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Great West Way
VisitWiltshire is leading on developing a new touring route - approximately 125 miles in length - which will join up many of England’s iconic destinations and attractions along a corridor west of London through to Bristol. This is one of a number of successful projects made possible by HM Government’s £40m Discover England Fund, administered by VisitEngland (www.discoverenglandfund.org).
The Great West Way project is focused on creating a world class tourism experience, winning new business and market share for Britain, growing the visitor economy and transforming the visitor experience along and around the route.
The touring route will be suitable for visitors to travel by car, coach, rail, cycling, walking or by boat. A range of themed itineraries and trails, including heritage, food and drink, countryside, film tourism etc. will allows visitors to explore the route in depth and aims to rival any of the great touring routes in the world.
The DMO’s in Bristol, Bath, Cotswolds and Tourism South East have become official destination partners.
Discover more with The Story of The Great West Way booklet.
Latest News
To see our latest press releases visit here.
Marketing Opportunities
We have put together a document detailing our extra marketing activities and opportunities. It includes advertising in our Travel Magazine, online advertising and banner adverts, and other great ways to maximise the value of being a Great West Way Ambassador. If you have an idea for any additional joint marketing please contact Fiona.
Great West Way Travel Trade Opportunities.
We have produced a new document detailing all of our new Travel Opportunities for 2019/20. These include the chance to stand share at exhibitions and to advertise in our next Travel Trade Directory.
GWR Great West Way Discoverer Pass
Great West Way and Great Western Railway have teamed up to launch the Great West Way Discoverer pass. The pass makes travelling the route easy and hassle free. It includes unlimited off-peak train travel from London Paddington/Waterloo along the route to Bristol Temple Meads via Reading and or Basingstoke routes. Find out more here.
GWR have also produced a leaflet detailing the pass which will be distributed along the route and GWR network. If you would be interested in distributing these leaflets yourself, please do get in touch.
Rough Guide to the Great West Way
Discover Great West Way with the comprehensive, entertaining, 'tell it like it is' Rough Guide to the Great West Way, packed with practical information and our experts' honest and independent recommendations. The guide will include detailed regional coverage, great photography, 33 things not to miss and carefully planned itineraries. If you would like to sell the Rough Guide from your business please get in touch. We will be sending a free copy to each of our ambassadors in due course.
Group Travel Awards
England’s Great West Way picked up a prestigious award for the ‘Development of Incoming Group Visitors to the UK’, at the recent Group Travel Awards 2019 on Friday 7 June. The Group Travel Awards are decided by the readers of GTO magazine and an editorial panel. David Andrews, Director, Great West Way said, “We are delighted to have received this prestigious award. It is a fantastic reward for all the hard work our team, Great West Way Ambassadors, partner Destinations and international travel trade have put into creating one of the world’s premier touring routes between London and Bristol.”
Press & Blogger Trips
We have recently hosted press visits for 11 German and 11 Netherlands influencers, bloggers and journalists. The response has been very positive so far and the resulting coverage is starting to come in. Some of the Netherlands coverage can be seen here. Thank you to all our ambassadors who helped to organise the trip and who hosted our guests.
You can see all Great West Way coverage here. This Coverage Book is updated continuously, so please use the link periodically.
2020 Travel Magazine
To find out more about the 2020 Great West Way Travel Magazine, please contact jessica.way@contistamedia.co.uk or download our ratecard.
Official Maps - Order Your Copies Now
A new printed map is now available for visitors. . You can order Great West Way® maps for your venue here or by calling Pear Distribution on 01446 7769500. This service is all free of charge. You can also view it online here.
To find out about what's been happening along the Great West Way read our November newsletter here.
How you can get involved!
Filming and Photography
In order to create our official Great West Way film, we took a journey along the Great West Way capturing the true essence of the route. Now we would like your help, we are creating a series of short clips and to do this we would like to incorporate suitable existing Ambassador film and photography that we can use for consumer distribution. If you think you can help, please contact Fiona
Great West Way Ambassadors Network
The Ambassador Network has now been launched. This is a chance for businesses and locations along the route to get involved to work with us in partnership to help build your business.
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To find out more and to start your Great West Way journey today contact Claire Margetts clairemargetts@greatwestway.co.uk to discuss.
An exclusive benefit of becoming a Great West Way Brand Ambassador is being able to access our brand toolkit here.
Website
We are pleased to let you know that the Great West Way website is now live. Please take some time to scroll through and let us know if you have any comments. The website features an interactive map, insider tips, blogs by locals, an events calendar, an itinerary planning tool to generate bespoke tours, social media feeds and much more.
If you are an Ambassador please do take a look at your entry. If you would like to amend your content please contact Helen on helendalton@visitwiltshire.co.uk
Great West Way Discovery Course
The programme is aimed at senior, decision making staff who can then cascade the information to their teams, and use the Great West Way principles within their marketing strategies. For those Ambassador organisations looking to benefit from a bespoke in-house course for customer facing staff, you can do so from only £20+VAT per delegate (minimum of 10 and based on venue and refreshments being provided by the host Ambassador). The courses concentrate on Great West Way product knowledge, understanding the target markets, and offering a Great West Way welcome. For more information on either of the courses please contact Theresa. Keep your eye out for future courses in our monthlty The Way Forward newsletter.
Travel Trade
We have now secured 55 Official Tour Operators to develop programmes and sell the Great West Way from around the world. You can view all the current Bookable Product on sale.
If you are interested in working with us to develop your product for the travel trade please contact Flo.
Great West Way Travel Trade Directory
The Travel Trade Directory has been produced with over 350 bookable products and is a comprehensive resource for trade buyers and will be printed and distributed (approx 20,000) in the UK, USA, Germany and Netherlands - both digital and hard copy formats. You can view an interactive version of the directory here.
Great West Way Events and Exhibitions
We will be launching the Great West Way at many travel trade events and distributing our new Travel Trade directory. The following events will be attended and there are opportunities for Ambassadors to get more involved. Contact Flo for further information.
Explore GB, Harrogate, Yorkshire 8-10 May
Information about becoming an Official Tour Operator, familiarisation visits and trade collateral etc is available on our Great West Way Travel Trade page.
Subscribe to the Great West Way Industry Newsletter here.
Great West Way Newsletter Archive:
to add an item to your Itinerary basket.