Britain as a visitor destination in global spotlight in run-up to historic Coronation celebrations and beyond

24 April 2023

Promoting our tourism and hospitality offer.

Britain as a visitor destination will be in the global media spotlight with the upcoming Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III and Her Majesty Queen Camilla with official celebrations fast approaching and VisitBritain is taking the opportunity to promote ‘destination Britain’ and inspire travel.

VisitBritain’s latest international consumer research shows the draw of Britain’s history and heritage in driving inbound tourism. The chance to explore Britain’s history and heritage was among the top sought after activities for potential visitors, as was visiting its iconic cultural attractions.

VisitBritain is harnessing the valuable opportunity to promote Britain globally as a visitor destination and promote messages of warm British welcome, a top driver globally in destination choice.

Stats and facts:

  • Windsor Great Park: most-visited attraction in UK in 2022 - with 5.6 million visits (ALVA annual statistics 2022).
  • Tower of London: most visited ‘paid for’ attraction in UK in 2019 (3 million visitors).
  • Westminster Abbey: saw 1.5 million visits in 2019.
  • Windsor Castle: oldest, largest occupied castle in world received around 1.5 million visitors in 2019-20.
  • Windsor town: second most visited day trip destination by inbound visitors (after London) in 2019. 
  • More than 11 million inbound visits a year to the UK include a visit to castles and historic houses, with these visitors spending £9.2 billion in total on their trips. Visits to religious buildings topped eight million with those visitors spending £6.7 billion during their visits.
  • In 2022, English Heritage reported that 10 of its historic attractions enjoyed their best visitor numbers since records began and a further six of English Heritage attractions welcomed their biggest crowds in over a decade.
  • In 2019, according to the Royal Collection Trust - the Royal residences saw a record 3.3 million visitors generating £49 million.

How are we promoting Britain in the run-up to the Coronation and beyond:

International campaigns:

As part of our international GREAT Britain campaign 'Spilling the Tea' we have launched ‘His MajesTEA’.

‘His MajesTEA’ is being highlighted internationally alongside destination images of Britain’s history and heritage, its parks and gardens, in the run-up to the Coronation and beyond. The campaign uses a play on Britain’s love of tea, through destination images and short films to tell a fresh and exciting story about the experiences on offer, showing visitors that ‘whatever your cup of tea, we’ve got it.’

VisitBritain wider promotion across its channels:

We're using the reach of our global channels to highlight the Coronation celebrations and associated experiences and destinations throughout 2023.

  • Our global media centre hub is also featuring Royal inspired destinations and experiences telling the stories of places and inspiring visitors to discover more, travel further and stay longer, as well as a dedicated Coronation content hub.
  • We're also working with the travel trade and media in market to sell Britain with Royal-inspired content packages.

UK trade/industry:

VisitBritain.org - Industry toolkit now available to download with a ‘Coronation emblem’ and GREAT logo that businesses/industry can use to promote Royal related products/experiences across their own marketing including social channels.

VisitEngland.com - new content live on events across Bank Holiday weekend and beyond, from major exhibitions to castle sleepovers and bespoke afternoon teas. 

See below for more from our global network:

A right Royal celebration in Sydney!

We hosted a Coronation & Eurovision street party gathering 60 members of the Australian travel industry, airlines, media & public diplomacy partners to celebrate our rich royal heritage. The event highlighted the importance of the Australian market for inbound travel to Britain, showcasing key events & reasons to visit in 2023. The British High Commissioner to Australia delivered a video welcoming guests and celebrating the strong cultural ties between the two countries. Winners in a very competitive game of British trivia including a hotly contested paper aeroplane competition received GREAT branded hampers with British goods, including VisitBritain x Tregothnan’s His MajesTEA tins.

British Airways and VisitBritain welcomed tens of thousands of visitors to London over the Coronation weekend with a giant celebratory mural on the London Heathrow flight path, designed by local children.

British Airways celebrated the Coronation with other events including a flight from Heathrow to Cape Town crewed by staff with variants of the name Charles and Camilla, and lounge access at Gatwick and Heathrow for customers with the surnames ‘King’ or ‘Queen’.

 

Left: Our team in the GCC meeting with Mohamed Al Rais and Ahmed Al Rais from Al Rais Travel at Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, promoting the great reasons to travel to Britain in 2023, highlighting new products and experiences and showing visitors from across the #Gulf region that ‘whatever your cup of tea, we’ve got it in Britain’.

Right: UKinbound CEO Joss Croft, Simon Penney His Majesty's Trade Commissioner for the Middle East and Pakistan and His Majesty’s Consul General to Dubai, VisitBritain’s Gavin Landry, Carol Maddison and Tatiana Khoreshok.

In the GCC, we attended the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) which was attended by Simon Penney, HM Trade Commissioner for the Middle East and Pakistan, and HM Consul General to Dubai, where we have been meeting with trade trade across the Gulf Cooperation Council states to highlight the See Things Differently campaign and encourage bookings to Britain, with the Coronation a major hook.

On his recent State visit to Hamburg, HM King Charles was presented with a tin of 'His MajesTEA', part of the 'Spilling the Tea on Great Britain' international marketing campaign to inspire international visitors to discover more about Britain.