Great West Way

England's Great West Way Travel Trade

VisitWiltshire is leading on developing a new touring route which will join up many of England’s iconic destinations and attractions along a corridor west of London through to Bristol, made possible by HM Government’s £40m Discover England Fund, administered by VisitEngland (www.discoverenglandfund.co.uk).

England’s 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 allow visitors to explore the route in depth and aims to rival any of the great touring routes in the world.

Offical Tour Operators

Become a Great West Way Official Tour Operator - package and sell new programmes to your customers. Benefits include:

1. Access to travel trade toolkit including new Travel Trade Directory with unique supplier contacts, bookable product and suggested itineraries etc.
2. Opportunity to adopt the brand positioning, imagery, video and key messaging
3. Use of the Great West Way® name and visual identity in line with brand guidelines and use of the marque
4. Bespoke on-territory training with full product immersion in education visits and meetings eg. Great West Way Showcase event 22 – 25 November 2019.
5. One to one support for itinerary planning
6. Partnership match funded marketing initiatives

If you would like to become a Great West Way ‘Official Tour Operator’ this is what you need to do:

1. Complete the sign-up form and return it to flowallace@greatwestway.co.uk
2. Develop your Great West Way programme and forward a copy to us. Please get in touch if you’d like help with this. You can use content from The Story of the Great West Way and please also reference the Great West Way Brand Toolkit to ensure tone-of-voice, imagery and branding is in-line with the overall project messaging.

Once we have your signed form returned we will supply you with the Great West Way marque and give you access to our photo library, draft itineraries and supplier directory (when available).

We are interested to know details of how you are developing and selling your Great West Way itineraries - please let us know how we can help!

Contact Flo for further information.

Great West Way Trade Content

Our travel trade directory and toolkit will be finalised and launched in autumn 2018. 

The following information is available at this time.

1. 2018 and Beyond: It’s Time for Wiltshire and Great West Way - Presentation with Wiltshire product information 
2. England’s Great West Way - Presentation.
3. The Story of the Great West Way - Narrative may be useful.
4. Great West Way Brand Toolkit
5. Draft Itineraries - Highlights of England's Great West Way and 6-day Walking & Sightseeing Tour additional itineraries are currently being developed and will be available in due course.

To obtain further information www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/greatwestway

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Forthcoming Events & Exhibitions

We will be attending the following events and exhibitions and would welcome the opportunity to meet with tour operators/wholesalers who would like to find out more about the Great West Way Ambassador Network with a view to package and sell itineraries. Please click here to view the events we will be exhibiting at. If you wish to meet at any of the following please contact Flo.

5-7 November 2018 - World Travel Market, London Excel, UK
9-13 January 2019 - Vakantiebeurs, Utrecht, Netherlands
8-10 March 2019 - ITB, Berlin, Germany

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Travel Trade Activity 2017/2018

Exhibitions and Events

A key focus for trade activity so far this year has been promoting the Great West Way at many key trade events. These events and meetings with trade intermediaries face to face are key to us winning domestic and travel trade business. Interest in the Great West Way has been phenomenal – and the trade are really keen to get involved and include our suggestions in their programmes. Recent events attended include:

ITB, Berlin on Wednesday 7 – Friday 9 March 2018.
Explore GB, Newcastle, Thursday 1 and Friday 2 March 2018
South West Group Travel Show, Bristol - Saturday 3 February 2018
Britain & Ireland Marketplace (BIM), London - Tuesday 30 January 2018
Excursions, London - Saturday 27 January 2018
Vakantiebeurs, Netherlands, Tuesday 9 January 2018
Showcase South West in Bristol, 27 - 29 November 2017
World Travel Market in London on Monday 6 November 2017
VIBE (VisitBritain’s annual International Business Exchange) in London on Tuesday 10 October 2017 
Destination Britain North America in Los Angeles, 25 – 28 September 2017Since September we’ve told the Great West Way story to around 170 operators in the UK and overseas. Many are developing programmes for 2019.

Familiarisation Visits
The best way to get international visitors excited about the Great West Way is to educate the tour operators allowing them to experience it for themselves.

The first ever Great West Way educational familiarisation visit attended by 11 German tour operators, 2 Austrian tour operators and 2 members of staff from VisitBritain Germany took place 26-28 February.

A leading FIT operator from the USA, Tenon Tours, visited Wiltshire and the Great West Way, 16-20 March. 

We looking forward to welcoming further tour operators/sales teams wishing to familiarise themselves with the route in order to sell new tours for 2019 and beyond. For further information please contact Flo.