PR Campaign to promote the best of the region

A national South West England PR campaign will be launching this week to promote the region to potential visitors, with the aim of generating additional tourism spend for the region in 2010.

If you have any news relating to re-developments / key events / openings / late availability offers / or anything that you feel would fit with the below themes and be relevant for national coverage then we would like to hear from you.

Please send your suggestions to: pressoffice@swtourism.org.uk

The PR campaign, is being funded by the South West RDA and managed by South West Tourism and will run until March 2010, targeting visitors from the South East, Midlands and London.

The agency chosen to deliver the PR campaign is McCluskey International, based in London, who has a strong track record in delivering regional / national and international destination PR. 

The campaign, targeting social-media channels as well as national press and broadcast opportunities, will focus on key themes to complement the regional marketing campaign, and will launch at various times during the 7 month campaign.

These themes will be:

• Business Tourism
• Festivals and Events
• City Breaks
• Spring / Summer in the Countryside
• Activity Breaks
• Regional Produce, Food & Drink
• Green Value
• Easy Pre School

McCluskey International has also devised bespoke mini PR campaigns for each theme which will focus on the new and undiscovered aspects of the region, or ideas for visitors to rediscover the South West.

Tim Stubbings, Corporate Marketing Manager, South West RDA, said:

"This is a key part of the RDA's £1.1 million investment in regional promotion during 2009/10. Whilst optimism around the economy may rise over the coming months, it's unlikely that pressures on consumers' pockets will ease for some time. Reminding people that the South West offers visitors a great welcome and unbeatable ‘value for experience', year round, is incredibly important to maintaining our position as the UK's destination of choice."

Kirsty Cumming, Deputy Director of South West Tourism, said:

"This is the first national dedicated South West England PR campaign for a few years now, so we are delighted to be managing this again on behalf of the region and looking forward to working with McCluskey International. Our research shows that next year is likely to be tough for the industry so the PR campaign could not be launching at a better time, as it will hopefully help towards increasing early and last minute bookings and boosting tourism for 2010.

The campaign will also have a strong social media element by enabling visitors to interact with each other about their experiences; a growing trend of how visitors are starting to book their holidays."

Judy McCluskey, agency principal, McCluskey International, said:

"We represented South West Tourism for four years between 2003-2007, so to see it return is especially pleasing. As a region it is blessed with some of the UK's most accomplished tourism product and breathtaking scenery, and we will be aiming to do it justice with some accomplished and breathtaking PR to match."

Date added: Wednesday 23rd September 2009
Latest updated: Thursday 8th March 2012