The cities of Northern England, comprising Hull, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and NewcastleGateshead today announce the launch a new multi-city tourism experience in partnership with House of Britain, tailor made for the Dutch market.
All five cities are dynamic, post-industrial cities, founded on the forces of traditional industry, now being re-defined by an exciting cultural renaissance. Through art, music, theatre, architecture, restaurants, nightlife & events they are bursting with experiences housed in richly varied regenerated environments. Each city is naturally unique and has its own personality, yet as a group they combine to deliver a compelling travel offer that is not only culturally rich but also effortlessly travelled and experienced. From Victorian tunnel tours under the River Tyne in Newcastle to the secrets of backstage theatre production at Hull Truck Theatre; shop, eat and drink at Leeds’ former Corn Exchange and take a Skyliner ‘street art’ tour through Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Finesse your musical knowledge and skills in Liverpool, UNESCO city of music and home to the ‘British Music Experience’ housed in the famous Cunard Building
The ‘Experience’ is enabled by an easy-to-buy ‘North of England City Experience’ rail ticket created by TransPennine Express, starting in any city and allowing 4 days travel between the cities over an 8-day period – offering better value than individual tickets. House of Britain will also offer accommodation and sea ferry crossing.
The concept was developed following extensive research* with 25-45 year old ‘buzz seekers’ in the Netherlands.
The research showed:
- UK is the top desired destination in Europe for buzzseekers.
- 6 in 10 buzzseekers are interested in visiting regenerating cities with an industrial past.
- UK is the top place people think of visiting when they think of regenerating cities.
- Buzzseeking millenials prefer city breaks to rural breaks and are curious about seeking out new places with contrasts of ‘old and new’, a variety of activities and multi-city trips.
- They want trips that offer enrichment – personally and culturally.
- Welcome inspiration, and enabling offers but don’t want any constraints – they prefer to self-direct.
- Think Northern England is potentially the ‘real’ England
- Think united, the five cities become stronger together, making visiting the region much more compelling.
The North of England City Experience project is being managed by Marketing Liverpool on behalf of the ‘Cities of Northern England’ collective comprising the Destination Management Organisations: NewcastleGateshead Initiative, Visit Hull and East Yorkshire, VisitLeeds, Marketing Manchester and Marketing Liverpool. It is being launched at Vakantiebeurs in Utrecth, Netherlands on January 6th 2019. Packages are available at houseofbritain.nl/cityexperience
Aad Van Duivenbode, Managing Director of House of Britain said: ‘ With this new exiting 5 city programme including train connections from city to city in the North of England we estimate that this will create new visitors volume for the Dutch market. Together with P&O ferries as the main carrier to the North we are confident that this will be a great success. Consumers can choose to book all cities in one package, however it can be also tailor made.’
The North of England City Experience is one of a number of projects to benefit from the UK Governments £40 million Discover England Fund. The Fund is administered by VisitEngland and has been created to ensure that England stays competitive in the rapidly growing global tourism industry, by offering world-class English tourism products to the right customer at the right time. The Fund is a central government funded programme of activity, supported by match funding by partners in the public and private sectors. www.discoverenglandfund.org