Visit Greenwich
It’s happening in Greenwich As the country recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, people are starting to spend the money they’ve saved for coming out of lockdown. That, of course, is good news for the tourism industry, which has been hit harder than most during the last 16 months.
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n the UK, tourism is big business – at least, it is in normal times when there’s no pandemic to hinder its growth. Pre-pandemic, VisitBritain predicted that tourism would be worth more than £257 billion by 2025, just under 10% of UK GDP and support almost 3.8 million jobs, which is around 11% of total UK jobs. For 2021, VisitBritain’s forecast for inbound tourism is for £6.2 billion to be spent by visiting international tourists, only 22% of the 2019 level. For domestic tourism, VisitBritain forecasts a recovery to £51.4bn; this is up 51% compared to 2020 but still only 56% of the level of spending seen in 2019. In London, the Royal Borough of Greenwich already makes a significant contribution to this vital sector; in 2019 – a year of record levels of 20m visitor numbers and £1.5bn spend - Visit Greenwich was predicting that the value of the borough’s visitor economy would
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be on track to grow to £1.6 billion by 2023. With the forecast from VisitBritain, it is expected that 2021 will be 60% of 2019 levels and needing to wait until 2023 to see a return to the levels of 2019. This year, there’s plenty happening in Greenwich to aid the recovery, with the opening of new bars and restaurants; eye-catching art installations and picturesque walks on Greenwich Peninsula; an eclectic range of events to suit all types of audience, and major investment from businesses in the form of new housing, offices and public spaces. Visit Greenwich, which is responsible for tourism in the borough, is busily engaging with businesses and the local public, informing them of the exciting activities and events to come in the next few months. There are signs that this approach is working, particularly on social media. Visit Greenwich ranks
16th in Digital Visitor’s list of top UK destination management organisations (DMOs) for how well they engage with their followers on Instagram. Visit Greenwich is the only DMO in London to be ranked in the top 20. The organisation is currently overseeing several campaigns that are designed to drive footfall and spend to the borough. These include:
It’s Time to Escape the Everyday Escape the Everyday (ETE) launched on 17 May and runs through to 31 July, funded by VisitEngland. The campaign is targeting pre-nesters and families with pre-school children. The aim of the campaign is to drive bookings of the experiences that are directly bookable on the Visit Greenwich website. There are over 20 bookable experiences, with more continuing to come on stream.
