To mark English Tourism Week 2020, Experience Oxfordshire has launched a campaign to highlight the value of Oxfordshire’s threatened visitor economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local MPs and stakeholders will be sharing their support for the Oxfordshire tourism industry via social media throughout English Tourism Week, whch this year will focus on supporting the recovery of English tourism and raising the awareness of the value of the sector to the UK economy.
Experience Oxfordshire will be celebrating the county’s exciting and vibrant visitor economy and showcasing the range and value of Oxfordshire tourism via social media. Throughout the week-long celebration, Experience Oxfordshire will also be sharing facts and figures about tourism in the region and aims to put the county’s visitor economy front-of-mind with key stakeholders and showcase the importance of tourism locally and lobby for support to aid recovery and build a strong and resilient destination response to the pandemic.
Oxfordshire welcomes 32 millions visitors every year, bringing in £2.3 billion to the county and supporting nearly 40,000 local jobs. Promoting the value of Oxfordshire’s visitor economy and showcasing the quality of its product offering to stakeholders including MPs and political leaders is a key part of the DMO’s work.
Speaking about the virtual English Tourism Week campaign, Hayley Beer-Gamage, Chief Executive of Experience Oxfordshire said, “In previous years VisitEngland’s English Tourism Week marked the beginning of the main tourism season across the county. This year we’re looking at a very different picture due to COVID-19 and might miss the main tourism season altogether. As a result, Oxfordshire’s visitor economy, which has historically thrived and grown, is now at risk – threatening livelihoods and local businesses throughout the county. The visitor economy sector is going to need as much support as possible going forward.
“Experience Oxfordshire have been working hard on a programme of engagement with local and national Government to feedback business concerns and hardship at this time. We are delighted to be receiving public support from MPs across Oxfordshire as part of English Tourism Week to highlight the value of Oxfordshire’s visitor economy, and hope they will continue to support and develop appropriate recovery measures for this sector to ensure it can thrive again in the future.”
