International travel agents and tour operators can now discover what North East England has to offer with a click of button, thanks to a new Virtual Familiarisation (Fam) Tour from Destination North East England.
The Virtual Fam tour aims to give the travel trade a window into the region to help increase their knowledge of what is on offer for visitors.
Narrated by Geordie voice actor Dan Pye, aka Britain’s Got Talent-winning comedian Lost Voice Guy, the virtual tour showcases the top places to visit, stay and eat for international and domestic visitors.
It aims to inspire online travel agents, tour operators and travel agents looking to bring groups, special interest groups and FIT to the region, and will also be used as a promotional tool at travel trade shows and sales meetings.
The video will be sent out to travel trade contacts from around the world and will also be available on the DNEE Travel Trade website.
As well as allowing travel trade to explore the destination and our products from the comfort of their own country, the virtual tour will also give them essential information and knowledge to then sell the region to clients.
It will also be used to reach a wider global audience, serve as a platform to promote the region’s unique selling points and be used as a tool ahead of in-person fam trips as an introduction to the region, so visitors know what to expect.
Travel trade buyers and operators will also be able to use the video in their own product meetings to increase their knowledge of the region.
The region is already working with travel trade in several international markets such as Germany, the Nordics (Norway, Sweden and Denmark) and the GCC (Dubai and Saudi Arabia) and in partnership with VisitBritain. The virtual tour will be used to grow these contacts and relationships and drive further business for the sector.
Travel Trade Manager for Destination North East England, Alex MacKenzie said: “We wanted to develop a way of showing off this wonderful region to a wider audience. This will help us have those initial conversations with key travel trade in our target markets to drive further growth in international visitors.
“This is an innovative way of bringing the North East to the travel trade, to inspire travel agents and tour operators to learn more about the area and help build those relationships. It will increase their knowledge and confidence in being able to sell the region to their customers, therefore increasing the number of bookings and sales from international and domestic visitors.
“Once they see the fantastic opportunities, products and experiences shown as part of this virtual tour we’re confident they will want to start putting together itineraries with our regional businesses.”
The tour will also be made available to North East businesses looking to work with the travel trade or who want to showcase the region’s offer at events or in business presentations.
The Destination North East England Travel Trade website is available in several different languages including Dutch, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin and Arabic to make it even more accessible for international travel trade.
A series of itineraries will also be developed with the first focusing on luxury travel now live on the site, giving the trade even more inspiration to bring their business to the North East.
Destination North East England is led by NewcastleGateshead Initiative on behalf of the region, working with delivery partners Visit Northumberland and Visit County Durham and in in partnership with all seven local authorities to unlock the growth potential of the visitor economy.
