The official Nottingham tourist board, Visit Nottinghamshire, has joined forces with digital marketplace Tourism Exchange GB (TXGB) to help drive tourism to Nottingham and boost the recovery of the visitor economy by offering a streamlined ‘one-stop-shop’ booking experience for tourists, allowing them to book their entire Nottingham trip in just a few clicks.
Since its creation over 15 years ago, the Visit Nottinghamshire website has provided an inspirational overview of everything there is to see and do in the city and county – including attractions, experiences, itineraries, packages and accommodation options – which attracts over 4.2million visitors a year. The seamless integration of TXGB and its live availability and booking functionality will nudge website visitors from ‘look’ to ‘book’, boosting the recovery of the local visitor economy.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, latest data from the annual Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor (STEAM) 2019 showed that Nottingham’s visitor economy was worth £1.979bn and supported 23,179 Full Time Equivalent jobs, but this has been one of the hardest-hit sectors over the past year, with virtually all tourism and hospitality businesses forced to close or restrict trading and facing a prolongued loss of income. As these businesses reopen when it’s safe to do so in the spring and summer, Visit Nottinghamshire will be investing in bringing visitors back and encouraging them to stay longer and experience more during their visit in order to to make up for lost time during the pandemic. The reopening of Nottingham Castle and the associated increase in visitor numbers is expected to play a vital role in the recovery of this sector, with local businesses feeling the benefit.
Visit Nottinghamshire is urging local tourism businesses including attractions, experiences and accommodation providers – whether they already have online booking or not – to join TXGB as soon as possible in order to ensure that their business is front and center stage during the recovery period. TXGB is free to join, and will enable local tourism businesses to manage their availability, pricing and bookings all in one place, as well as being included in Visit Nottinghamshire’s marketing campaigns.
Kinga Kapias, Marketing Manager of Visit Nottinghamshire, said:
“Visit Nottinghamshire are excited to be partnering up with TXGB, which will transform our website into a ‘one-stop-shop’ for tourists interested in visiting our wonderful city and county. Customers today expect their online booking experience to be streamlined and user-friendly, and it’s vital that we embrace the technology and tools to make Nottinghamshire as appealing as possible in the digital age. Visitors will be able to create their dream itinerary and book their entire Nottingham visit in just a few clicks, with accommodation, attractions and experiences all in one place and in one consistent format. We’re confident that this will lead to an overall increase in bookings and will be a key component of the recovery of the visitor economy sector, and we urge local businesses to join us as the sector begins to bounce back.”
Dan Simmons, Head of Growth & Partnerships of TXGB, said:
“We’re delighted to be working with Visit Nottinghamshire and supporting their plans to help with local tourism recovery and beyond with future marketing campaigns. The TXGB Marketplace offers tourism businesses a way of joining the dots between their current booking systems and Visit Nottinghamshire, in a really simple way. TXGB is free to join so taking advantage of these local initiatives has never been easier.”
Local businesses interested in joining Visit Nottinghamshire and TXGB can email BusinessDevelopment@visit-nottinghamshire.co.uk for more information and for details of the introductory TXGB webinar taking place on Friday 12 March 2021.
Posted on 18 February 2021
