International Marketing Programme

International campaign - highlights to date

Visit York works on an annual programme of engagement and promotion with the travel trade in conjunction with VisitBritain, UKInbound and England’s Historic Cities consortium. 

Initially post pandemic we will mirror the target markets that VisitBritain has set out for their international campaign in the USA and Europe with Asian markets set to follow later on.

In the meantime, trade engagement activity has continued, attending virtual or live trade events and seminars to make sure we keep York and our partners front of mind:

• OTT Online travel training platform for Visit York and York Pass and England Originals, higher levels of uptake on the training even during the pandemic when agents were unable to travel 
• Online trade events and webinars such as with Miki Travel, JAC Travel and Abbey Tours and ExploreGB with VisitBritain in March 2022
• Massive growth in Chinese social media numbers to 556,000 on Weibo regularly ranked in the top 20 for DMOs worldwide on Wechat
• VisitBritain fam trips from Korea and Japan
• Bespoke York trade toolkit featuring our key partners and a York specific presentation featuring all key partner venues as well as a dedicated programme of pre and post follow up for all events, with introduction emails to interested operators
• Working with Custom GB on a series of articles and newsletters going out to the US travel trade
• England Originals campaign with England's Historic Cities continues to promote York as one of cities featured on the Treasure Trove itinerary to the US travel trade and DMCs

Existing markets pre pandemic for the international campaign:

1: USA
2: China
3: Australia & New Zealand
4: Germany
5: Netherlands

You can find more detail on work being undertaken in the individual country sections which we will be updating on an ongoing basis, as the campaign progresses.

New for 2022

We are now reviewing opportunities. We are also undertaking a review of our international target markets to make sure we are evaluating what our best prospects will be going forwards looking at our existing core markets, current VisitBritain trends and the latest spend data and insights from York BID/City of York Council.

Trade Events and Workshops

World Travel Market 7-9 Nov 2022

We will be attending WTM with Visit Leeds on the UKInbound stand this autumn. The ultimate destination for travel and tourism. World Travel Market London is the market leading international travel event unlocking business opportunities for inbound and outbound tourism professionals. 

This B2B event allows tourism businesses from around the globe to showcase their brand and exhibit at the show. Attendees from over 160 countries and over 3,000 exhibitors.

VisitBritain's ExploreGB 2023

We will be taking part in the next ExploreGB event in Spring 2023. Details to be confirmed.

NEW Chinese Student Ambassador scheme 

We are setting up a new ambassador scheme with the University of York to tap into their network of students whilst in York and to encourage them to take part in the programme, visiting our members and sharing and posting articles which will entice their fellow students to enjoy what we have to offer now and for their friends and family to visit later when they can! Making sure York remains front of mind for them. 

Get involved

Please do get in touch and register your interest with Michelle Brown, Marketing Manager by 25 October to start getting involved and shape York's international marketing programme.