Enjoy England set to launch a comedy tourist campaign

Enjoy England is to launch a campaign to promote locations and attractions associated with British comedy this summer.

It is the latest in a series of drives raising awareness of destinations with links to different aspects of English culture to a domestic audience.

The organisation, part of official tourism body VisitBritain, has appointed Redhouse Lane to deliver the campaign, which will run onand off-line from June until January 2009.

Enjoy England has not finalised the locations that will feature in the promotion, but is considering landmarks including the statue of comic Eric Morecambe in the seaside resort he shared his name with, destinations like PG Wodehouse’s home town of Guildford, and places connected to comedy shows such as Blackadder.

Tony Robinson, who played Baldrick in the Blackadder series, is to announce the initiative later this week.

The campaign follows in the footsteps of similar ventures. Last year the successful England Rocks promotion listed attractions associated with music, and the year before that, Storybook England drew visitors to destinations featured in children’s literature (MW Feb 9, 2006).

•Gordon Brown and The Prince of Wales helped launch the second annual British Tourism Week on Monday. The week of events is designed to promote the UK’s tourist industry, worth £85bn a year.
VisitBritain chief executive Tom Wright says: “In a world of ever-increasing competition, we must ensure the welcome we offer our visitors is of a globally high standard.”
He added that he hoped the timing of the event would encourage people to take a domestic break over Easter or in the summer.