VisitBritain and Turkish Airlines have announced a new global marketing partnership to attract more international visitors to Britain.

This new partnership, which focuses on the airline’s five regional gateways including Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and London’s Heathrow and Gatwick, will see VisitBritain and Turkish Airlines develop an international marketing campaign over the coming 12-months.

The duo will initially focus on Saudi Arabian, Indian and other Gulf markets, inspiring more visitors to see what makes Britain a great destination, and explore all the nations and regions of Britain through the airline’s current gateways.

Partnering with a national tourist board on a global partnership is a first for Turkish Airlines.

Inbound tourism is Britain’s fifth largest export industry and contributed more than £26 billion to the UK economy in 2013.  

Sally Balcombe, VisitBritain chief executive, said: “We are very pleased to be the first national tourist body to develop a global partnership marketing campaign with Turkish Airlines. There are significant growth opportunities in the markets served by Turkish Airlines, including the emerging market of Saudi Arabia, using the airline’s global connectivity and rapidly expanding network. This partnership will also allow us to target our marketing to inspire more international visitors to come and explore all the nations and regions of Britain, so we can continue to create jobs and deliver our ambitious plans for growth.”

Turkish Airlines chief marketing officer Ahmet Olmustur said: “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for Turkish Airlines and we are delighted to be teaming up with such an acknowledged and reputable brand as VisitBritain. The travel market in the UK continues to go from strength-to-strength and therefore we strongly believe this partnership will further enhance visitor numbers in the UK in the coming year. Turkish Airlines is always investing in the UK and, along with partnerships such as this, we hope to see big inroads being made in terms of visitor numbers.”

In India, VisitBritain’s partnership with Turkish Airlines will see the launch of a tactical digital campaign in early 2016. India is one of Britain’s most important emerging visitor markets, with almost 400,000 visits from India in 2014, a four per cent increase from the previous year. Turkish Airlines is also supporting VisitBritain’s ‘Bollywood is GREAT campaign’, focusing on promoting Britain’s culture and countryside.

As part of its wider digital and print campaign, VisitBritain is partnering with film studio, Dharma Productions, in promoting regional Britain destinations that were used as locations for the Bollywood movie ‘Shaandar’ including Yorkshire and Durham. Turkish Airlines is the airline partner of the campaign where two Indian couples stand to win a pair of business class tickets to explore Britain.

In the Gulf, the marketing activity kicks off this week with a promotional campaign focusing on Saudi Arabia, an important emerging market for both organisations.  In 2014, Britain saw 144,000 visits from Saudi Arabia, with that figure expected to almost double by 2020. Turkish Airlines has invested steadily in this market and now flies out of seven cities from Saudi Arabia, providing even more connectivity to regional Britain via its Istanbul hub.

The 12-month marketing partnership marks the start of a longer term alliance between VisitBritain and Turkish Airlines. The longer-terms plans could include more promotional activity focused in Turkey with the travel trade press to develop and promote the UK tourism offer and get more British products ‘on the shelf,’ including ‘familiarisation’ trips for the Turkish travel trade and media. – TradeArabia News Service