I think the problem is the fragmented approach outside London both in terms of tourism and Investment.
In London you have a large region already with Cambridge, Oxford, Blenhiem, Woburn etc on the periphery. They have an over arching umbrella, in all spheres, London is London with Heathrow seen very much in a default position as the gateway to the UK and promoted as such in Government and the media etc
In the North you have various Investment bodies within an hour and in some cases a few miles apart all desperate for monies.... and don't mention the tourist offering !
For VisitLondon see Marketing Manchester, Visit Liverpool Visit Yorkshire plus Visit Cumbria and N Wales tourist boards.
It's a shambolic approach. Do the various tourist sites, hoteliers, coach companies, airports talk to each other about a seamless offering ?
There is no central organisation as all the neighbours are squabbling with each other.
Naturally when you also throw airports in the mix Liverpool wants its tourist inflows to use Speke and Yorkshire to use LBA and rightly so. The long haul offering of Manchester then also gets muddy. Should LH visitors to Liverpool or Leeds hop on KLM or Aer Lingus ?
MAN once had aspirations as The Long Haul Gateway To The North.... but nearly all eg American inflows are polarised and now begin and end on coach tours seemingly starting at LHR.
One only has to look at vacations in the UK advertised on US Sites.
Heathrow 3 nights London
Cambridge
York
Liverpool
Blenhiem
Heathrow
Practically every tour is now shaped that way !
Its a shame given the 000s who visit N Wales Castles Chester, Lake District etc
The opportunities that can be offered by one organising representative of London is 50x that of the North who can only offer what are relatively bite size chunks.
How can The North galvanise its offering without each region falling out with each other ?
The emphasis here is on inflows a market totally neglected as there seems to be an acceptance that the only market ex Manchester is outbound only.
Last edited by Navpi; 10th Jan 2024 at 11:54.