses of Manchester, in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Liverpool City Region's 10 year celebration of being named European Capital of Culture saw 2.2 million visitors and the economy boosted by £85 million, four times that of 2017's figures.
Highlights of the programme were:
China Dream – nine month season including China's First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors exhibition, Chinese New Year (20,000 and netting £609,611), plus two visual arts installations: Presence at St George's Hall and This Is Shanghai in the Cunard Building (garnering £407,362).
The world-renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe is now worth over more than £200 million. Its value has increased by around a quarter in the last eight years boosted by a large increase in visitors.
VisitBritain is aiming to attract inbound tourism from the US with a video and editorial content partnership with the Matador Network.
Started last month, Matador has published a combination of beautiful videos and articles written about itineraries for the UK. Itineraries include The Big Smoke, Great British City Hop, Royal Britain, Scottish Highlands By Rail, Gourmet Britain, Welsh Escape and Outdoor Adventure. The intention is to encourage "buzzseekers" to visit and take advantage of the huge cultural, heritage and outdoor experiences unique to the UK.
Five areas will share £20 million, the first government investment of its kind, from the Cultural Development Fund to increase access to arts, heritage and the creative industries, while boosting the local economy by attracting more visitors to each area and supporting the growth of new businesses.
Grimsby, Thames Estuary, Plymouth, Wakefield and Worcester will receive the funding to invest in culture, supporting economic growth and creating more than 1,300 new jobs across the country, as part of the Creative Industries Sector Deal.
