Experience Oxfordshire has reached 33 million potential visitors through its recent ‘Only in Oxfordshire’ campaign. Amidst a competitive global landscape for destination marketing, the campaign has significantly raised Oxfordshire’s profile as a unique destination.
Over the past 18 months, the campaign employed three targeted digital campaigns and seasonal communications and introduced a new customer service initiative, The Oxfordshire Welcome. These efforts highlighted the county’s distinctive blend of town and countryside alongside its rich offerings in art, music, science, entertainment, shopping, nightlife, and hospitality.
Data from the campaign reveals that it was highly effective, with 741,000 views of specially created videos and 316,000 visits to online pages featuring over 900 products, events, and experiences across Oxfordshire. This outreach formed part of the broader Visitor Economy Renaissance Programme (VERP), funded by the Contain Outbreak Management Fund. The programme, secured by the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) through Oxfordshire County Council, was designed to support the recovery of the local visitor economy following the global pandemic.
Hayley Beer-Gamage, CEO of Experience Oxfordshire said, “This campaign enabled Experience Oxfordshire to maintain the county’s profile in core markets at a key point in tourism’s recovery. In Oxfordshire we offer a unique and highly attractive blend of experiences, but the global visitor marketplace is very competitive and we need to maintain a high profile through strong and strategic communications. We were delighted to deliver the Only in Oxfordshire campaigns, securing investment in our visitor economy and as a result creating such high visibility for the county.
“With our market reach and strategic and tactical partnerships Experience Oxfordshire is able to deliver an excellent return on investment from our campaign work and would welcome the opportunity to further deliver on this with partners and stakeholders.”
This campaign complemented the work Experience Oxfordshire already undertakes across a variety of B2B and B2C activities, including attendance at trade shows, promoting the county to domestic and international travellers in the groups, travel trade and business, meetings, and events markets.
As part of the programme of work, Experience Oxfordshire redeveloped its online event listing capacity, What’s On in Oxfordshire, and worked with venues and event organisers across Oxfordshire to build up a digital bank of arts and culture event information, the online Arts&CultureHub. During the initial Spring into Summer campaign, 750 events were showcased, leading to over 1,000 new subscribers opting in for regular updates.
Over 150 businesses have signed up to The Oxfordshire Welcome, pledging their agreement with 14 service points designed to promote pride within the visitor economy sector and inspire confidence amongst potential visitors. Experience Oxfordshire encourages businesses to align themselves with The Oxfordshire Welcome, one of several initiatives, ensuring that the VERP programme has a lasting legacy.
Helen Ryan-Wallis, Strategy and Internationalisation Manager at OxLEP said, “This is a sector embracing many different types of business and Experience Oxfordshire has done great work in ensuring visibility for all within their activity. As well as the excellent campaign engagement results, we were particularly delighted to see that legacy played such a central role in the activity planning.
“Initiatives such as The Oxfordshire Welcome and online developments to enable improved Arts and Culture event information provision are areas which continue to have longevity and impact.”
In 2022, Oxfordshire welcomed 27 million visitors, generating £2.17 billion for the local economy and supporting approximately 37,000 jobs.
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