There are two routes to sell your product through the VisitBritain websites for many tourism businesses, the accommodation availability service part of the National Tourism Open Platform and the online shop for other tourism product, VisitBritain Direct.
Feature your product on our online shops
In response to requests from our overseas visitors, VisitBritain set up their online retailing arm VisitBritain Direct in 2006 to enhance the customer’s web journey from information gathering to travel. The idea being for the visitor to be able to buy British tourism products before they fly in their local currency. Since the launch, VisitBritain Direct has successfully opened 16 e-commerce retail shops around the world, covering a total of 24 markets. Featured products include Oyster cards, rail tickets, touring passes, books, maps, attractions and theatre tickets. VisitBritain is always looking for saleable British tourism product to include on our E-Commerce sites and for partners to act as third party distribution outlets. The e-Commerce & Retail Team at VisitBritain has three main roles:
To provide UK suppliers with retail opportunities across the Online Shops
To provide UK suppliers with off line retail outlets in a few key markets
To distribute the Online Shop platform to third parties using our affiliate scheme, white label shops and XML feeds
Products.
The shops offer a new and extremely effective route-to-market for tourism product suppliers and each shop will promote and actively sell your products. Promotions of the shop such as Pay per Click (PPC) campaigns have so far been very successful and sales have increased considerably. If you feel that your product or service would be of interest to any of our markets we would love to hear from you. There is no cost to entry - all you do is agree on a commission and provide VisitBritain with a full product description and images. Please note that we can only distribute products which are from or in the UK. Click here to see how your product could look on our shop.
For further information contact nicolina.ruff@visitbritain.org or call 020 7578 1099 or kevin.jones@visitbritain.org or call 020 7578 1102.
Availability service for accommodation
VisitBritain provides a live availability and pricing service to consumers looking for accommodation - think of it as a price comparison site. The service is distributed through the VisitBritain, VisitEngland and enjoyEngland family of websites and increasingly to third parties. The service operates alongside the listings on our websites. We do not operate a booking service, but work with a range of partners who provide us with availability and bookability through their site. We have a track record in providing comprehensive, high quality national travel product content including this availability service. We already distribute the service to third parties to deliver more business to you. Click on the 'distribution partners link on the left to see who we work with. The benefits are:
- No additional cost to individual accommodation business, we work directly with consolidators and accommodation groups
- No need to sign up with a new distribution partner – current partners include property management systems, destination management organisations, marketing groups and hotel chains
Individual accommodation providers
Your business could already be providing us with your availability, if you work with one of our partners. Do check your website listing on VisitBritain.com to see. Our partners include destination and regional tourist boards, hotel groups, consolidators and property management systems. As we operate an open platform to quality assessed properties, if your booking system is not connected, we may be able to work with them. Click on the 'availability partners' link to see a list of our current partners and find out how to get your system connected.
Accommodation groups
If you are a national accommodation group (e.g. hotel chain), accommodation consolidator (e.g. marketing consortium), property management system and wish to connect to us for additional distribution, please contact us. The service is reasonably straightforward to set up and there is not great deal of work for you to do, just have an appropriate api based system.
For further details please contact julie.guthrie@visitbritain.org or call 020 7578 1111.
Distribution
Both these options can be distributed through our third party distribution channels. Distribution gives us the opportunity to drive more value to your business at no additional cost to you. Click on the related link on the left or the to find out more and see who we work with.